Student activities may receive a financial boost in the near future thanks to the approval of a GUSA-backed plan to allow alumni donations to student activities. The council of deans, made up of deans from each school and other administrators, last week approved a plan for an independent solicitation to alumni through the Office of Alumni-University Relations.

The original plan, to add an option on the university Annual Fund for donation to a general “Student Activities” fund among the 11 other options currently on the solicitation, was scrapped by the council in favor of an independent solicitation. The Annual Fund is Georgetown’s primary fundraising initiative, raising over $18 million annually for all four schools, the faculty of languages and linguistics, campus ministry, financial aid, athletics, Lauinger Library and the Volunteer and Public Service.

Sophomore class GUSA representative Marty LaFalce (COL ’03), who spearheaded the initiative along with senior class GUSA Representative Catie Sheehan (COL ’01), said that specific details about the separate mailing still need to be worked out, but that he was pleased with the decision.

“I think this will provide a good opportunity to market to alumni,” LaFalce said.

Marketing to alumni was an important factor in the plans, because the “Student Activities” option on the Annual Fund, had it been approved, would have disallowed marketing of the option and thus relied simply on people selecting it without an explanation. VPS, according to LaFalce, was added three years ago to the Annual Fund under the title “Students in Community Service” and is not allowed to market or provide explanatory material with the mailings. VPS has received approximately $30,000 from the Annual Fund, according to LaFalce.

“With the separate solicitation, we’ll have to market,” he said.

The marketing could provide more money than if on the Annual Fund’s mailing, because marketing will be necessary, even if it is limited.

According to LaFalce, major details of the plan have yet to be decided. The deans decided that only alumni who have graduated during the past 10 years will be solicited, but it is unclear whether alumni will be restricted from donating more than10 years after their graduation, or whether they will be able to continue donating beyond that period.

OAUR and GUSA have yet to determine who will facilitate the mailings and how the mailings will be done are. Also at issue is what role students will play versus that of OAUR. Who will run the fund has yet to be determined as well as where the money will physically go.

Plans are for the money to go into the university endowment, in one of the smaller “endowments” which can be created by specific groups.

Currently, the university’s endowment acts much like a mutual fund. Organizations who receive donations can buy into the endowment and receive a return on their investment as it grows. The current university endowment is approximately $750 million.

LaFalce spoke with Vice President of Development for OAUR Joe Kender in the process of obtaining the approval. Kender testified before the council of deans concerning the plans and, according to LaFalce, said that putting a checkbox on the Annual Fund to allow donations to “Student Activities” would not detract from the money the Annual Fund currently garners.

LaFalce said that in researching for the project he found that most universities charge activities fees which allow them to allocate on average $120 for each student but Georgetown allocated only $62.

An option to this would be to charge a small fee to all students regardless of the activities they participate in, such as the mandatory Yates Field House fee charged to all students. “I’m opposed to a permanent raise in tuition,” LaFalce said. “I’d rather get the money in donations than charge a fee.”

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