donation – The Hilltop Monitor

$1 Million Donated for Diversity

Hania Osman — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 13:00:40 +0000

It was announced at Convocation that Dianne C. Shumaker has donated $1 million to William Jewell College to be used for diversity and inclusion scholarships. This is not the first time Shumaker has donated a large amount of money to Jewell. She was one of the lead contributors to the Shumaker sorority complex, which was named after her. She also contributed to the Center for Justice and Sustainability.

Shumaker graduated from Jewell in 1966 with a B.S. in elementary education. During her time here, she participated in College Union Activities Committee, Religious Focus Week Committee, Tatler Revue, Women’s Recreation Association, Young Women’s Auxiliary and Zeta Tau Alpha. She was a member of the Jewell board of trustees from 2008 until May 2017. She is currently a trustee of the Shumaker Family Foundation.

“She has been very generous to the College and has done many other wonderful things. Most of the projects we’ve had in the last few years that donors have invested in, she has made major contributions to. She has been one of our largest and most active donors. She believes very strongly in students and the student experience,” said Clark Morris, Vice President for Advancement.

Diversity, according to the Office of Financial Aid, is a very generic term that includes racial and ethnic difference as well as various socioeconomic backgrounds. Shumaker’s donation will go toward needs-based scholarships in an effort to ensure that everyone, especially students from underrepresented groups, has the chance to attend Jewell. The Cardinal Grant is currently the primary and the largest needs-based grant the College offers. It was recently renamed the Jewell Access Grant.

“We want to be a campus who is open and available to people from all backgrounds. [The Jewell Access Grant] raises the attention of our donors that we have students who have need and we want [our donors] to help us to do that. It also alerts the world that this is a welcoming place. We want to publicize it so people can step up and believe that they might actually afford [going to school here],” said Morris.

Daniel Holt, Director of Financial Aid, gave further information on how the donation will be used.

“The $1 million gift is a significant gift for the College that will benefit a great number of students, but the overall impact of just how many students it will impact is yet to be determined. This gift will allow us to better fuel efforts to help enrollment thrive by allowing access to those that may not otherwise be able to afford a college education,” said Holt.

Granting this scholarship will be based on demonstrated financial need.

“I think that in underrepresented populations, there is a barrier that where they think that they won’t be able to afford private higher education, especially at a place like Jewell that is perceived as high quality and for some it seems like it’s a big sticker price. I believe that speaking to diverse populations and saying that we have access scholarships and we have donors that have developed these to make sure that regardless of your needs you can afford Jewell and that you can have that experience. I think this will increase diversity,” said Morris.

Jewell has recently been making efforts to increase diversity on campus. A new Diversity and Inclusion faculty group is working to change the conversation around inclusion on campus. The group designed a new core curriculum course that is now required for all first-years called Identity and Society.

“It is about being able to dialogue and to know how to dialogue even with people who even may see the world differently than you and be able to interact with them. It will introduce [students] to some sort of diversity. Diversity has a lot of dimensions. It can be racial and ethnic but it can also include sexual orientation, socio-economic status, rural and urban perspectives. It is brought by the depth of the student experience,” said Dr. Lori Wetmore, professor of chemistry and a member of Diversity and Inclusion faculty.

The current course will be assessed and altered depending on outcomes.

Wetmore stressed the importance of changing up the homogenous environment.

“We are also trying to increase the diversity within faculty and the diversity of the student body and these two things work hand in hand. If a student doesn’t see someone that looks like them, it makes it more difficult for them to stay here, even if we get them here. If we increase the diversity of the population, we have to make sure that they find a home here and feel that they’re able to express that diversity on campus. If [students at Jewell] have a class and a university experience that exposes [them] to diversity, that could be a reset on what they’re going to call normal. It challenges them and makes them think about the way they look at the world. It brings some breadth and some depth. Changing policy is the only way to end systemic racism. If the students don’t have depth and breadth, how are they going to be good policy makers,” said Wetmore.

Photo by Sofia Arthurs-Schoppe.

Trump’s salary donation is a publicity stunt

Luke Lockhart — Fri, 07 Apr 2017 15:00:37 +0000

There’s a zinger in the Biblical book of Matthew that goes, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” While I doubt Jesus was addressing a slow-starting American president a couple of millennia later, the rhetorical hyperbole is unfolding right before our eyes in Washington.

Remember how Trump fought with the National Park Service about his inauguration crowd size? Or, how Trump, an avid Twitter user, took away social media privileges from the National Park Service and other science-minded government agencies? Who can forget the president’s terrible budget proposalreleased last month that’ll “Make America Great Again” by slashing what makes our country great in the first place? Among those is, to nobody’s surprise, the National Park Service; the Interior Department would face a 12 percent drop in funding, and deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Agriculture and Army Corps of Engineers means that Park Rangers would have to do more with less in order to maintain federally-protected public land.

Trump seems to be giving Park Rangers a stone in comparison as he finally follows through with his campaign promise of donating his $400,000 presidential salary. At a press conference April 3, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer handed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke an oversized check for $78,333. A press release by Zinke indicated that the money will go to preserving national battlefields, a valuable asset often ignored in favor of preserving national parks. Zinke also stated that, “We’re about $229 million behind in deferred maintenance on our battlefields alone.” So much for loving our country’s selfless warriors as we put “America First.”

This drop in the bucket of funding is an obvious publicity stunt without the risks of a stunt. It attempts to distract from the fact that, on paper, Trump doesn’t seem to care about the things he claims to value in this country. The military? Though his budget boosts defense spending overall, it comes with no input from the Armed Forces and leaves the Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers with deep cuts as he tries to partially replace these cuts with a border wall. Veterans? Trump proposed boosting the Department of Veterans affairs by a mere 6 percent while the healthy Homeland Security and Defense Departments get 7 percent and 10 percent increases, respectively, not to mention Trump’s insulting past commentsabout veterans’ mental health. Urban core neighborhoods? Ben Carson is in charge of Housing and Urban Development.

So with this minuscule check, Trump continues a pattern of claiming dedication to the United States without actually demonstrating it. If his proposed funding and past statements didn’t make it obvious, his golfing trips to Mar-a-Largo nearly every weekend paints a picture as clear as his tacky 6 foot tall portraits of himself, paid for with donated money, of course. Perhaps Congress can see if the Holman rule, which allows them to reduce a federal employee’s salary to one dollar, works on the president. Perhaps then the National Park Service or the National Endowment for the Arts can have $400,000 thrown their way, or worse yet, none at all.

Friends of Jewell

Sofia Arthurs-Schoppe — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 18:17:12 +0000

Endowments are money, or other financial assets, that are donated to colleges or universities. These donations are then invested so that the total asset value will yield an inflation-adjusted principal amount, as well as additional income which may be used for further investments and supplementary expenditures.

William Jewell College currently has an endowment valued at $72,837,210, as reported to the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation at the beginning of the July 1, 2016 fiscal year. Clark Morris, the vice president for institutional advancement here at Jewell, stated that donations to this have been experiencing “nice growth”, a growth rate of between three to five percent each year.

Yet, Morris observes that “nationally, alumni giving percentages are decreasing” and that this is no different at Jewell. It is hoped that the current rebranding mission will encourage donations to Jewell and prevent this trend from affecting Jewell.

Money comprising the endowment comes solely from donations and investment revenue. Donations are received in the form of direct monetary contributions or physical assets, such as property and estates. Money received is invested into several different assets, from which Jewell attains the revenue required to continue operations. The current spending policy of Jewell is a capped five percent of the endowment value of that fiscal year.

Currently Jewell’s endowment is invested into securities, land and estates, and oil and gas rights from the Mallet Ranch in Texas. A portion of the endowment is also managed by an investment company, run by Commerce Bank. These investments are decided by the trustees of the college. However, donors are given the opportunity to specify how their contributions are allocated.

Many donors contribute specifically to the “Jewell Fund” which is specifically used to fund student scholarships and learning opportunities on and off campus. Aside from direct donations, revenue from the endowment is invested into endowed scholarships, departmental scholarships, chairs and professorships, the Harriman Jewell Series and athletic programs.

Larger on-campus projects, such as the construction of the Pryor Learning Commons (PLC) in 2013, are funded through donations attained through capital campaigns. The most recent capital campaign run out of Jewell was between 2008-2012, with gifts being accepted through 2014.

Susan Tideman, the Associate Vice President for Advancement at Jewell, stated that Jewell seeks donations by reaching out to alumni and potential donors, and “telling our [Jewell’s] story.” Donations are typically requested in the form of scholarships, initially valued at $25 thousand dollars. In the most recent fiscal year, 11 percent of Jewell alumni donated to the college.

Jewell recognizes donor contributions in a variety of ways, namely the John Priest Greene Giving Society which donors can join by committing to contribute over $1000 annually to Jewell. Members of this society are honored by having a named brick placed on the Quad, as well as being invited to a number of campus traditions and events, including the Hanging of the Green and Achievement Week.

Additionally, members of this society receive a quarterly newsletter, and an honors roll of Jewell donors is published online each year. A digital accountability report is also published annually detailing the donations received and publicly acknowledging the role that donors play in keeping Jewell’s doors open.