Alumni ignorance

While I am watching this new shoujo anime called Kirarin Revolution (some sto-ck footage for the moe shoujoholics among us), I am wondering why the alumni of my university that I’m calling don’t want to donate any amount of their money to the Annual Fund. See, I’m now in the second week of my work, and I have not been getting any paydirt since two Sundays ago when I got my first pledge. All the others in my group have had at least one per shift. I am currently 4 straight without a single pledge.

Some had their voicemails on, and for the purposes of my spiel, I am pretending that they don’t exist. The various alumni that I’ve been calling had their reasons. A few had their children going to universities already. Many cannot afford to donate, even though I was asking for anything that is comfortable for them. Some are angry with the university. Others think we’re the Alumni Association, which is a completely different entity. And the people I really dislike either don’t give a reason why they are not interested in donating, or just hang up when I introduce myself.

I then wonder why we have alumni that only use the university just to get a degree, and not even show a deeper appreciation for their alma mater. Do they not realize the consequences of not donating even just a measly $10.00? Have they no idea where they graduated from? Have they no idea what their purpose in life is? Okay, I suppose for the majority of my contacts, their purpose in life is to graduate from a university, get a job for 40 years, then vegetate and do nothing in their retirement while ignoring what got them there in the first place. How sad is that? Is this going to be how Generation Y will be: never learning the lessons of the Baby Boomers and X?

I mean, come on, this is Cal State Long Beach we’re talking about! This ain’t Dominguess Hills, or god forbid, Fail-erton. This is a university with the third-best value in the country! These alumni had the privilege of graduating from one of the best universities in the nation, donning the Brown and Gold (or Black and Gold if you want to be a technocrat) for 4, 5, or however many years they were a student. And for them not to even make any donation of any amount shows that they have chosen to take their education for granted. If every alumni on my Futures list donated 10 bucks each, we could be looking at many corporations across the USA and the world pitching in. See, alumni participation is crucial, because if the alumni donate, then the Fortune 500 companies will pitch in. This doesn’t take rocket science to figure this out. And many of the people I contact are Business majors, so this should not be something of an annoyance for them if they just donate $10 of their paycheck per year. It’s not much to ask. And these people don’t want to do it. While I do respect their decisions, shouldn’t these excuses-for-alumni realize that Cal State Long Beach’s status as one of the best in the nation is fueled by alumni like them who are frequent donors?

It really angers me that they don’t realize that a small donation doesn’t hurt. What’s worse is that many who will graduate this semester, or who will in the future, are going to do the same act of ignorance when they are in their prime of their lives, or retired and what not. May the spirit of Prospector Pete have mercy on their souls.