Targeted Alumni Giving to Secular Universities

by Joseph M. Mellichamp, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Management Science, The University of Alabama and CLM Faculty Representative

Have you ever made a financial contribution to the college or university which you attended or from which you graduated? According to the Council of Aid to Education (CAE) report, 2004 Voluntary Support of Education, approximately 12.8 percent of alumni nationally made voluntary contributions to their college or university last year. (CAE is division of the RAND Corporation established in 1952 to advance corporate support of education.) The average alumni contribution in 2004 ranged from about $1,000 for Atlantic Coast Conference institutions to nearly $4,000 for Ivy League institutions.

Taken together contributions from alumni represent a significant financial resource for higher education. The total of voluntary contributions made to colleges and universities in 2004 accounted for about 7.1 percent of all funding for higher education last year—a whopping $24.4 billion. Alumni giving accounted for 27.5 percent of this total or about $6.7 billion! So the check for $1,000-$2,000 you send to your alma mater every year combined with those of your fellow alumni gives a big boost to your university. For Harvard University which has about 25 percent of its alumni contributing $5000 a year it is $205,000,000; for my alma mater, Georgia Tech, where about 21 percent of my classmates contribute $1000 a year, it amounts to $24,000,000.

A good question is what do universities do with these funds? How are alumni gifts typically spent? Interestingly, 80-90 percent of voluntary gifts are restricted with respect to use; that is the funds are designated for a particular building project or for a specific college or department within the institution. Obviously, administrators prefer unrestricted gifts, but all contributions are accepted. When funds are designated for a “bricks and mortar” project or for any other well-defined project with measurable outcomes, one may be reasonably assured that they will be used according to the designation. But for undesignated contributions and even for funds designated for colleges or departments within an institution, one has no such assurances.

Suppose you wrote an end of year check for $2,500 in December and sent it to your college or university with no restrictions as to how it was to be used. What might have happened to your money? As an investor, you should be interested on the return you might expect to get from this investment. You should want to know that the funds were used wisely and for appropriate purposes. And, even more to the point, you would surely want to ensure that you are investing in programs and projects that are consistent with your overall philosophy and worldview.

Unfortunately, the university has drifted dramatically in recent years from its intended function as a “marketplace of ideas” to the point where it more nearly resembles, as one writer puts it, “an ideological system learning to reproduce itself.” The modern university seems intent on promoting an agenda that can be characterized as political correctness unrestrained, including radical feminism, multiculturalism, postmodernism, identity politics, gender politics, and deconstruction. Stephen H. Balch, president of the National Association of Scholars, says, “Increasingly, American academe behaves as if it were a church with a creed rather than a marketplace of ideas (Chronicle of Higher Education, Academic Bias, Academic Freedom, November 20, 2004).” A number of other scholars have documented this drift and I am including several classic references in the Bibliography of this paper for additional reading in case you want to pursue this further. I am also including in Appendix A, some illustrations I have compiled over several years that underscore the extent of the drift.

So, what is my point? Simply this, when you donate unrestricted funds to your university, you simply have no idea how the funds are being used, or, perhaps more importantly, what they are being used to promote. Your money might be used for a faculty research stipend or to fund a student organization. The professor receiving the stipend might be a competent professor who sticks to the subject at hand in the classroom or he or she might be one with a cause to champion and a bully pulpit (the classroom and students) from which to campaign. You might, thus, be inadvertently supporting one of the isms mentioned previously—radical feminism, multiculturalism, post-modernism, etc.—when you would never even consider making a direct donation to such a cause. The student group receiving your money might be a group like the debate club or the astronomy club, or it might be a group which promotes a lifestyle with which you seriously disagree. You might be aghast at the prospect of contributing money to such an organization. Another scenario is unthinkable, but possible. Your donation might find its way into the expense account for guest lecturers and you could be responsible for paying the honorarium for some wacko professor who has been invited to the campus by the student program committee to spew his or her radical philosophy to impressionable, young student minds. The news has recently reported on a number of such cases—probably mostly made possible by funds contributed by well-meaning, but unsuspecting alumni.

Is there anything that can be done to prevent these types of things from happening? Perhaps you are like a friend of mine who annually for many years sent a check for $1,000 to his alma mater. Several years ago, after growing tired of seeing news reports of his university in one scandalous situation after another, he finally stopped giving altogether. Well, there is a very simple alternative. It’s called designated giving. Let me first tell you how it works and then tell you how to identify some groups or projects which you might like to support and give you a couple of additional recommendations as well.

Several years ago, I wanted to financially support the activities of a Christian faculty group at one of the universities where we are working. The group, like many of the groups with which we work, undertakes a number of very good programs that address the spiritual and moral issues with which students struggle during their university years. So I made out a check for $1000 to the alumni association and mailed it to the chairman of the group with the cover letter shown in Appendix B (names have been changed).

What happened? The check cleared my bank account before the end of the week. Shortly afterward, the chairman of the Christian Faculty Forum was notified by the alumni association that they had set up an account for the group with a balance of $1000, and that the funds could be used for legitimate expenses of the Forum. And several months later, my wife and I received an invitation from the president of the university to attend a function for major donors of the university! So you certainly can designate donations to go to causes of which you approve; you aren’t obligated to give your money and let it be passed along to any needy organization or cause regardless of whether its mission and philosophy coincide with your own.

At this point you may be thinking, “Well, this is good news, but how do I go about determining what organizations, programs, or projects to designate for my contributions? Let me answer by drawing an analogy. If you were going to invest a sum of money in the stock market, how would you proceed? You might discuss the investment with your stockbroker or financial planner. You might acquire a prospectus to assess. You might go on-line to look at different performance and rating reports. In fact, you would do enough research to assure yourself that you were indeed making a good investment. Donating money to your university should be no different.

You might begin your research by going to the university’s Web Site and looking at the different academic programs and student organizations. You might consider a donation to support the department from which you received your degree. If you have a faculty or administrator friend at the university, you might discuss your options with him or her. You might even call the alumni office and outline some general guidelines you want to achieve and ask them to give you some suggestions. You might do a Web search for organizations that meet some of your criteria. By taking a bit of time and effort, you should be able to track down some options that will satisfy your desire to be a good steward of your financial resources.

If you have some organizations, programs, or projects at your university in mind, wonderful. Get out your checkbook and go for it. Be sure that you include with your check a cover letter or note which clearly and specifically details how you are designating that the funds be spent. And you might also ask for an after the fact report or accounting to ensure that the monies were in fact used for the purposes you specified.

If, you don’t have any organizations or projects in mind, but would like some leads from someone who knows the university well, and who has a conservative, Christian bias, I have included several suggestions in Appendix C. I was the faculty advisor for the Campus Crusade for Christ student ministry at the University of Alabama for the twenty-five years that I was on the faculty there and I can remember when an alumnus of the university gave a substantial gift directly to the ministry. The funds were used primarily to underwrite student scholarships to Crusade training conferences and I can assure you that there could be no better return on investment than to enable a young college kid, who otherwise could not have afforded a conference, to have his or her life turned around at a Christian conference. This is an investment with eternal consequences.

We have a saying in the U.S., “Money talks.” And it really does. Imagine the message that would be communicated if many men and women of faith started designating their contributions to their college and university alumni associations. Imagine what the administrators at Rutgers University would think if they received say a $25,000 gift designated for the Rutgers InterVarsity Multiethnic Christian Fellowship (which was booted off the campus because they are a Christian group. See Appendix A for details). That sends a pretty clear message, doesn’t it? Think of the change that could be effected at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill if dozens of UNC alumni started designating their annual contributions to the alumni association for Christian organizations at UNC (whose funding was threatened by the university. See Appendix A for specifics).

I don’t know about you, but I want to invest my money in things that have significance. And as an alumnus who is grateful for the excellent education I received at my undergraduate and graduate institutions, I want to support the positive things universities contribute to our culture. But I don’t want to support, even indirectly, some of the questionable pursuits of higher education. I can assure you, having been occupied in the university for over 35 years, that the needs are great and opportunities are even greater. Won’t you join with me and many others in investing wisely in our alma maters by designating our alumni contributions? Pass this article along to friends and associates whom you think might be interested in investing strategically in higher education.

Appendix A:
The State of the University

For the last ten years, I have written an annual report for our ministry which includes a one-page assessment of the “State of the University.” Let me lift several paragraphs from those summaries to give you an idea of the current situation in our nation’s universities.

From my 2003 report:
It’s not news that college professors are lopsidedly drawn from the political left. But American Enterprise magazine offers some numbers on how heavy the tilt has become. In eight academic departments surveyed at Cornell University, 166 professors were registered in the Democratic Party or another party of the left, with just six registered with Republicans or another party of the right. Similar imbalance showed up in departments at the 19 other universities surveyed. At the University of Colorado-Boulder, the numbers were 116 to 5. (In view of recent national events involving this institution, are you surprised by this?) It was 151-17 at Stanford, 54-3 at Brown, 99-6 at the University of California-San Diego, and 59-7 at Berkeley; the flagship of the University of California system. At Williams College, a poll turned up only four registered Republicans among the more than 200 professors on campus.

Why are the numbers so skewed? Some professors say the imbalance is natural because progressives tend to gather in do-good professions while conservatives gravitate toward traditional careers in business and finance. Besides, they say, voting patterns of teachers are irrelevant if classes are taught fairly. There’s some truth in both arguments, but neither can account for what is happening on campus now. In the 1950s and early 1960s, faculties generally had a broad diversity of worldviews and philosophies and plenty of open debate. Professors were routinely hired by department chairmen who opposed their principles because the candidates were sound scholars and students needed divergent views.

Now debate has virtually disappeared, and there isn’t much diversity of opinion. Campuses have become ideological monopolies, as American Enterprise says. Graduate students who want to become academics know they can’t rise within the system unless they display liberal views. Professors know they are unlikely to get hired or promoted unless they embrace the expected package of campus isms. Remaining conservatives and moderates can survive if they keep their heads down and their mouths shut. Dissent from campus orthodoxy is risky. A single expressed doubt about affirmative action or a kind word about school vouchers may be enough to derail a career.
Upwardly mobile professors also must endorse levels of indoctrination and coercion that were unheard of two generations ago. Freshman orientation and freshman writing classes are often straightforward exercises in political conditioning. So are the sensitivity training sessions and mandatory prejudice reduction workshops that lay down the party line and set limits on dissent. On some campuses, professors are expected to sign loyalty oaths promising to promote multiculturalism in their courses, even in math and science. Huge bureaucracies have arisen around affirmative action and other campus causes, making reform seem impossible. As a result, the modern campus has come to look like an ideological system learning to reproduce itself.
(Adapted from: The Absent Professors)

And from my 2004 annual report:
While almost all of America’s first colleges and universities, including Harvard and the other Ivy League schools, were founded as Christian institutions, today secular liberals who are openly hostile to Western civilization, traditional values, and Christianity dominate their campuses. Variously termed “learned disdain for faith” and “the extreme secularization of the academy,” the idea that God might really exist is rarely considered in the university, but classroom advocacy of atheism is common and everywhere assumed to be protected by academic freedom. Many professors make a career of fashioning arguments that support or assume atheism and students frequently talk of courses that incorporate heavy-handed ridicule of theistic religion.

Campus administrations around the country espouse academic freedom and tolerance fervently but somehow cannot extend the principle to professors and others who courageously think outside the secular box. San Francisco State University took the position that a particular biology professor was no longer appropriate as a teacher of introductory biology, because he committed the unpardonable sin of exposing his students to certain points of dispute among scientists on macro-evolutionary theory. Similarly, the Mississippi University for Women asked the dean of the school’s Division of Science and Mathematics to resign for exposing a group of honor students to scientific flaws in Darwinian thought in a presentation called “Critical Thinking on Evolution.”

Academic intolerance is particularly acute in university discrimination against Christian groups on campus. In December 2002, Rutgers University booted from campus the Rutgers InterVarsity Multiethnic Christian Fellowship because the group required—of all things—that its leaders be Christians. The group became ineligible to receive university funds and was denied permission to meet or operate on school grounds. The university’s rationale was that denying non-Christians access to leadership is unfairly discriminatory to nonbelievers and thus in violation of the university’s guidelines on nondiscrimination. (Rutgers has since lifted its ban against InterVarsity.) The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has engaged in discrimination against Christian groups across the board. The university has sent letters to seventeen groups threatening to cut off their financial support unless they are willing to cease to be Christian.

University officials often suppress the Christian message and its values on campus. When Dartmouth’s chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ placed copies of C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity in students’ mailboxes, one university dean decried the action, saying “it was an offensive imposition of religion on non-Christian students.” University of Texas officials have repeatedly denied permission to a pro-life student group, Justice for All, to display an exhibit promoting life on open areas of the campus—places that have traditionally been used for student expression. When a Harvard law student posted notes on school bulletin boards stating, “Smile! Your mother chose life,” an employee said he was expressing “hate.”

When the topic under consideration is, say, Islam, homosexuality, or even pornography, students are urged to be open, diverse, accepting. Every conceivable idea is embraced, it seems, except Christianity. The University of North Carolina required that all freshmen and transfer students read, Approaching the Quran: The Early Revelations, a book of excerpts from the Islamic holy book. The inconsistency between the university’s approach to the Koran and its attitude toward the Bible and other Christian materials is staggering.

What’s behind all this? Secular liberals who control the university today view Christianity as inherently in conflict with their subjective assumptions about the world, including their notion that truth itself is just a tool to justify power.
(Adapted from: Persecution)

 Appendix B:
Sample Cover Letter for Designated Giving

Dr. Sam Smith
Professor of Astronomy
State University
Anywhere, USA

Dear Dr. Smith:

Enclosed is a check for $1,000.00 from my wife and me made out to the State U Alumni Association. These funds are to be used to fund activities of the State U Christian Faculty/Staff Forum. As a friend of State U, I am particularly concerned for the spiritual well being of the students and know there are few agencies on the State U campus that share my concern. I appreciate the commitment of the Christian Faculty/Staff Forum to address this issue through such activities as the annual Freshman Orientation, the “How to Make Better Grades and Have More Fun” seminars, and the speakers you bring to campus from time to time.

Please convey our appreciation to the members of your group for what you are doing at State U. If we can be of assistance in any way, please don’t hesitate to call on us. As the academic year winds down, we trust you have had a successful year and that your plans for the coming year will come to fruition as well.

Sincerely,
Joseph M. Mellichamp, Ph.D.

Appendix C:
Recommended Organizations

Christian Leadership Ministries (CLM), the Faculty Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ
I have been involved since the inception of this ministry 25 years ago, so I can recommend it unreservedly. We work with professors and professional university staff at many of the major state and private universities in the US and abroad. At present, we have 8,000+ professors from over 1,000 universities and colleges in the US involved with us. Our approach is to establish groups of Christian professors and staff on university campuses and equip them to (1) integrate their Christian faith with their academic discipline to impact their teaching and research, (2) to reach out with the gospel to their students and colleagues in ways that are appropriate, ethical, attractive, and effective, and (3) to exert a transforming influence individually and corporately on their institutions. There are in excess of 200 such groups on university campuses in the US and abroad. These groups have strategic opportunities for influencing the culture as you can imagine, but are often constrained by lack of funding. There is probably such a group on your campus and you could be a great encouragement to them through designated financial giving to your university. You might check out our Web Sites to locate contacts at your university or college at LeaderU.com and FacultyLinc.com (LeaderU is one of the largest Christian Web Sites on the Internet with some 4,500+ resources on-line.)
www.clm.org >

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
InterVarsity has some very effective programs for both undergraduate and graduate students. On campuses where InterVarsity is operating, they will usually have faith-supported staff members who work with students one-on-one and in groups to equip them in their Christian walk and to encourage them to live Christianly in the university. If there is an InterVarsity group on your campus, you could not go wrong in supporting it. www.ivcf.org >

Campus Crusade for Christ
Crusade also works with undergraduate and graduate students and is on many campuses throughout the US and the world. [Crusade is one of the largest Christian organizations worldwide and also has consistently held to high standards of financial accountability.] As a young assistant professor, I was discipled by the Crusade campus director at my university, so I can speak firsthand as to the effectiveness and value of the equipping that Crusade imparts to the students who are involved in its programs.
www.ccci.org >

Navigators
The Navigators is a wonderful Christian organization with staff on many US campuses. These men and women often work one-on-one with students, discipling them so that they can walk as mature believers. I have attended several training programs sponsored by the Navigators and can vouch for the excellent quality of their materials and methods.
www.navigators.org >

Denominational Groups
Of course most of the mainline Christian denominations and other religious groups also sponsor student ministries and these are usually good candidates for alumni support. At the risk of omitting an important group, I will identify those with which I am familiar, and will be happy to add others as I become aware of them. Here are some for starters, in no particular order:

·Baptist Student Union
·Wesley Foundation (Methodist)
·Newman Center (Catholic)
·Reformed University Fellowship (PCA)
·Hillel Center (Jewish)
·Presbyterian Collegiate Connection

Bibliography

• Anderson, Martin. Impostors in the Temple. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1992.
• Bloom, Allan. The Closing of the American Mind. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1987.
• Leo, John, “The Absent Professors,” U. S. News & World Report, September 23, 2002, p. 14.
• Limbaugh, David, Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity, Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc, 2003.
• Malik, Charles. A Christian Critique of the University. Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press. 1982.
• Marsden, George. The Soul of the American University. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 1994.
• Shapiro, Ben, Universities or Indoctrination Centers? jewishpress.com, Posted September 1, 2004.