Soon-to-be graduates encouraged to participate in 2009 Senior Class Giving campaign

Soon-to-be graduates encouraged to participate in 2009 Senior Class Giving campaign April 30, 2009Veronica Hotalingvhotalin@syr.edu

As this year’s seniors prepare for Commencement, the Class Council of 2009 is reminding students that there is still time to give to the 2009 Senior Class Giving campaign.

Launched on Feb. 23, the campaign revives a class giving tradition that has been absent on the SU campus for nearly 14 years. While the primary focus of the fundraising effort is to establish a scholarship for an entering first-year student who demonstrates both an outstanding academic record and financial need, gifts can also be directed to support a wide variety of opportunities on campus, including facility and technology upgrades, research initiatives, scholarships, student life or an individual school or college of the donating student’s choice.

“I’d like to feel that my classmates and I left Syracuse University a better place,” says Samina Noorani, Class Council of 2009 president. “By supporting this campaign, seniors can come together to create something tangible-a legacy that will provide a future SU student with the same opportunities we were able to take advantage of here.”

Seniors are being asked to give $20.09 in commemoration of their class year, and those who do will receive a specially designed T-shirt, while supplies last. But, according to the Class Council, the amount of the gift is not as important as the act of giving. “Ideally, we’d like to see every senior participate in the giving effort,” Darya Rotblat, Class Council 2009 advisor, explains. “We’re hoping that helping future students is something seniors can really rally behind.”

Feedback from class members has been positive. “I think it is incredibly important to give back to the school that gave us so much,” says senior Brian Spendley, a 2009 Class Marshal. “And what better way to do so than to give toward a scholarship that can help others experience what we have experienced.”

Senior Ashley Pettigrew echoes that thought: “My SU experience has been one of the most rewarding in my life. It only seems fair that someone should have the same opportunity I had at an amazing institution.”

Seniors are not the only ones supporting the campaign. Parents, faculty, staff members and other students have also given. “I have watched the Class Council of 2009 establish themselves as leaders at the University, within the community and across the nation,” says Michelle Brisson, senior administrator in the Division of Student Affairs. “I am pleased to donate to this worthy cause.”

To make it as convenient as possible for seniors to give, Class Council representatives will be on hand in a number of campus locations during Commencement week:

• cap and gown distribution at the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Student Center, May 4-9
• Senior Celebration at the Oncenter, May 7
• Orange Grove Ribbon-Tying, following Commencement rehearsal, May 7
• orange juice stand in the Orange Grove, following Commencement exercises, May 10

Class members can also give online at http://classof2009giving.syr.edu to the Class of 2009 Undergraduate Scholarship Fund or to a fund of their choice anytime before May 15 and still have their gift included in the 2009 Senior Class Giving campaign total. The website features videos of campaign supporters, a photo gallery of the campaign launch party and feedback from those who have already given.

The Class of 2009’s hope that the tradition of senior class giving will live on has already borne fruit. Inspired by their predecessors, leaders of the Class Council of 2010 have already begun planning their senior giving campaign. Like the gifts of this year’s seniors, money raised by the Class of 2010 will be counted in The Campaign for Syracuse University.

To learn more about the Syracuse University Class Council, visit http://oocp.syr.edu.

To learn more about The Campaign for Syracuse University, visit http://campaign.syr.edu.