About a month ago, I received an invitation from an organization asking me to be part of a committee that will collect money from my class when we become seniors. The money will be donated to the school in the form of a “gift.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but a gift is not solicited. That’s kind of like mandatory volunteer work. It’s not volunteering if it’s mandatory. Likewise, it’s not a gift if it’s asked for.
My problem does go past semantics, however. The one gift that I know of which a past senior class has paid for is the tall clock on the path to the library. It’s nice, but it’s usually 5 minutes fast and completely unnecessary since everyone has either a watch or a cell phone.
It’s not that I don’t think unnecessary, aesthetic objects and structures should be on our campus at all. I’m fine with the modern art by Canisius Hall and the Quick Center, even though it looks like construction workers had some extra metal high beams that they arbitrarily painted, glued together and called art.
With these senior donation gifts, however, we’re being asked to donate money to the school the year that we’re graduating with (in my case) over $40,000 dollars worth of loans and not the best prospects for a job because of the economy (not because of my philosophy major).
Not to point any fingers, but I’m in debt because of Fairfield. Even though I am and will be grateful for the education and experiences of these years, a request for a gift seems gratuitous. My tuition for these past four years feels like gift enough.
The letter I received quoted the sum that should be gathered from everyone and I think it was something very small like one to two dollars. So I now feel cheap for using all of these money arguments. I have a solution though.
Instead of donating a gift to the already beautiful campus of Fairfield, let’s gather money for one of the causes to which Campus Ministry or Hunger Cleanup sends volunteers and money. What better way to remind all the outgoing seniors that we go to a Jesuit university than by donating money to a program or cause that really needs it?
I know this won’t solve the problem of the gift being compulsory, but in the long run I’d rather have whatever legacy I leave behind at Fairfield show the values I learned instead of the inaccurate clock that I helped buy.
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