Senior Gift participation lags behind precedent
As of May 23, approximately 62 percent of the class of 2017 has donated to this year’s Senior Gift Campaign. This is a significant drop from last year’s 88 percent participation rate and a deviation from the steady increase the campaign has experienced since 2005.
Earlier this year, members of the graduating class called for a boycott of Senior Gift in protest of administrative actions. The boycott drew both support and condemnation from fellow students.
Final results are not yet available. The campaign is still ongoing and will end later this month, according to Danielle V. Auriemma, Director of Student and Graduate Alumni Philanthropy at the MIT Alumni Association.
As part of the campaign challenge, a group of New York-area alumni funds annual Mad Money Grants to support special projects for student groups. The gift incrementally scales with the participation rate, for a maximum of $30,000 at 85 percent. The current level of participation would garner a gift of $15,000.