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FAU lowest alumni giving in state and one of lowest in USA

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This is one of the presentations for the BoT meeting. FAU at 1.80% in alumni giving as a % of total giving. Next lowest is FIU at 2.70%.

Look at pages 13 and 14.


http://www.fau.edu/bot/files/102407_SP_I3_Foundation_Update.pdf





FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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Re: FAU lowest alumni giving in state and one of lowest in USA

illinoisowl said

This is one of the presentations for the BoT meeting. FAU at 1.80% in alumni giving as a % of total giving. Next lowest is FIU at 2.70%.

Look at pages 13 and 14.

http://www.fau.edu/bot/files/102407_SP_I3_Foundation_Update.pdf




I'm not really surprised at all.

The Corvette fiasco, combined with the Davenport fiasco, have closed a lot of wallets.

A little while back, now-silent Barry Kaye donated what should amount to $32 million (after the state matches it) to our College of Business and because they have no facilities that need to be built, that's supposed to go into programs. If we don't have the best College of Business in the entire state after that, I'll be very disappointed.

I have an interest way down the road of donating to create an interactive entertainment (i.e. video games) program (leading to a bachelor's degree), a film school, a marble structure of Schnellenberger outside the stadium like the Bowden statue at FSU, etc

but

for the time being the school is getting donations for athletics or for scholarships. And don't get me wrong, scholarships are great, but if you look into it you'll find there are more scholarships than people to fill them and sometimes things like a Black Women Engineering Scholarship will go to a white male business major.

So I'd like to see them take some of that money and get better teaching faculty, lower class sizes, trim the admissions fat, and raise their ranking. I think Crist should mandate that all schools in Florida create a feasible plan for becoming at least third tier universities. And if he builds another public university in Florida (like he wants to do) rather than more community colleges (which is what we actually need), further demeaning a college education in Florida, I will scream.
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Re: FAU lowest alumni giving in state and one of lowest in USA

owlcountry said

illinoisowl said

This is one of the presentations for the BoT meeting. FAU at 1.80% in alumni giving as a % of total giving. Next lowest is FIU at 2.70%.

Look at pages 13 and 14.

http://www.fau.edu/bot/files/102407_SP_I3_Foundation_Update.pdf




I'm not really surprised at all.

The Corvette fiasco, combined with the Davenport fiasco, have closed a lot of wallets.

A little while back, now-silent Barry Kaye donated what should amount to $32 million (after the state matches it) to our College of Business and because they have no facilities that need to be built, that's supposed to go into programs. If we don't have the best College of Business in the entire state after that, I'll be very disappointed.

I have an interest way down the road of donating to create an interactive entertainment (i.e. video games) program (leading to a bachelor's degree), a film school, a marble structure of Schnellenberger outside the stadium like the Bowden statue at FSU, etc

but

for the time being the school is getting donations for athletics or for scholarships. And don't get me wrong, scholarships are great, but if you look into it you'll find there are more scholarships than people to fill them and sometimes things like a Black Women Engineering Scholarship will go to a white male business major.

So I'd like to see them take some of that money and get better teaching faculty, lower class sizes, trim the admissions fat, and raise their ranking. I think Crist should mandate that all schools in Florida create a feasible plan for becoming at least third tier universities. And if he builds another public university in Florida (like he wants to do) rather than more community colleges (which is what we actually need), further demeaning a college education in Florida, I will scream.

I completely agree with you 100%. We need to focus on expanding our community colleges and better funding them, especially the ones in South Florida where we control so much of the state's economy and population. If I recall properly Miami-Dade College is the least funded of the community colleges and is the largest higher education institution in the country after the U. of Phoenix (the online one). I'm sure BCC and PBCC are not too far behind either. Public universities in Florida should have prestige (ie: California) not to be left to become another UNF, UWF or FGCU (not to demean them) but they could easily become community colleges and leave the major universities with better standards and funding. Sometimes I can't help but feel our state has such a northern-bias, leaving South Florida to fend for itself. Just my two cents.
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Re: FAU lowest alumni giving in state and one of lowest in USA

I think in FAU's case a lot of it has to do with the fact that the older, more successful graduates went to the school when it was primarily a commuter university and when a lot of people going to FAU were community college transfers.  You don't get the strong sense of pride and connection with a university when you are living with your parents or way off campus and commuting to the campus for your education.  Add to that the fact that we did not have a football team until recently, and that the team still isn't on campus and is just starting to climb in 1A.  Once you have some full 4 year+ graduating classes that lived on or very near campus that had the true college experience and have something to be proud of, you will see the alumni giving increase.  It's kind of sat to say it but I really think that having a successful 1A football program makes a world of difference from top to bottom with a university and it's place among other colleges.
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Re: FAU lowest alumni giving in state and one of lowest in USA

owlcoholic said

I think in FAU's case a lot of it has to do with the fact that the older, more successful graduates went to the school when it was primarily a commuter university and when a lot of people going to FAU were community college transfers.  You don't get the strong sense of pride and connection with a university when you are living with your parents or way off campus and commuting to the campus for your education.  Add to that the fact that we did not have a football team until recently, and that the team still isn't on campus and is just starting to climb in 1A.  Once you have some full 4 year+ graduating classes that lived on or very near campus that had the true college experience and have something to be proud of, you will see the alumni giving increase.  It's kind of sat to say it but I really think that having a successful 1A football program makes a world of difference from top to bottom with a university and it's place among other colleges.

Alot of those older graduates showed up for class and went home. Thats it. They had no connection to the university, never attended any functions, never joined any of the clubs. I lived on campus my time there and that does make a difference.

I know the traditonal campus and the football team are a way to get the students and graduates more involved and generate some loyalty in the future.

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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Re: FAU lowest alumni giving in state and one of lowest in USA

i think a huge part of it is the types of degrees they dont hold as well:

Law
Medical
Architecture

see a trend here?

you can only give so much as a teacher, manager, and police officer…
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Re: FAU lowest alumni giving in state and one of lowest in USA

Florida_Owl said

i think a huge part of it is the types of degrees they dont hold as well:

Law
Medical
Architecture

see a trend here?

you can only give so much as a teacher, manager, and police officer…

I thought FAU has a school af architecture. The classes are held at the Ft Lauderdale campus.


FAU's School of Architecture

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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Re: FAU lowest alumni giving in state and one of lowest in USA

FAU lowest alumni giving in state and one of lowest in USA

illinoisowl said

Florida_Owl said

i think a huge part of it is the types of degrees they dont hold as well:

Law
Medical
Architecture

see a trend here?

you can only give so much as a teacher, manager, and police officer…

I thought FAU has a school af architecture. The classes are held at the Ft Lauderdale campus.


FAU's School of Architecture




Not only do we have a School of Architecture but I'm told that it's very competitive to get into.

I'm not convinced that having a medical school on campus does a whole lot for getting people to donate. In terms of medical schools, students pretty much have to go wherever they are accepted because it's so difficult to get into medical school. Then once you're there you're so bogged down in books and clinical rotations that you don't have the time to really get too involved with campus life and all the other things that would inspire you to really feel passionate about an institution. You may give back to the medical school but the school… I don't know. For instance, if I get into UF's medical school I'm not giving any money to support UF so they can build another wing on their student union or another elaborate gothic red brick building for the School of … I don't know… Theoretical Ketchup Sciences.

Not a dime.

Greeks, Student Government people, Athletes… people who have soaked up all the traditional aspects of the college and have a lot of fond memories of their undergrad… THOSE people will donate.

It's just like with our football attendance. I'm used to going to football games now and, if I'm in a reasonable geographical location to the stadium for the rest of my life, I'm going to come out and support the team because that's just what you do. And there are a lot of people like that that are now being exposed to FAU football and will continue to come back as alumni and take up seats. Over decades those numbers will add up and you'll sell out even if you're playing Johnny Tumbleweed University. That's part of what UF and FSU have… they've graduated soooo many people who spent their undergrad going to games and cheering that when they graduate and settle, they continue to go. And of course the bandwagon people.
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Re: FAU lowest alumni giving in state and one of lowest in USA

Florida_Owl said

i think a huge part of it is the types of degrees they dont hold as well:

Law
Medical
Architecture

see a trend here?

you can only give so much as a teacher, manager, and police officer…

There are plenty of high paying degrees attainable from FAU. Engineering, Accounting, Stock brokers, Insurance, Real Estate and others. Rich alumni are good to have but if FAU alumni had the same giving rate as UF alumni things would be different and we wouldn't be having this discussion.

I met a FAU grad many years ago that moved near to me in Georgia. He went on to med school after FAU then went to another university for oncology. He lived on campus and his family had a history with FAU. He told me that he received solicitations from FAU for donations.  After attending all those universities he didn't feel obligated to donate to any of them or to have to chose one out of all the others. So if we had our own med school, who would those students feel loyal to? Their undergrad, the med school or if they are specializing, which med school if different from the first.

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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Re: FAU lowest alumni giving in state and one of lowest in USA

illinoisowl said

Florida_Owl said

i think a huge part of it is the types of degrees they dont hold as well:

Law
Medical
Architecture

see a trend here?

you can only give so much as a teacher, manager, and police officer…

I thought FAU has a school af architecture. The classes are held at the Ft Lauderdale campus.


FAU's School of Architecture

you're right…i stand corrected…that was one of the last things catanese put in motion…my bad…
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