for student support — financial 
aid, 
scholarships, 
fellowships, 

internships and travel funding. 
The University already directs 
considerable funds toward stu-
dent support. During the 2013-
2014 academic year alone, the 
University awarded more than 
$900 million in financial aid to 
32,133 students. So far, $450 mil-
lion has been raised for scholar-
ships alone during the Victors for 
Michigan campaign.

A number of factors make it 

difficult to predict exactly where 
that money will go. For one, most 
donors specify exactly what spe-
cific school, program or fund they 
want their money going toward. 
Further, many donations are paid 
over a period of time, meaning the 
University might not receive the 
full amount for several years.

For their part, the students 

have been involved in Victors for 
Michigan since the beginning. 
During the campaign’s original 
planning, 
a 
student 
commit-

tee joined the deans and other 
administrators to help craft the 
campaign’s three goals.

Like the fundraising campaign, 

the Central Student Government 
has also worked to provide student 
support during the past year. For-
mer CSG President Bobby Dishell, 
a Public Policy senior, attempted 
to fund a LEAD scholarship — 
a merit-based scholarship for 
minority students — through the 
Alumni Association in the fall. 
The effort ultimately fell through 
because of Proposal 2 restrictions 
in Michigan, which prevent the 
school from giving scholarships 
based on race.

Still, recently elected CSG 

President Cooper Charlton, an 
LSA junior, said he wants to work 
closely with administrators to 
pursue other creative avenues to 
increase student support. Charl-
ton said he plans to learn more 
about 
fundraising 
and 
work 

closely with administration on 
this issue.

“Are we creatively thinking 

of different ways to find scholar-
ships, to decrease tuition? Yes; 
kind of one of those longer con-
versations I will be having over 
the summer to really, really nail 
down some target ideas,” Charl-
ton said.

In addition to student support, 

another goal of the campaign is 
to attract donations for faculty 
research. To that end, deans of 
each school have been market-
ing their research projects to 
potential donors as part of the 
campaign. These projects are 
generating interest even among 

non-alumni donors — a group 
that, in recent years, has grown 
larger in number than the alumni 
donor base.

Deborah 
Loewenberg 
Ball, 

dean of the School of Education, 
said she wants funding for the 
school’s work in improving K-12 
education in the state and else-
where. Programs like the Center 
for Education, Design, Elevation 
& Research have attracted the 
support of non-alumni, Ball said, 
and people are excited to see the 
results the School of Education 
can produce.

“It’s been a moment, I think, of 

opportunity for people working 
in education that there are people 
interested in giving money,” she 
said.

James Woolliscroft, dean of the 

Medical School, and Dave Mun-
son, dean of Engineering, said 
because faculty of both schools 
work so closely on research, nei-
ther of them mind which of the 
two schools donors give to since 
it’s all going to the same place. 
This notion resulted in a fund-
raising partnership between the 
College of Engineering and the 
Medical School

“Maybe it’s in an account 

that’s controlled by engineering, 
maybe it’s in an account that’s 
controlled by medicine, maybe it’s 
in an account that’s controlled by 
the vice president for research,” 
Munson said. “We don’t really 
care as long as it in some way ben-
efits our faculty and our students 
and I think it’s a somewhat new 
way of thinking about this.”

“Dave and I did a little presen-

tation to literally a room full of 
interested attendees and donors. 
One of the stories told was about 
the tracheal splint,” Woolliscroft 
said, referring to the 3-D printed 
device used to save a baby’s life 
two summers ago. “It’s that sort 
of thing that’s very real, very pow-
erful and can’t be done by either 
school alone.”

The Medical School has also 

worked closely with UMHS in its 
fundraising efforts. Tom Baird, 
who serves as the interim asso-
ciate vice president for medical 
development and alumni rela-
tions, said the hospital is a major 
attraction for non-alumni donors. 
He said a large portion of the 
donor base comes from former 
patients hoping to give back to the 
hospital after treatment.

“You have grateful patients 

where they had a family member, 
or friend, or some type of rela-
tionship where the health system 
helped them and they just feel so 
strongly about the care that they 
received that they want to make a 
gift to support that area,” he said.

The Victors for Michigan cam-

paign relies on a broad network 

of volunteers and donors. Volun-
teers are charged with hosting 
fundraising events, participating 
in campaign meetings and advo-
cating for the University’s initia-
tives, among other tasks.

University alum Mary Petro-

vich wrote in an e-mail that she 
has participated in a wide range 
of volunteer activities.

“I have been involved in possi-

bly the deepest and most diverse 
sets of activities of any volunteer 
in terms of my time and money,” 
she wrote. “I currently serve as a 
member of the President’s Advi-
sory Council, but that is the tip of 
the iceberg.”

Petrovich has donated funds to 

support the construction of a new 
mechanical engineering building 
and an engineering scholarship 
and recruiting program, as well 
as the softball and men’s basket-
ball locker rooms. She plans to 
support projects to improve gas-
troenterology care in the coming 
year.

“Michigan means so much 

more to me as the springboard 
for my success given the under-
privileged background that I 
came from and the confidence 
I derived from my four years of 
success at Michigan,” she wrote. 
“My life has been enriched by the 
many lessons that I have learned 
in the classroom and on the play-
ing field. Those experiences have 
been priceless and formidable 
building blocks to my career suc-
cess.”

University 
alums 
Laura 

McTaggart and Tom Nolan, cam-
paign volunteers who each earned 
graduate degrees from other uni-
versities, wrote in an e-mail their 
undergraduate experience at the 
University motivated them to 
support the Victors for Michigan 
campaign.

“Michigan plays a much bigger 

role in our philanthropy because 
for us, the undergraduate experi-
ence was so important and life-
changing,” they wrote. “We are 
strong believers in public edu-
cation and the mission of great 
public schools. In addition, our 
graduate school experiences did 
not include watching football and 
singing a rousing fight song every 
Saturday surrounded by over 
100,000 like-minded souls. That’s 
the community we want to stay a 
part of.”

McTaggart and Nolan cited the 

need to improve the affordability 
of higher education as their moti-
vation for getting involved with 
the campaign.

“We want to help students 

afford 
college, 
period,” 
they 

wrote. “We both had help getting 
through school and this is our 
way of paying that back.” 

right of dissent, but we also rec-
ognize the right of speakers to 
be heard.”

“I certainly respect the right 

of the group to speak up and tell 
us their opinion about some-
thing important,” Schlissel said 
in an interview with The Michi-
gan Daily after the November 
meeting. “I’m disappointed that 
they chose to disrupt the meet-
ing, but we were able to conduct 
the business of the University in 
this separate venue as needed.”

Toward the end of the Thurs-

day’s regents meeting, both 
Schlissel 
and 
a 
number 
of 

regents expressed their frustra-
tion with the protest.

Regent Mark Bernstein (D), 

who previously served as the 
chair of the Michigan Civil 
Rights Commission and helped 
established the Michigan Civil 

Rights Academy, said the protest 
did a disservice to the cause of 
diversity on campus.

“On a personal level, I am 

deeply frustrated and disap-
pointed in some of our students 
and other people, not because it 
was moderately disruptive, but 
because they are so misguided 
and damaging an important 
cause,” he said.

Black undergraduate enroll-

ment at the University has 
hovered around 4 percent in 
recent years. Aside from BAMN, 
other groups have lobbied for 
increased diversity on campus. 
In January 2014, members of 
the University’s Black Student 
Union called on the University to 
address undergraduate minority 
enrollment, among other issues. 
In addition to campus activism, 
the BSU has opted to work with 
administrators 
to 
implement 

changes, whereas BAMN has 
largely focused on protest. In 
November, E. Royster Harper, 

vice president for student life, 
said BAMN had not attempted 
to schedule a meeting with Uni-
versity officials.

Regent Andrea Fischer New-

man (R) said she, too, was disap-
pointed in the protest and added 
that 
BAMN’s 
demonstration 

turned the narrative away from 
important issues.

“I don’t think rushing the 

table and storming the meeting 
helps make the point,” she said 
in an interview after the meet-
ing.

Schlissel echoed this sen-

timent, calling for construc-
tive dialogue and plugging the 
launch of a University-wide 
diversity plan. Schlissel has said 
he plans to announce details in 
the fall.

“I hope we continue to work 

together to construct some civil 
discourse 
and 
constructive 

action,” he said. “The Univer-
sity’s commitment to diversity 
does not waver.”

3-News

ANDREW COHEN/Daily

Members of By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) protest for increased minority enrollment outside of the Board of 
Regents meeting at the Michigan Union on Thursday.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Friday, April 17, 2015 — 3

PROTEST
From Page 1

TARGET
From Page 1

ferent factors correlate with 
donations, the analysis com-
pares donations with each of 
the 20 college’s U.S. News and 
World Report rankings, holis-
tic sports ranking and student 
body.

One area lacking variance 

was academic prestige; almost 
all schools on this list are 
renowned for their scholastic 
and research excellence. U.S. 
News and World Report rank-
ing of each school was measured 
to assess the school’s academic 
quality. These rankings account 
for 
undergraduate 
academic 

reputation, student retention, 
faculty quality and other fea-
tures.

Being a top-20 fundraiser 

puts the University among the 
company of schools with higher 
academic rankings. The median 
U.S. News ranking for a top 20 
donor school in 2013 was 14, 
comparable to Cornell or North-
western. The University is 29th 
— the 15th lowest among the top 
20 donors.

Most schools with lower aca-

demic rankings were in the bot-
tom half of the top 20 list. Six of 
the top 10 donor schools were 
also in the top 10 of U.S. News 
rankings — such as Harvard 
University and the University of 
Pennsylvania — while only two 
of the bottom 10 schools were in 
U.S. News’ top 10.

Finally, notable differences 

exist among public and private 
colleges. Eight public schools 
were on the top 20 list, and all 
were in the bottom 10. Their U.S. 
News and World Report median 
score was lower, and their ath-
letic score tended to be higher. 
The median public school dona-
tion in 2013 amounted to $338 
million as opposed to $490 mil-
lion for private schools.

Among public schools, the 

University’s donation amount in 
2013 was 4 percent higher than 
the median public school, but 28 
percent lower than the median 
private school amount.

That could signify that the 

University, despite its lowered 
state appropriations, still has 
more in common with pub-
lic rather than private schools 
when it comes to funding.

As state funds have experi-

enced declines over the past 
couple decades, the Univer-
sity has had to reevaluate the 
role of state and private money. 
Still, Jerry May, vice president 
for development, said while it’s 
“conceivable that for some rea-
son (the University) decides to 
‘go private’ ” somewhere down 
the line, there is no point in 
exploring that route right now. 
He said the idea was discussed 
decades ago, but is not a topic 
today.

May 
explained 
that 
any 

money coming from a source 
like donations can be used to 
help fund operating costs like 
scholarships, which frees up 

state funding for other areas. 
The state of Michigan currently 
only provides 16 percent of the 
University’s general fund bud-
get, which May described as an 
unrestricted endowment.

Malcolm said the University 

would need an additional $700 
million added to the current 
$9.7 billion endowment to off-
set the loss of state funding if it 
were to indeed go private.

May said the reason private 

money has become so important 
is because of the University’s 
increased efforts to provide 
scholarships. He said schol-
arships should help slow the 
increases in tuition rates, and 
that the University has made a 
dent in that effort over the past 
few years.

“We put our first amount of 

money on in-state tuition for 
in-state students. We now can 
guarantee that we will meet 
the need of an in-state student,” 
May 
said. 
“We’re 
probably 

$12,000 short per-student to be 
able to meet the need of an out-
of-state student.”

Still, May said, given the sta-

tus of state appropriations and 
the financial goals of the Uni-
versity, the development office 
will be full steam ahead for the 
foreseeable future.

“We will always need build-

ings, we will always need to 
replace buildings,” May said. 
“We will always have new pro-
gram ideas and technology will 
change us so that we’re teaching 
you something different.”

“When you endow a scholar-

ship at U of M, the money you 
donate goes into the invest-
ment fund at the University, 
and the interest made off of that 
gets donated each year,” Appel 
said. “The first year will be just 
one student, but our plan long-
term is to keep donating. We’ll 
have a major cause each year 
for the concert, but then as we 
keep growing and making more 
money, we can keep dumping 
money into the fellowship each 
year, so it will keep growing.”

However, regardless of fam-

ily wealth, many students report 
finding themselves without extra 
money to donate.

First-year 
Medical 
student 

Molly Laux, who heads outreach 
and public relations for the Stu-
dent-Run Free Clinic, said the 
donations are even more mean-
ingful when students with limit-
ed funds still choose to give back.

“Even when they are small 

donations, we feel really privi-
leged to receive them,” she said. 
“I think that because of that, 
it makes us work very hard to 
make sure that student voices are 
heard in things that we do, and 
for that we always try to make 
sure that we can keep as many 
volunteer positions open as pos-
sible, get as many students in. 
We bring students in as inter-
preters sometimes. We under-
stand that when students do give 
us that extra money that they 
maybe saved for a few days or a 
few weeks, that we really do our 
best to make sure that we can do 
something in return.”

Laux added that by donating 

their time as well, students have 
an enhanced chance to see the 
importance of their contributions.

“When the students are able 

to come in and kind of see where 
their money goes, they can see 
our patients and see how grate-
ful they are for the services that 
we provide,” Lauz said. Not 
only does that make them feel 
proud of the donation that they 
originally gave, but I think that 
gives them a greater incentive to 
donate more when they can.”

Most donations to the Stu-

dent-Run Free Clinic go toward 
renting out the space for their 
medical center; the rest funds 
equipment, 
medications 
and 

other supplies.

The 
organization 
raised 

$13,528 on Giving Blueday. Laux 
said she attributed much of 
that to the work of the Office of 
Development, noting the ability 
to work both with Walsh’s team 
and another specifically for med-
ical students.

“They’ve been such a great 

help,” Laux said. “(They) helped 
me figure out what the best ways 
of strategizing the posts, and she 
helped me find personal stories 
we could use, and helped me 
find the most effective means 
of transmitting information in 
time, drawing attention to our 
e-mails. They were completely 
fantastic.”

Business senior Kimberly Cui, 

finance and fundraising team 
leader for Alternative Spring 
Break, also noted the advantag-
es of having access to Office of 
Development resources.

“(Walsh) and her team are def-

initely really helpful,” she said. 
“They’re really open to meet up 
with even student organizations 
about fundraising ideas and kind 
of the best way to fundraise. 
We’re definitely hoping to work 
more with them in the future.”

MUSIC Matters also works 

closely with the Office of Devel-
opment.

“Our model is more teaching 

students how to fundraise as a 
whole,” Appel said. “We do a lot 
of fundraising at the University, 
we reach out to corporate spon-
sors, we have a lot of students 
learning how to make a pitch 
book, learning how to present an 
idea to a corporation, things like 
that.”

In the future, Walsh said her 

team is interested in continu-
ing to work with organizations 
through initiatives like Giving 
Blueday. In this year’s version of 
the annual student survey, two 
questions were added specifi-
cally on Giving Blueday with the 

aim of improving involvement 
next year.

In addition, University rep-

resentatives met with student 
organizations to garner feedback 
after the event.

“What we learned from our 

sessions with student orgs was 
they thought the energy of the 
day was really great,” Walsh 
said. “They felt that the training 
and the resources that we pro-
vided was really great, and they 
loved the challenges. Some of the 
things they felt we could improve 
on are, for instance, making sure 
that our training is available 
online, because they come and 
attend and they want to share it 
with members of their organiza-
tions.”

Cui also noted the importance 

of students developing a habit of 
donating early on.

“For us, it’s almost more 

important that students are giv-
ing,” Cui said. “We really value 
their donation, because when 
you start while you’re in college, 
you really care about the issue, 
you want to be active about that 
issue in the community. So for 
us, starting young, it shows that 
you’re passionate about the issue, 
you’re empowered to support 
programs that you believe in, 
and then we also believe that if 
you start now, the likelihood that 
you’ll continue to be involved in 
the future is a lot higher.”

Cui said the majority of ASB 

funds go toward the vehicles that 
are used on the trip, but the funds 
are also used to cover housing for 
volunteers as well as gas.

Appel said student donations 

not only play an important role 
in University development, but 
also provide chances for students 
to contribute to the University 
community.

“As a whole, there’s a really 

great opportunity for students 
too,” he said. “It doesn’t matter 
how much they donate, but being 
able to donate and give to a cause, 
I think it’s important for the Uni-
versity and it just leaves people 
with a good feeling.”

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