Word has it that there is an essential Carolina experience that not one of us undergraduate students — from first-year to senior — has actually experienced yet.
Despite its status as a veritable rite of passage at Carolina, no undergraduates have seen the thousands of emails or overheard the phone calls referencing this ritual.
What’s this universal, inevitable ritual? That's right: Requests for alumni donations.
However universal a rite, being asked for money as a young alum — even money for your favorite place in the world — can feel a touch presumptive when you're fresh out of college. When you’re just a 23-year-old eating Ramen and still trying to figure out how you can afford to have fewer than seven roommates, the prospect of giving back to your college can feel absurd.
There’s a reason that when you imagine a “university donor,” your first images are likely of older, wealthy philanthropists rather than twenty-something graduate school students.
Likewise, it’s a pretty well-known fact that donors in general (read: older alumni) get their voices heard; when donors register complaints or requests about campus life to the donor office, those words seems to trickle up through the administrative levels. And while our administrators likely hear from these donors quite a lot, young alumni seem to voice their opinions on campus affairs through these channels much less often.
But you don’t have to be wealthy or be older to have donor sway. As much as universities chase after substantial donations, they also seek high rates of giving from each class — it bumps universities in the college rankings.
Seniors, as you become young alumni next year, remember to seize this underused channel of influence and continue to advocate for issues on your campus you care about. Even if it's five dollars, give with feedback — and require that the donation office at least write down your feedback about the future of our University and the priorities of our administration.
