In response to the staff editorial printed regarding the Be the Light! campaign, we wanted to offer a few thoughts. The idea behind kicking off this campaign in the manner we did was to promote excitement around the end of the More Light! campaign and the official start of the student giving campaign.
As a group, The Lawrence Fund Student Advisory Council has been promoting philanthropy among students for many years.
We are not the first college to create a student giving campaign, nor is ours the most lavish or extreme. The idea is to get students to understand how donations to The Lawrence Fund affect their daily campus life while they are still here.
We are not asking students to make significant contributions when already paying for tuition, but rather simply asking students to collect and donate pocket change that many consider trivial.
Yes, students do invest a lot in Lawrence, and Lawrence is expensive, but pocket change from every student can add up to a significant amount of money — for example, if every student donated just a quarter, the library would be able to purchase 17 more books, or eight new piano scores for the conservatory!
As for the purchase of the piggy banks, yes, that was an up-front expense, but it is a part of the long-term investment and goal we have to educate students about the importance of The Lawrence Fund and help them find easy ways to donate — hence, the fun reminder of a piggy bank.
We certainly respect that students have many commitments, both in terms of time and money, but we are also hoping to create a cultural shift on campus, where students understand more about philanthropic support of the college, and understand the importance of this support while they are still students on campus.
– Kate Hatlak ‘08 on behalf of The Lawrence Fund Student Advisory Council