Colleges turn to alumni to help out in tough times: NYT

[nocousin]

<p>

Colleges Are Not Going Hungry, but Are in Need
By RON LIEBER
In a more normal year, the alumni fund-raising plea that turns up in the mail right about now seems perfectly in tune as the day for thanks gives way to a month of giving. </p>

<p>But this year is different. Huge numbers of people have lost their homes to foreclosure. Unemployment is on the rise. And a good chunk of the United States automobile industry could wither away within months, taking hundreds of thousands of middle-class jobs with it. </p>

<p>Against the real likelihood of financial doom for so many people, it feels almost unseemly to consider a donation to a college or university. Surely there must be a food bank or job retraining program that is more deserving. </p>

<p>We don’t yet know how, or if, giving patterns will change in this recession. Plenty of people are in no position to give at all. Many others should probably build an emergency fund for themselves before handing out money.</p>

<p>But for everyone else, this year’s giving season is an exercise in a different sort of asset allocation than the one we’re used to for our retirement accounts. It’s about competing demands, the rising need to pay for basic human services in our communities versus the emotional pull from the educational institutions that helped shape us. </p>

<p>At first glance, it seems as if acute need for food and shelter ought to win out. But like a growing number of people, I owe my college degree in part to a generous helping of scholarship assistance.</p>

<p>That raises a tricky question: What precisely do we owe our alma maters at a time like this? This week, I went back to school in search of an answer.

Read more [url=<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/business/yourmoney/29money.html?partner=rss&emc=rss]here[/url”>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/business/yourmoney/29money.html?partner=rss&emc=rss]here[/url</a>].</p>