Amid statewide budget cuts and rising education costs, a U. California-Berkeley student group is making the largest donation of its kind to the campus School of Optometry and, because of a campus gift-giving campaign, the $250,000 gift will be doubled.
This action by the UC Optometry Student Association is believed to be the largest donation made by current students to their campus in the history of the UC system, according to Lawrence Thal, the school’s assistant dean for external relations and development.
The money – taken from the association’s discretionary fund – was raised through years of student-led fund raising and will be put into the optometry school’s endowment. The money will begin to go toward student aid for the incoming class of 2011.
Optometry students did everything from holding bake sales to selling specialized optometry Cal apparel. In addition, students made personal donations to the UCOSA fund.
According to Richard Van Sluyters, the school’s associate dean for student affairs, the most lucrative aspect of student fundraising came from sales of a well-known study guide, typically written each year by third-year UC Berkeley optometry students to help other students nationwide prepare for the national optometry board examinations.
The donation will be doubled by the Chancellor’s Challenge for Student Support program, which pledges to match any gifts for student aid made by current or retired faculty and staff as well as by current students.
The association’s donation hits the program’s pledge to match a maximum of $250,000.
The Chancellor’s Challenge is part of a larger effort to raise UC Berkeley’s endowment and make sure the campus is able to offer scholarship and fellowship support for students. Budget cuts in recent years have made this process even more urgent, said Jose Rodriguez, the campaign’s communications director.
“(UCOSA) raised what is believed to be the most money ever,” he said. “On top of that, their giving will be doubled. It is a dramatic example of how students can help.”
While the School of Optometry faces budget cuts similar to those faced by the rest of the UC system, which has reduced faculty size and instituted furlough days, the school remains financially stable largely due to donations such as UCOSA’s, according to Van Sluyters.
“Tuition was low in the pas,t and we didn’t have big endowment donation and development plans,” he said. “The fact of life now is that Berkeley needs private money for support.”
Thal said that when he graduated from the School of Optometry in 1975, students tended not to have debt. The school’s graduate students now pay about $34,000 in total annually and face an average of $100,000 in debt, which student aid aims to somewhat offset.
Optometry students Katrina Chang and Teresa Gee have both received student financial aid of some sort. The amount of money they receive increases each year as their student costs increase and is granted based on academic achievement.
Around 40 faculty from the school have given at least $10,000 of their own money for scholarships, according to Van Sluyters. Students, aware of this, followed their lead.
“That kind of faculty support says a lot about generosity,” said Thal. “But even more about the tremendous need.”