Last Weeks Post

I really enjoyed Alice's discussion on Monday. The conversations that really stuck out to me were: the comparison between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, and also the discussion about philanthropy and the importance for everyone to lend a hand to those less off than them. The idea of philanthropy is one that i am strongly familiar with, as i am the manager of SLU's soliciting firm, Calling All Saints (CAS). Through this job i have been able to have the opportunity to be educated on how important it is for alumni to give back to our school. Believe it or not, it costs a ridiculous amount of money to run this school, way more than the school gets from tuition. The money donated by our alum goes directly into a fund commonly known as the St. Lawrence Fund -- depending on who it is you are trying to persuade at the time, it may also be known as the Parents Fund or the Reunion Fund. From there this money is allocated to all the things that take precedent in the school's scope. That includes: professors and coaches salaries, heating, tuition, study abroad, and building maintenance. The difference is unbelieveable. Instead of paying $65,000 per year, we pay 47,000. So even if you do happen to pay full tuition, you aren't paying the true tuition, thanks to our Alumni we get a discount before we even get our scholarships and grants. Last year we made well over 500,000, our goal this year is to gross around 650,000, and i am happy to say that we are on schedule. It is this type of "lifting up" that improves our community, and eventually our world. This is sort of the same thing that W.E.B DuBois was talking about in his theory of the "Talented Tenth". He was saying that the blacks need to elevate their most talented people and when ready, it was the responsibility of these talented people to go back into the community and spread their wealth of knowledge. Whereas, Booker T. Washington, from what Prof. Bailey said, wanted to start from the poorest people and from there the knowledge would work its way up. I asked myself, these are both viable solutions, and why not do both? Instead of disagreeing about the proper method they should have employed both simultaneously, and maybe they did i dont know. If you want to know more about Booker T. Washington check out this link: . I think that at this point in our lives it is difficult for us to give back, but at least we may offer our kindness and extend the hand of friendship to others around us, we will succeed if we work together. It never fails, comraderie.

nick