After reading John K. Atsalis' letter to the editor printed on March 5, I was dismayed that someone could so severely misinterpret the intentions of the Tufts Student Fund (TSF). My motivations for responding to Atsalis' letter are twofold: to address what I believe to be his underlying concerns and to correct his faulty assumptions and misconstrued view of the TSF.
To be fair, Atsalis raised some legitimate questions about the Tufts Student Fund, to which I hope to provide some long-awaited answers. The funds raised by the TSF will be disbursed through the financial aid office. These funds will not replace existing financial aid and will be used for the 2009-10 school year, and consequently, the recipient need not be a current recipient of financial aid. Indeed, it is very likely the money will go to students whose need increases drastically due to the current economic situation — need that may not have been previously anticipated and thus may not otherwise be met by the university, despite University President Lawrence Bacow's pledge. Philanthropy is an integral part of the financial aid budget. Indeed, many of us are already financially supported by the selfless donations of philanthropists. The Tufts Student Fund sought to empower students to demonstrate their support for the generosity exhibited by such individuals, such as the anonymous donor who has pledged funds in response to our efforts.
I also feel it is important to reiterate what I personally believe the Tufts Student Fund was about. This should not be interpreted as a guilt trip on those who didn't donate but rather as an expression of what the fund symbolized to me and my personal reasons for supporting it. I believe a hypothetical situation may help in this regard. Consider for a moment the Tufts Student Fund if it had existed outside of the Tufts community. In my hometown of Falmouth, Mass., the local newspaper, The Enterprise, sponsors a similar initiative called The Community Fund. The fund raises over $100,000 every year from a community of about 14,000 households to help those in need pay their bills and stay afloat during tough times. I am always amazed to see a $10 donation coming from individuals I believed to be least able to make such a contribution. Yet this observation speaks to the nature of this fund, and ultimately, the Tufts Student Fund: Both are profound statements about the very concept of community. To me, community is about giving back and supporting my neighbors; about overcoming my selfish tendencies and yielding to the greater good; about recognizing that what to me may be a miniscule donation can be of much greater value to those less fortunate. Though the TSF may have been viewed with skepticism due to being associated with an administration already levying hefty tuition, I believe the fund must be considered outside of this misleading and constraining context. In my opinion, the TSF was not about donating to the university, and as I stated in my letter to the editor on Feb. 26, it was not about money. It was instead about students supporting one another.
The majority of the money for the scholarship funded by the TSF was supposed to come from an anonymous donor, not from student contributions. Before that happened, however, we were tasked with demonstrating our support for the cause and for fellow students in need through participation. Indeed, the fund was a test of our unity as a student body. This is not to say that one who didn't contribute to the fund is somehow against campus unity but simply that widespread support for the fund would have been a profound statement of how much we value one another as well as the generosity of people like our anonymous donor. The TSF was a challenge of our resolve to recognize the economic hardships of our peers, and in many cases, as Atsalis points out, our own such hardships, and to nevertheless rise together in support of one another. Thus, in supporting each other, the TSF was also about personal sacrifice. Yet sacrifice is meaningless if coerced; indeed, one only truly appreciates a sacrifice that they themselves choose to make. Atsalis is absolutely correct in asserting that we have the right to do what we choose with our money, and I understand and respect the decisions of those, including Atsalis, who chose not to donate. Further, as someone who works 60-hour weeks from the day I return home in May to the day I leave for school at the end of August, I also fully understand the non-trivial nature of other students' personal assets. That being said, I personally believe that the Student Fund represented a golden opportunity for our community to demonstrate our wholehearted support for one another and for those whose donations, big or small, enable many of us to attend this university.
Finally, Atsalis raises the larger and more general question of whether we, as students, should be responsible for supporting the tuition of other students on top of paying the same hefty tuition ourselves. However, if we are so naive to think that paying tuition exempts us from our obligations to take care of one another, we can only expect to create around us a community with more problems than solutions. Mortgage payments, taxes and utility bills will soon be a fact of life for us all just as tuition is for us now. We cannot allow the mere fact that we all have other personal expenses to become an excuse for not giving back to our community. That is not to say that the Tufts Student Fund was the only way we can give back to our community; it's not. Giving back need not take a monetary form. Yet I don't believe that Atsalis' assertion that tuition-paying students should not be responsible for supporting each other is a valid excuse for refusing to donate to the Student Fund.
I hope this has served to clarify the questions that Atsalis raised surrounding the Tufts Student Fund. To all those who generously donated to or supported the fund over the past few weeks, I would simply like to say: Thank you.
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Daniel Slate is a sophomore majoring in biology. He is a member of the Tufts Student Fund committee.
