Another Perspective

AA for the AA

Good morning sunshine. Wake up. The election is over. Wipe the brown off your nose and be afraid. Not of my naked body. But of your future. A bleak future in a state full of contradictions.

Oregon has dry cities like Monmouth yet is one of the wettest states. Oregon has the death penalty supported by right-to-lifers. Oregon even has Eugene next to Springfield.

But the worst contradictions are fiscal: Oregonians want better schools, more police officers and more prisons, but don't want to pay higher taxes.

Even our University harbors contradiction-bound philosophies: We have an administration that desperately needs more money and an Alumni Association that does not know how to raise it.

The University has suffered the slings and arrows of Measure 5 for my entire academic career. But the net result of the state's reduced revenue affects all students over the years. The cost of tuition increased by 30 percent.

The number of services available to students has been reduced. In many cases services crucial to a student's success have been continued only because students have decided to tax themselves in order to maintain that level of service.

For instance, after Measue 5 passed, the University cut one full time staff position out of the Career Center. This reduction in staffing made running an effective center very difficult. Instead of living with this decline in services, the students voted to tax themselves more in order to pay for the position. Students saved the day. Problem solved. Not really.

The budget hawks in Johnson Hall got wind of this wonderful plan and tried to cut another position. Students pay more and get less. But it is not really the University's fault for what the Administration was forced to do. The blame belongs to the voters.

Now that we can look forward to a second cut from voters, the State System of Higher Education is going to have to shield itself. The Governor has made a commitment not to cut education's budget any further. But remember, that is only a goal. There are no guarantees in government (except that they will tax you).

Currently the University of Oregon is doing its part to shield itself from future shortfalls. We are getting down to the business of fundraising. Creating endowments that will provide our community with a continuous cash flow regardless of what the state provides (although if the state works like Johnson Hall, it might reduce the amount they give us once we start producing our own revenue).

The goal is to raise $200 million by 1998 and we're about half way there. Sounds like we are doing a damn fine job.

There is one problem though: 70 percent of the money has been raised by fewer than 20 donations. Five donors, including Phil Knight and Charles Lundquist account for over $50 million in donations. Another twelve donors have given a million a piece. If the University is going to survive another funding crisis, it is going to need the help from thousands of donors, not from just a handfull of multi-millionaires.

According to Alumni Association statistics, this handfull of donors represents 1/6000 of the living U of O alumni base of 120,000 graduates. The Alumni Association and its director, Don Rodriguez, relies too heavily on the deep pocket books of very rich alumni. It is true that only a small percentage of our graduates could afford to make such donations. This is not cause for criticism.

The failure of the University's fundraising drive is not only connected to the failures of the Alumni Association, but in the University's inablity to create a culture of school spirit and pride.

The Alumni Association just doesn't get it: Their focus is on those who have already graduated and moved on. Many of our most prolific donors are graduates who attended the University at a time when there were all school dances, and a homecoming that was actually noticeable on campus.

This is a very different University from the days of old. The only time I've seen an ounce of pure school spirit was two years ago, waiting for Rose Bowl tickets while camped out around Autzen Stadium. We braved the cold, OPS and hours upon hours of no cable, all for the chance to drive to Los Angeles and see our team get whomped. It was of no matter. We were so proud of our Ducks that just being there was good enough.

But now we are in a losing season and the student section is empty again. At a school with spirit and pride we could lose every game and it would be of no consequence. Students would be in the stands rooting anyway. But we are a more fickle generation of students.

The alumni sell out the tickets available to them. They come anyway. They love the school and are proud to be Ducks. We could be too, but there is no effort to make it so. A fun run and a banner across 13th is a lame excuse for a homecoming.

For homecoming, we need a band on the quad, carnival rides at Autzen Stadium, everyone wearing green and yellow the whole week leading up to game day. Later in the year, an all-University Spring Formal would be nice too, as would an all-school olympics which pits class years against each other. If the University wants to secure future fundraising sources, it needs to provide lasting memories that will translate into future income.

This past homecoming weekend I spent time with an alum who has given much to this University not only with his time but with his money. His legacy is not his own. His wife attended school as have his children. Though he is not even an Oregonian he manages to visit the school often. He has a genuine love for the University.

But his love for the past is met with his disappointment of the present: His disappointment with the Alumni Association.

Not once did he see Executive Director Rodriguez step foot in the "Alumni" tent in the Autzen parking lot. What made the situation even worse was that the tent looked no different for homecoming than it always does, just a drab dustpit selling cheap beer at an inflated cost, bad food that looks and tastes like the same garbage sold in the stadium and a little table with a few U of O knick-knacks for the nostalgic alum to shell out some dough for.

I returned to the tent for half time, and found nothing different. Business as usual. Students and Alumni celebrating a potential Duck victory and no alumni networking anywhere. No name tags, no homecoming banner. Just the same junk, different day.

Show the alumni some respect: Lay down some Astroturf, get rid of the dust and hope the goons at the Alumni Association have the decency to show up. Perhaps a cameo appearence by Rodriguez is too much to ask for.

I guess kissing rich alumni ass up in the sky boxes is the only thing our Alumni Association is good at. No wonder only 13,000 out of the 120,000 alumni are members of the association. This must mean nearly 90 percent of our alumni must not be good enough or wealthy enough for Rodriguez and the Alumni Association.

A $200 million endowment might seem like a lot of money to you but consider this. At some colleges around the country that amount is the interest earned each year on their endowment money. If the University wants to take a step towards success it is about time they reconsider how they approach fundraising. It starts from the day a student is admitted to the university not the day he or she becomes a millionaire.

Chris Kantrowitz, a senior, is a featured columnist for the Oregon Commentator