Furious about my old college asking for money

[derxa]

I had a call from someone from my teacher training college asking for money. A very posh young lady called up asking for my experiences after training... asking for advice... blah blah blah. I gave my honest responses fool Eventually she asked for £20 per month for student support. I feel soiled tbh.

[harderandharder2breathe]

My university thankfully never did this and no longer exists in the form it was when I attended anyway. As I've moved half a dozen times since I left (in 2006) I can't imagine they'd go to the effort involved to find me. Which reminds me that I keep meaning to tell SLC where I live but since I pay via PAYE I'm not really bothered as I know I'm paying what I should be. I'd rather not see the interest growing every year

[QuintessentialShadow]

we told them we couldn't afford to give them anything and that we would prefer them to stop calling, and they did. Then they turned down our daughter's application for a place on our old degree course

Would she have gotten the place if you had been donating?

Maybe it is really prepayment to secure a place....

[bluejelly]

God that would annoy me. There are so many more urgent deserving causes than state-funded higher education in my opinion, much as I think it's a force for good in society!
Thankfully I have moved so many times I'm lost on the alumni system.

[QuintessentialShadow]

My uni actually does this. They ask for donations of a couple of thousand a go, and ask that I remember them in my will!

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

No, she wouldn't, but we might have felt that we wanted to donate or bequeath something. At present we don't.

[CatsDogsandDC]

My standard response to absolutely anyone who calls who has not been invited to is "Please take me off your list and do not contact me again". It generally works

If it doesn't, my fallback is to ask them why they think this is appropriate data handling when I have not consented to the use of my data and to remind them that they are liable to a fine following a complaint by me. That normally does the trick.

[Trills]

Furious?

I am surprised that you are surprised.

When you were a student, did you not notice the recruitment for students to do the calling-up during the Easter holidays?

[Melfish]

I get calls from my old uni- I sympathise with the students and like chatting to them but considering my old uni has managed to buy lots more properties in the local area and charges the students a fortune for their tuition, they don't appear to be that hard up. It's also quite intrusive that they call up- it would be less irritating if they wrote.

[derxa]

When you were a student, did you not notice the recruitment for students to do the calling-up during the Easter holidays? No I was a mature student.

[ElinorRigby]

LRD, I think it would freak me out, if they said that during the year such and such, I benefited to the tune of however many pounds.

I did think all student did benefit from knowing that this particular fund was there. (Rather like a miniature version of that welfare state that once upon a time was supposed to provide a safety net.)

It is difficult, because the place I went to is relatively moneyed and privileged. But I think they are sincere in wanting to be able to support those students who are in financial need, so that they can be free to concentrate on their studies.

Which is, I think, one of the better things about the place.

[Eastpoint]

DH went to an Oxbridge college as a scholar and regularly gives money. Having a Physics degree from that college helped him become very successful and he knows that the Oxbridge kudos helped him a lot in his career. None of our DC are likely to go to his old college, not driven or academic enough but he appreciates the benefits he received. He didn't start giving until he was in his 40s. He doesn't give any money to his school although he received a scholarship there too.

[Hefzi]

You can write to your alumni office (or ring, or email) and ask to be put on their "Do Not Call" list - mine lets us know every year when their new campaign is coming on, and you have the option to opt out. No need to screen calls - you can even just answer, and say, "Not today thank you, and please don't call again ever/this year/for five years" and they'll honour that too!

[HarrietSchulenberg]

I used to get them every year until I pointed out that my degree was largely irrelevant to my career, that I'd never actually used my degree and that I was in a shitty, low paid job. They never called again.
Sorry, University of Leeds, but you wasted your time with those phone calls.

[Mummyoflittledragon]

My former university has never contacted me but it would have had to be through my mother's address and phone number. I am flabbergasted universities are calling to elicit funds.

[Pollaidh]

It's been going on for years and is copying the US Ivy League alumni system - they keep their alumni very close and get huge legacies. With the likely loss of European research funding and foreign students which bring in a lot of money to British universities, I suspect they're getting desperate.

I too gave a lecture on maternity leave and impact on career and pay when I was called, but I did give some money to support fieldwork bursaries for disadvantage students on my undergrad course.

[WitchQueenofNewOrleans]

I'm a tightwad, so door-steppers or people who ring up looking for a regular monthly donation will get a polite "no thank you'.

Recently, my university, which has a campaign to raise money for a dedicated cancer immunology centre (it's the UK leader in cancer immunology research), sent an email to its alumni, humbly asking if one would like to each donate £10 towards the campaign - and thousands have - even tightwad me.

Thats the right way to do it, calmly ask its alumni if they would like to donate rather than ringing up and demanding monthly payments.

[Allthebestnamesareused]

Yes unis do it, Dh's old (private) school do it. We decline but there must be some people who do feel benevolent otherwise they wouldn't do it.

They can ask - you can politely say no or not at present or please take me off the list.

[cantthinkofausernamerightnow]

YANBU. It's poor manners (at best) and quite cynical to call and proffer a disingenuous interest in your situation with the intention of having you donate money.

[Honeybee79]

I get fundraising calls from students at my old uni. I don't mind as they're always v nice to talk to and not too pushy. I just explain I'm skint and we have a nice chat!

[Hefzi]

I'm a bit shocked people are shocked by this, tbh: my old college was doing it when I was an undergrad, over 25 years ago (I think they also hit up parents of students in those days too - I seem to remember that my parents had a monthly donation to the library). I benefited from our travel fund in particular - it might even have been called the "Alumni Travel Fund" now I come to think of it...

[elephantcuddles]

I'm American and that's normal in the states, but they ask for donations of $50-thousands of dollars and usually send you something in the mail with various suggestions of how much you should offer. It's called an "alumni association" and they talk it up about how great the "benefits" are to supporting your alma mater's alumni association... right.

[llhj]

This is because Homerton is a Cambridge University college so it's fairly endemic within the college culture there. No one is phoning alumni from North London Poly.

[Leeds2]

Gasp, I received an email from my College this week inviting me to a dinner to be held in the summer in memory of one of my tutors. It says in the email to let them know the contact details of any of my fellow students, so that they could make sure everyone was invited. Your Dh's uni may have got his contact details that way. Fwiw, I would never provide someone else's contact details in this way, and would be pissed off if anyone supplied mine!
College have my email address, and postal address, and I get lots of newsy mailings, almost inevitably ending in a request for money. I am very glad that they don't have my phone number.

[jamie2]

Mine's been doing it for years. I just say no, I can't afford it. My dc has a student loan and if I was going to give any money away I would be helping my dc

[AalyaSecura]

I got hardship funds when I was at uni, so when I was first contacted, I was happy to donate for a few years specifically to the hardship funds to effectively pay them back plus a bit. I would never have set up a direct debit though. I don't pay any more now, there are other things I'd rather put money towards.