Volume 115, Issue 11

Monday, October 15, 2018 I Vol. 115 Iss. 11

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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

HEALING THROUGH ART

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Alumni Association rebrands, vows to continue ‘core mission’ MEREDITH ROATEN NEWS EDITOR

The University has shut out the organization formerly known as the GW Alumni Association – but members of the group said they are getting a fresh start after weeks of uncertainty about the future of the organization. The board of the alumni association – now called the Independent Alumni Association of George Washington – voted Thursday to continue its mission of serving alumni, Martin Baum, the president of the group, said. Details about the new structure of the board and organization have not yet been ironed out, but Baum said the group will rewrite its bylaws, reorganize the board’s committees and continue to provide grants and awards to alumni by the new year. The University unexpectedly cut ties with the alumni organization last month after back-and-forth about whether the group would merge with the University’s alumni office. Internal turmoil about the merger led to dozens of resignations and the removal of the organization’s former president. Baum said members of the group voted almost unanimously Thursday, in a 13–2 vote, to continue working together as volunteers. The two members who voted “no” decided to stay on, and the board maintains a 15-person membership, he said. He said the organization will discuss the path forward in the coming months, starting at a board meeting Oct. 26 where alumni who are not on the board will be invited to have their voices heard. The organization will not participate in Colonials Weekend – the four-day event that the University hosts annually for parents and alumni – as it has for nearly 60 years, he said. The group will not work with the University to issue grants and awards this year and will instead focus on restructuring, Baum said. “We’ve been forced to take a step back,” he said. “To be honest, it’s had the effect of galvanizing us.” The group will not have access to GW’s money for grants and awards, but the group has access to its own independent endowment, Baum said. He said alumni on and off the board have voiced support for the organization, cit-

ISABELLA BRODT | HATCHET PHOTOGRAPHER

Jaiya Lalla, the co-president of the Hindu Students Association, said she wants the space to expand in the future.

Religious student groups open prayer, meditation space in MSSC SAM PEREIRA & SARAH ROACH REPORTERS

Instead of staying in their residence hall rooms to pray, students now have a designated on-campus space for worship and meditation. Seven faith-based groups debuted a room on the third floor of the Multicultural Student Services Center Friday for students to congregate for prayer or meditation. Student leaders said the room is a step toward improving religious diversity on a largely secular campus by allotting a central space where students can practice their faith or learn about other religions. “There’s been a lot of issues with faith-based orgs and trying to be recognized on campus, so I think with the prayer space, that will help with getting faith-based orgs more recognition,” senior Bhavya Pathak, the former president of the Hindu Students Association who originally proposed the space to MSSC officials in January, said. The space, which was funded by the MSSC, holds eight bookshelves – one for each faith – that are enclosed with a curtain to house religious texts, like Bibles and Torahs. Faculty in the religion department will also donate textbooks to the space later this semester, Pathak said. The room features a waterfall and mats for students to use while praying. Student leaders said they also ordered decals of quotes related to each religion to tack onto the room’s walls within the next few weeks.

Pathak said members of HSA have been in conversations about the space for the past two years because there is no nearby temple for Hindu students to worship in D.C., making it difficult to celebrate holidays. After Pathak officially proposed the idea to officials in January, she contacted other faithbased groups to lay out what the space would include. Students can reserve the space for events specific to their religion, hold general body meetings or read about other faiths in textbooks from the bookshelves, she said. She said students can also flip a sign on the front door to indicate if they want to pray by themselves or with other students. Junior Jaiya Lalla, the co-president of HSA, said that in the future, she wants the space to move out of the MSSC and into a larger campus space, like a room in the Marvin Center. Lalla said the lack of elevators in the MSSC and “restricted hours” make it difficult for students to access the building to pray on their own time. The MSSC is open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. from Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and 4 to 11 p.m. Sunday. The building is closed on Saturdays. Lalla said the space, which is advertised on student groups’ social media pages and through email blasts, is necessary for religious students – who “tend to be the minority on campus” – to congregate and understand each other’s faith. “We realize that there’s a lot of faith organizations, but they all tend to be divided in their own little communi-

ties,” Lalla said. “We figured having the space would be an opportunity for everyone to come together and recognize that we all exist on campus.” Michael Tapscott, the director of the MSSC, said he hopes the area will “draw attention to interfaith dialogue” among students, including those who are atheist or agnostic. Tapscott’s primary role in establishing the space was to ensure students had a place to pray so they would not have to travel off campus to worship, he said. “Our hope is that each of these student groups or organizations or perspectives that come here will choose to use the space for good and for sharing and for educating others,” Tapscott said. Victoria Lewis, the president of the Interfaith Council, said the prayer space was “crucial” to help the University accommodate students of all backgrounds and faiths. Ten of the University’s 12 peer institutions, including the University of Southern California and Northeastern University, offer prayer spaces for religious student groups. “It has been frustrating to us as religious students that there wasn’t a designated space here or a serious investment in religious diversity coming from the administration, so this is a really great first step to starting to advocate for faith-based orgs,” she said.

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for more on the new meditation and worship space for students in the MSSC

ing the group’s 58-year run as the main avenue for alumni activity. Baum said about 40 alumni told him in emails and on social media that they were shocked by the University’s announcement last month and stood behind the group. “What I tell every single individual is we can’t worry too much about the past,” he said. “I know what our core mission is.” University spokeswoman Lindsay Hamilton said the University is moving forward with its own alumni association. She declined to say how the University is working with the new independent organization to hand out grants and awards. “The University is focused on building an alumni organization that will provide GW alumni with positive, lifelong and meaningful engagement and volunteer opportunities,” she said. She declined to say what feedback alumni gave the University about the decision to part ways with the alumni association. She also declined to say if the University and the group will work together on any future events. Morgan Corr, the secretary of the board, said although GWAA wasn’t “perfect,” the group of alumni volunteers who ran it put time and effort into their work. He said the University’s choice to cut ties with the group was “unfortunate,” but not every employee of GW should be held accountable. “The reality is that GW is a very large place, and we don’t want to allow the decisions of a few misguided people in one part of the University, OAR, to dictate to us what the alumni experience is going to be,” he said. Corr said the group is looking into supporting regional groups and possibly creating an endowment in support of the University, but no decisions have been made. “There is clearly a constituency that is supporting the University but not beholden to the University,” he said. Debbie Wheeler, a board member, said that though it wasn’t GWAA’s idea to part ways with the University, the organization is trying to make the best of the situation by continuing to operate independently and support alumni. “The more help, the better,” she said. “The more hands, the better.”

Parent donations drop for third consecutive year, hit six-year low REPORTERS

The University’s donations from parents dropped to a six-year low in fiscal year 2018, clocking in at $5.7 million, officials said. Donations from parents peaked in 2015 at $12 million but fell consecutively for the next three years, plummeting to $8.5 million by 2017 and dropping another 30 percent the next year. The downward turn could mean parents don’t feel connected to their children’s universities and may not be satisfied with their students’ experiences, experts said. Parent donations reached the lowest point in recent history in 2012 when the University received $2.6 million. Last year, officials said they expect to raise between $8 million and $10 million a year from parents. University spokeswoman Lindsay Hamilton said the average giving amount for the last eight years is $6.7 million, and the money raised fluctuates year to year because parents who contribute gifts leave the University with their students. Hamilton said administrators in the Division of De-

velopment and Alumni Relations began identifying and prioritizing potential donors using a new strategy at the start of fiscal year 2019, but she declined to provide any additional details about the new strategy. “Families make gifts at varying times during a student’s undergraduate years, and non-repeatable gifts come in some years and not others,” she said. The consecutive drop in funds also coincides with the closure of the University’s family philanthropy office, which shuttered in 2016 during an administrative shuffle in the student affairs office. Four of the University’s peer schools, including Northeastern and Georgetown universities, have offices dedicated to family donors or philanthropic efforts. Hamilton said officials in the development office work to build relationships with parents during events throughout the year, like move-in and Colonials Weekend. Family donations go toward every area at GW, including financial aid funds and the student experience, Hamilton said. “Fundraisers across the division are collaborating to build relationships with those

individuals in a thoughtful, timely way, taking advantage of natural opportunities for engagement over the course of the academic year,” she said. She declined to say what area received the most support from parents last year. Parent donations helped fund GW’s food pantry in 2016 and a mentorship program in 2013. Fundraising experts said family donations indicate whether parents are satisfied with their students’ experiences at a university – meaning a downturn is likely a sign that parents aren’t connecting with their children’s institutions. Sandy Butters, the director of parent donations at Northeastern University, said the effectiveness of family philanthropic efforts varies from school to school, but general engagement attempts usually strengthen parents’ bonds to a university. “Connecting parents is great because they want to support whatever their kids are doing and if they can see things where they can help, they will do that as opposed to something else, at least while you’re a student,” Butters said. She added that most parents decide to donate because

Parent donations to the University 12

Donations (millions of dollars)

ANNIE DOBLER & CHARLOTTE ZERBST

10 8 6 4 2 0

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

Fiscal year OLIVIA COLUMBUS | HATCHET DESIGNER

Source: Office of Development and Alumni Relations

they hear other parents have donated. Advertising parent donations could improve the rate at which parents give, she said. Meg Pagonis, the director of development in the Parents Office at Georgetown University, said when parents and their children who attend a university are happy with their school, they show that satisfaction by giving back to

the university. She said parents have become “accustomed” to supporting the university that their children attend because they are invested in their students’ studies. She said that while parents and other donation groups, like alumni, are different constituents, Georgetown officials try to elicit donations from all groups with the same amount

of effort and resources. “Georgetown has given priorities that are important to supporting the mission of the university, and that’s not a different set of priorities for parents versus alumni,” Pagonis said. “You’re still talking about the same priorities and the same important things that support your mission, you’re just talking to two different audiences.”