As the Class of 2013 approaches its final weeks, DePauw's Advancement team is encouraging seniors to give back to the university through the senior gift drive, which will help future students of DePauw.
The senior gift drive is a way that DePauw's advancement team reaches out to seniors and asks them to participate in Annual Fund donations. The idea is to host special senior events where seniors can enjoy themselves in a comfortable setting and give their first gifts to the university. Associate Director of Annual Giving, Matthew Mascioli, organizes the drive with the help of senior gift drive interns, Colin Chocola and Megan McGowan, and senior representatives from various organizations.
"The senior gift drive is mainly about participation, so it's not important how much money we raise necessarily," McGowan said. "It's more important how much of the senior class participates."
In the fall, the team also used tabling around campus to promote "Tuition Run-out week" to inform students about how much the university relies on private support.
"The gift is funding these scholarships making sure people could go here and funding winter term and other factors like that," Chocola said.
Chocola and McGowan strive to plan events around times that are convenient for seniors so that more students partake in the cause.
"We looked at the audience, we looked at how we could target a majority of people on certain nights," McGowan said. "It is very hard to host events when people are so busy doing things that they might not already be doing."
These events are held at places where seniors spend their downtime, such as The Duck and Hoods and Capers. The team also encourages seniors to donate as they attend senior traditions like picking up their cap and gowns and during graduation weekend at DePauw Under the Stars.
"From a sheer numbers perspective, the Class of 2013 is one of the largest classes to ever graduate from DePauw, which means that it takes more donors to get to 85 percent than it did for the Class of 2012," Lindsay Stegman said, director of annual giving.
Currently 60 percent of the class of 2013 has participated in the Senior gift drive. Stegman is positive the class of 2013 could surpass the class of 2012's participation rate of 85 percent because of the size of this year's senior class.
Senior Austin Livsay disagrees with the approach that the gift drive takes to get seniors to come out and donate. Livsay expressed his thoughts of the recent senior banquet where students were asked to donate in order to receive an official invitation.
"It just feels like its just classist. An elitist group is not something I want to be a part of," Livsay said.
Senior Tina Galindo also said that she ignored her emails from the senior gift fund because at the time she was underage and unable to attend senior gift drive bar night events.
"The way that they portray it could be differently," Galindo said. "To include all of the students so nobody would feel left out."
The team encourages students to give any amount they're comfortable with in order to increase the participation rate of the senior class. The team is also planning upcoming events to include the school of music and an international student event.
Seniors Henry Dambanemuya and Kalpesh Mehta see the drive an opportunity to leave their mark on the university.
"It's also a good way for seniors who are about to graduate to keep connected with the university by donating money. It shows your commitment to the university," Mehta said. Dambanemuya agrees.
"Everyone has a role to play in giving back," Dambanemuya said. "But as seniors who are about to graduate and give to DePauw I think it's their opportunity to say thank you for what they've received during their four years here."