Elusive Alumni
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Since it’s alumni weekend, I thought I would dedicate a blog in its favor, and dream about the day when Babson will be a distance and still not-so-fond memory. In fact, I’ve been hearing a lot about the Babson phone-a-thon and our financial issues at the school. More specifically, Babson’s administration is constantly complaining about how alumni don’t donate money back to the school when they graduate and become successful. The “phone-a-thon,” for those unfamiliar with it, pays Babson students to sit in an office and cold-call alumni to try and finagle a few bucks for the school.
So while I thought about the concept of the phone-a-thon, it crossed my mind that one day someone is going to cold-call me and ask me to donate my money to Babson. Then I felt something wet on my cheek and realized that I was laughing myself to tears about the prospect of donating even a single penny back to this organization. Maybe that’s a bit harsh, but it’s actually a reality for Babson since they have a very hard time trying to get alumni donations. In fact, it’s probably the single biggest problem facing the finance department at Babson. Why? Because believe it or not, our school’s budget this year was covered about 83% by tuition costs. To put that another way, only 17% of the costs Babson will incur this year is covered by alumni donations, either through periodic donations or contributions to the endowment (which is a fund that earns a return, and the college withdraws a chunk of money each year from the fund that is hopefully just less than the return they make).
A big part of the reason for this is the fact that alumni, on average, donate $60k back to Babson. Other schools get average donations of even $650k and more! That’s more than ten times as much!!! Not to mention some of those schools have ten times as many students as we have. So you would think that if one alumnus donated a few million, they would have a lot more people to spread it out over, which would make the average lower. Compare this to our school, and one donation of a few million would be spread out over far fewer people, which should make our average higher than normal. So our crappy $60k donation average is even worse when you think about that.
So the questions are why is this the case and what is to be done? Well, if you’ve ever seen our Babson Strategic Plan, which can be found on the school’s web site, you might notice that the administration claims they are committed to providing not only academic excellence, but also a strong feeling of community. I’ll pause here for a minute so you can let that sink in…
Ok, so moving forward, the first thing you might be wondering is how can they possibly claim to promote a community atmosphere here? If you ask the administration, they would probably not have any specific steps they’ve taken to achieve a community, but they will likely tell you something like this: “We try to instill a feeling of community but can only do so much; the students also have to work at it a little bit.” In other words, they realize there is no actual community and try to pass the blame for it to us.
But my confusion sets in right about now because not only do they fail to promote a community atmosphere, it seems like they are actually working AGAINST having a community. You may also notice in the strategic plan that Babson wants to target an extremely diverse student body in their admissions policy. By diverse we’re not really talking just about race or gender necessarily, it’s more about internationals, out-of-staters, athletes, or any other types of differing interests or demographics. Effectively this makes everyone a minority on campus, which accounts for the various cliques. So really they’re telling us they brought in all these people with completely different interests from one another and since they went through the effort to bring us all here then we are the ones that need to make it work. It’s sort of like Survivor: Babson Edition. Gee, I wonder why we have a lacking sense of community.
But it is not to blame everything entirely on diversity at Babson because diversity can be (and most of the time is) a good thing. We also are segmented into groups according to our relationship to the college. For instance, there’s the administration who runs things however they feel, and too bad if you’re on the short end of the stick. They claim they try to get feedback from us (the students) to improve the school, but they admittedly see us as their customers. Moreover, the way they get feedback is by asking our student government. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never even heard of half the people on the government. The other half ran for office uncontested, so in effect I didn’t even choose the people that are “representing” my opinions to the administration. Obviously my opinions are getting heard.
The most common rebuttal to that is “do something about it.” I want to stab someone’s eye with a fork when I hear that because it’s so annoying. I’m sorry, but I have about 10 million things on my plate during the school year, I’m not about to go all Spartacus and start a Babson revolution or run for student government on top of everything else. Not to mention by the time any changes got implemented I probably would not be around to enjoy them, so my motivation is not very high to mastermind such an effort. Nevertheless, the blog you are reading does happen to be a part of crapcampus.com, which is trying to “do something about it.”
In fact, as a complete side note, crapcampus.com is a great effort in the way that it’s a medium to express our distress as Babson students, and the effort doesn’t have to die when any one of us graduates. It will be a slap in the nuts to the Babson administration for years to come, and there isn’t a thing they can do about it.
But I digress. The point is that I think we can all agree there is very little sense of community, at least in terms of the college in general. It seems to be one group against another, whether through diverse interests or the nature of our relationship to the college. And there are a number of things the administration can do to improve that besides throwing all these different ingredients into the same pot and telling it to boil itself. You still need to stir it and check on it once in a while.
I think the biggest thing they can do is stop cutting corners. When I think about it, I can’t think of any huge things about Babson that really bother me. It’s more a series of little things that add up to a huge mountain. I don’t think I have been through one semester here where I didn’t get hassled over the dumbest crap ever. Usually it was courtesy of Public Safety and/or OCL. But it also bothers me when the finance department says we need to cut back on utility usage in the dorms because that would save the college a lot of money. I say why do I care about that? It won’t lower tuition if we save them money. Not to mention we’re paying about a grand per month to live in places that should cost maybe half that at most. And don’t even get me started on the cost of Trim food. If we live on campus, we’re FORCED to buy a meal plan even if we don’t want it, and we’re not even allowed to take food home with us! So while I’m getting raked over the coals on my living costs at Babson, I’m also supposed to help the school’s budget? That’s like Babson kicking me in the balls and asking for a back rub afterwards. Forget about it.
It also brings us to the awful spending discretion within the administration. Who wants an ugly-ass flagpole “fountain” outside the library? (What the hell is “fountain” about it anyway? That has to be the dumbest thing I ever heard of in my entire life, a freaking flagpole fountain. I need to punch something just thinking about it.) Why do we need to redo the entrances to the school 5 times a year? Why do we need new crosswalk lines installed instead of painted? Why do we need to replace chunks of the cement outside Webster every other week so it look hideous and costs us way more than waiting until it really needs renovation and then repaving the entire area? None of it makes sense. Why do we need to spend so much on that garbage if we’re so pressed for cash? And at the same time I have to crap in a pile of someone else’s old, dried puke from last weekend because we can’t afford the housekeeping people any more. Someone explain the reasoning behind this.
I think all of these things contribute to people spending senior year with one foot out the door already, and when we do get out we look back and say wow my non-Babson buddies had all these awesome times in college, and the highlight of my week was cramming into a tiny, beat-up suite and getting blackout drunk so I can forget about being at Babson and getting raped by the administration for a few hours. Will I be inclined to donate a million dollars down the road? It’s a resounding “no.”
The advocates of Babson will still hang onto their belief of “Babson is as good as you make it.” That’s the biggest copout I have ever heard. Let’s face the facts. Does the social life suck here? Yes, by all standards and especially when compared to the social lives at other schools. Can the administration do something about it? Yes, that is for sure. Can we as students do something about it? Of course we can do some things, too. But the major point to hit here is that they need us more than we need them. We’re their customers. We are now, and we will still be their customers after we graduate. Why? Because we’re their source of income: tuition for now, but even when we graduate they need our donations to function. Otherwise Babson does not exist. So when the overwhelming majority at Babson agrees that the social life sucks, then how can you tell them they’re the ones who should do something about it? I mean Babson is a top-notch education, I don’t think anyone can argue that since we will all graduate with better skills than we would have gotten at pretty much any other college out there. So if we leave here with a bad taste left in our mouths (no doubt a little like rancid eggs and tree bark from getting crapped on for 4 years), a great education, and a high-paying job, do we really care? No, I think we’ll survive just fine. But the one who suffers is the college itself because we’re not giving them donations after we leave. So the burden should be placed on their shoulders to make a change if they want to improve alumni donations.
Probably Step 1 would be for the administration to listen. Obviously they aren’t too thrilled about the crapcampus.com project. But instead of trying to censor us like some kind of dictatorship, they might want to try following their own strategic plan and start creating a community. Maybe common sense would tell them that the existence of a project like this means they need to reevaluate their approach to campus life and their way of treating people. It gives them more than enough reason to do a better job of listening and seeking out what the students really want in their college experience. Maybe bridging that gap could be the first step to actually achieving a community and not just talking about it.
Who knows what could happen if they took just that one little step. Maybe there would be (gasp) open lines of communication. Maybe everyone could work together to make Babson have a strong academic reputation without sacrificing a quality college experience for its students. That sounds an awful lot like a community to me. And I think people that feel more invested in the school while they go there are going to feel more invested when they graduate, as well. Could this logically lead to more alumni donations? That, and maybe even an ILoveOCL.com one day…well, ok, probably not, but I think the college would settle for the increase in donations.
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 1st, 2006 at 3:42 am and is filed under Craptain Hook, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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one of the most articulate and well thought out posts on the site to date. i gotta re-read it in a little bit just to be able to make a worthy comment.
just want to say that these last few entries have been excellent. thanks for taking the time to articulate your thoughts. you made a great point that it’s our duty to critque babson, otherwise – nothing will ever change.
i graduated from a private high school and i have donated every year since graduation – i’m not saying it’s a lot of money, but for a poor college kid – it’s substantial. when i think about donating to babson, i just laugh. i don’t think there is anything they can do that can get me to donate now or ever – even though they have managed to give a half decent education. so thanks again, craptain hook, for the commentary – keep it up.
Well said on all accounts. I don’t have any criticisms, only comments. The phone-a-thon is pathetic. They call alumni and beg them for money because they need it to function. I can’t believe that a school who prides themselves on raising and molding some of the most successful business people in the country for finance, accounting, entrepreneurship and marketing, can’t handle their own books. They scratch their heads as to why they don’t get donations, especially when our graduating body makes on average 80k a year 5 years after graduation (heard from an alumnus).
If the college didn’t put some money into improving the campus during the spring, summer and early fall (prime time for touring potential students), they wouldn’t be able to acquire the necessary students needed to not only meet their quotas financially, but intellectually as well. There are tons of students who apply here, but if Babson lowers it’s standards just to hit quotas (which I have no idea if they are or not) then over time the graduating body will be able to maintain less and less its already amazing reputation.
This being the case, they care more about who they can sucker into coming here, and not give a crap about the students who are already here. Granted, I’m a marketing guy, and its soon going to be my job to sell shit to people that they don’t really need, but I’m in charge of the selling, not the service; wherein lies the ethical side of this issue. Technically, we buy the product of this school over a four year period, and we should always be getting appropriate service from wherever were buying our product from, in this case, Babson.
The faculty claims that the students have to “meet them halfwayâ€, and they do pass the blame to us. This however is beginning to change, but at the speed of about the growth rate of a human fingernail. Nothing will be different during my tenure here, possibly in the next five years, but I can’t be sure. OCL says they build community, but what type of community building activities have occurred on campus? What, they have a comedian come once a semester? A few knight parties? Pub Thursdays? Here’s a fun fact: Did you know that the school has a full liquor license, yes that’s right a FULL liquor license, but SodexHo, which apparently runs the pub (odd) prohibits the pub from selling anything other than wine, beer, and malt beverages (mike’s hard, etc…). The CEE (Center for Executive Education) has a bar of its own, fully stocked with everything you could ask for at a bar. However, the tenants (Graduates as well middle-aged, upper class businessmen) are rather rude and treat it more like an exclusive club than a public bar.
On the subject of SGA, this thing should be destroyed. They accomplish so little, other than funding organizations (which is cool, but doesn’t entirely serve the student body). In my opinion, the majority of people on SGA are merely using it as a resume builder, which is completely the WRONG reason why people should be on that board.
I would pay money to hear what OCL has to say about this site. My guess is that it’s exactly what we think it is: an attempt to censor us, a way to thwart traffic to this site. Hell, I’ll be they’ve even talked to ITSD to figure out a way to shut this thing down or maybe tracked who’s posted or visited. These actions are the reason why change will not happen any time soon. OCL should look at this site in a positive way. Shit, we’re doing research FOR THEM! Read what we have to say, and say “oh crap, maybe we should change that…†Just consider it, I dare you. Use your intelligence (which I know you have) and sit down, with students preferably, have it open to the public, and try and figure out what can YOU (OCL) can do to improve your customers experience. Incredible point that Craptain Hook made about the students and alumni being the financial life blood of this school. I think its appalling that the abuse of its students has continued for as long as it has. And I also agree with the “lots of little things add up to a mountain†theory. But, all those little things are poor decisions that were made by someone who works for this college. Everything about Babson is a pile of shit, covered in many, many coats of pretty, shiny paint that, in turn, gets repainted many times a year.
The statement “it’s as good as you make it†is not true for every situation, it matters on your surroundings. I know this is a little extreme, but try saying that to a POW in a camp in Vietnam. “Hey, just so you know, we might torture you at any moment, without warning or reason, but just remember ‘its only as good as you make it’â€.
On the subject of the “great diversity†here at Babson: America is hated by almost every other country in the world, including all the people in those countries. Our student body is 20-some percent international. Yes we start organizations, but organizations alone won’t do anything. When all the smoke clears, you’re still left with the rubble of the student body. Our admins should be working for us, not against us. Consider our ideas, heaven forbid the students get heard as well as understood.
Agreed, the latest posts are very well put together and informative. It’s like a proud partenting moment for me to see this site what it is today!
On the subject of ITSD, yes, they are well aware of the site. At the end of the summer, the head of ITSD compiled a list of anti-Babson websites, and crapcampus.com was at the top of the list. I have been waiting for them to block this site just as many high schools block myspace.
You may remember last year how the RSS feed worked for a few days, but it mysteriously quit. But I am happy to report that our CrapCampus RSS feed can be read through the Babson Portal once again.
This is a start. I went to Babson and found the school so horrific that I transferred. I thought Babson was going to prepare me to be a business man, ha, the liberal arts classes in my middle school years were 100x more engaging. The business program is suppose to be top-notch, I literally learned nothing in FME, im not kidding. They give you a financial accounting book in the beginning of the year, which you could buy at Barnes and Noble for $20 and save yourself about $3,000 for the course. IME is just as bad except it may be even more of a pain in the ass, same $20 at B&N. There is no teaching at all. Classes are not only boring but useless and uninformative. That is just the academic side. If you are a male and heterosexual you might as well throw on some tight leather pants, flick yout wrist and listen exclusively to Barbara Streishand. The social scene is pathetic. The frats (all 6 of them) are extremely sad, the only legit frat on campus SigEp, is a 7 at best. I have visited friends all along the east coast (I mean I needed a comparison for my transfer) and it further enforced the fact that the social scene at Babson is a joke. Yeah man sweet lets get hammered, oh wait there are no, NO Good looking girls here, ah screw it lets go up to Pietz drunk man. To begin with Babson is 60/40 Males to Females, and of those 40% approximately 5% of them are at all attractive. Put it this way you can count on your hands the hot girls in your grade. No clubs or activities, outside of sports, and believe me I lettered in Soccer, Hockey and Lacrosse at a prestigious athletic power, and the sports commitment isnt worth it, I played for a while, and found it to be a waste of my time. Oh and when Babson students make facebook groups called “Haven’t heard of Babson, it’s okay you wouldnt have gotten in anyways” that doesnt bode well for prospective students. When I say I go to Babson, correction when I said I went to Babson, there was at least a 50% chance the person I was speaking to would say, “Babson wheres that? or Babson never heard of it” yeah neither have the big banks, brokerages or other prospective employers. My father is an investment banker for one of the top 3 banks in the U.S., I mean if your goin to Babson you should know which three I am speaking of (Citigroup, Bank of America and JP Morgan for you home gamers), Citigroup by the way he tells me that no one knows of Babson and it doesn’t have the best reputation. He hadn’t even heard of Babson until I applied. This from a Columbia MBA, having 30+ years in banking. My uncle a Harvard MBA who spent his career in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs hadn’t heard of it either. If you are still reading this far, you one, are a Babson student who has the same level of disgust for the school as I, two a prospective student, who should by now have enough info about Babo to not apply and tell your friends to avoid like the plague or three maybe you are just bored sitting in your room on a Saturday night at Babson and have nothing better to do than read this. I am telling you Babson isnt worth it, look into other business programs, and if you HAVE to be in Boston look at BC, Carroll School of Management is excellent, BU is strong as well. Oh and if you reallly did well in school, there is also a school in Cambridge worth looking into. Chances are you don’t get into Wharton, sorry thats a reality, but dont settle for Babson, have a strong college list, you can always attend a liberal arts school and major in Economics, thats an option too. My first year at Babson was terrible, the second wasn’t much better. 42K out of Dad’s pocket, which bought me a financial accounting book, a hatred for Trim food and credits that arent worth the paper they are printed on, doesn’t seem like the college experience I had hoped for. Final advice, oh and I plan on taking this disdain for Babson further, since so many people don’t like the admin. maybe we can get in touch with The Boston Globe, Princeton Review and maybe U.S. News and World Report who have bought Babson’s lies, I currently attend a school higher on the UG busines program list, and Babson is a ways, ways behind my current schools level of intellectual and academic merit. DO NOT GO TO BABSON, TAKE A POST GRAD IF YOU HAVE TO, TRUST ME, this should not be taken lightly. Fellow comrades feel free to comment, or Babson sympathizers feel free to show some school spirit, you would be the first to do so.
I was thinking of applying to Babson, not anymore thanks for the warning.
Beautiful comments above. No Prob Bro. This is what we’re here for
As a prospective student for Babson’s MBA program, I found this post (and comments) to be very enlightening. I am very interested in Babson because of their track record in entrepreneurship. Would you recommend Babson for aspiring graduate students? I’m not interested in community and social aspects, but for learning the skills necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. Thanks for your post and suggestions!