Dean Joe Paul Case, Director of Financial Aid, outlined exactly how the $50,000 gift to the College’s Office of Financial Aid will be put to use. “Our intent is to use the funds to help underwrite the otherwise unfunded ‘Dean’s discretionary grants’ that address special and unforeseen needs of students whose family contribution is quite modest,” he explained. “The grants are used, for example, to pay for medical, dental and optical expenses that are not covered by health insurance; seniors’ expenses in applying for graduate school or looking for post-graduation employment; or emergency travel needs because of a death or serious illness in a student’s family.”
Turning the idea of a donation into a reality was a long process. AAS Treasurer Peter Tang ’10 recounted what had to be done. “It took a series of meetings, first by [AAS] President Nick Pastan and myself, with President Anthony Marx, the [College Treasurer] Peter Shea and the Dean of Students Ben Lieber to find the needs that the gift could be directed towards,” he said. “Then after several Student Senate sessions, a committee was formed to expand the discussion of the gift in terms of publicizing it, incorporating its timing, ensuring it actually reflected the values of the student body and keeping the administration apprised of our progress. The final meetings were with President Marx and Dean of the Faculty Gregory Call, to make sure that after the sixth week or so of progress on the gift we were acting in a timely fashion and that the gift was still relevant.”
Pastan was grateful to the administration for its support. “The administration was incredibly helpful,” he remarked. “President Marx, Dean Lieber and Dean Call frequently moved around their schedules in order to answer all of our needs and concerns. They were adamant that although the school would obviously appreciate a gift of any kind that the student body [should] approach this the correct way, having the difficult conversation about priorities and values and only allocating the money based on abnormally high approval in voting.”
It is safe to say that a majority of AAS members are pleased with the results of this historic referendum. “Most senators agree with the outcome of the vote and pretty much all of them are proud of the outcome,” said Tang. Pastan stated that the results of the vote “showed how engaged our student body is and how much we all care about both the values and the future of the College. I see this result as a really powerful statement about how seriously the student body takes this crisis and what we want to be preserved as Amherst’s core values.”
Senior members of the administration echoed Tang and Pastan’s views. Lieber called the gift “an admirable effort on the part of the students” and viewed it as “a sign of how much the students care for the College.” He added that the administration is pleased by the altruism that the student body has demonstrated. “It’s no accident that our students are the only ones, I think, among comparable institutions who have done something like this,” mentioned Lieber.
Marx was equally pleased by the results of the vote. “I thought it was an impressive move by the student body, signaling [their] values, commitment and eagerness to make sure that the College will continue to provide financial aid and ensure access,” he said. “But it also served to signal to the staff of this College that rather than an assumption of entitlement, the students appreciate their work and believe that their contribution to Amherst should be recognized and rewarded.”
Marx explained how he felt the Board of Trustees and other College officials interpreted the gift. “I think that both [parts of the gift] were perceived by the Board to be powerful, symbolic statements that the student body is not simply looking out for itself but thinking about future students and the interests of the most vulnerable of our colleagues here, the lower-paid staff,” he stated.
“I think that speaks volumes to the values of the student body and to the College, and I’m quite proud of that. As the conversations go forward as to whether we need to make further cuts and where those cuts should be, this vote by the student body is a strong statement that as much as possible, cuts should not reduce access to the College for future students or penalize those who we depend upon and appreciate for doing so much of the work on this campus. I think that will make a difference in the discussions and I hope that this statement of values under difficult circumstances will stay with the students for a lifetime.”