Wayman Newton: How to encourage minority giving

Dear President Rodin,

I want to commend you on your leadership in initiating and facilitating the numerous projects going on around campus. After reading about the University's financial problems, I am amazed at what your administration has been able to accomplish.

While I must admit that I am a bit envious of the students that will enjoy the fruits of your hard work, I look forward to returning one day to see how much the campus has changed for the better.

Still, I would be remiss if I did not suggest that more needs to be done. Penn must review how it selects projects and pay more attention to those that specifically enhance the quality of life for minority students.

For the most part, Penn embarks on proposals only after there has been a significant alumni donation. These are the donors who, like Jon Huntsman, get buildings named in their honor.

The University often cites the lack of such a "naming donor" when questioned about the paucity of projects geared toward enhancing the minority experience at Penn. When minority students and groups complain about insufficient meeting space or inadequate funding for minority organizations and centers, Penn officials sing the same refrain: we're committed to the cause, but we don't have the money.

The position is understandable. Without large donations, like the $2 million gift to create a new home for the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center, such projects are difficult to undertake.

Still, failing to provide necessary facilities and funding for minority groups causes more harm than good. It not only prevents improvement in minority students' quality of life, but it continues the self-perpetuating cycle of animosity and tension among minority students, alumni and the University.

People tend to give money to those projects with which they feel a personal connection. The aforementioned donation to the LGBT Center was made by David Goodhand and Vincent Griski, two openly gay Penn alumni. Penn's decision to fund projects only after they have received significant donor support hinders the formation of this bond among the minority community.

The happy memories that you take with you after commencement will likely be those involving the groups and organizations that you most care about. If a student goes to Penn for four years and does not see the University provide the necessary resources to the things that enhances his or her Penn experience, that person is less likely to leave the University holding it in high regard, and consequently less inclined to make a large cash donation.

What's more, when alumni return to see the things they cared about and have loving memories of still neglected and still underfunded, any residual resentment is not likely to be overcome. And when they see the University pouring tens of millions of dollars into other projects, they will be even less likely to cut that big check.

President Rodin, if you and your administration are truly concerned with transforming Penn into a community of scholars that everyone feels a part of, you need to more seriously consider projects that will improve the lives of minority students and the Penn community as a whole.

Minority alumni will not donate money to a school that does not give them a reason to do so. And as long as the University waits for minorities to fund a major renovation of DuBois College House or a new home for the African-American Resource Center, those donations will never come. The cycles will continue.

Given the great success of many of our minority alumni have found since leaving Penn -- as members of Congress and as corporate executives -- it is in the best interest of the University to do what it takes to get them to open their wallets in fond memory of alma mater. Start by renovating DuBois, making it clear to our minority students and alumni that the University cares about them. It could be one of your wisest investments yet. Wayman Newton is a senior Political Science major from Birmingham, AL.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.