I'm Drawing a Line in the Sand

By far the most stupid of all Boalt Hall traditions is the 3L class campaign. Every spring, the BHSA recruits your fellow classmates to engage in public shaming of individuals who choose not to donate to Boalt Hall prior to graduating (and no, the last minute $580 fee increase for next semester doesn't count). While this constant harassing is annoying in regular years, it's outright insulting that they are going through with it this year. The jacked up tuition is leaving our class in record debt, our post-graduation employment rate is at a record low, and we've been forced to sit through two years of tractor noise and trekking down to the Hearst annex for class. The responsible, sensitive, and human thing to do would be to cancel the campaign this year (/drama).

However, they are likely to go on with it, so I'm posting a brief list of reasons why I will not be participating. I recognize full-well what happens when you buck a Boalt tradition (one particular similar occurrence resulted in Patrick spurring Armen to shoot off an irrational flurry of emails that resulted in a promise by an alum to ruin our legal careers), but tradition can be a poison if it's bad tradition, as this campaign is.

1. The 100% 3L donation target is used to solicit donations from alums. I imagine the email goes "our 3L class cares about Boalt so much that 100% of them donated to it, so you should too!" I would surprised if there were many alums that donate when the number reads "100" that wouldn't donate if the number read "80". Now, I anticipate that we'll get a few responses that seem to speak for the majority of alums, but I think most people will realize that between the increase in tuition ($5.5k/year) and the much lower job offer rates, current Boalties are the last people that BHSA and the administration should be hitting up for handouts. An esteemed alum tells me that of the (conservative) 2-3 dozen solicitation letters alums receive, only a few use the "100% 3L donation rate" line, mostly the ones by Dean Edley.


2. The actual amount raised is minimal. Face it, we just can't afford anything substantial. Even with the quadruple matching by the "new alumni challenge", this amount of money will likely just cover the costs of the free food & beer handed out at the campaign kickoff party. On top of this, the individuals bugging you to donate emphasize that you can "even donate just $1". So again, the point of all this is for the "100% donation rate among 3Ls" alum solicitation letter.


3. In the past, some individuals have said that donating as a 3L "helps establish a habit of donating in the future". This is utter bull. Aside from the 17 times (or whatever scientists claim nowadays) it takes to establish a habit, I personally don't plan on donating to Boalt until my likely donations exceed the extra $16k in tuition I've had to pay. Even then, I would have to prioritize my donations between my undergrad (Idaho, playing in the Humanitarian bowl!), my grad school (Davis), Boalt, and all the other charitable causes I'd like to contribute (for personal reasons I'm a big believer in the work of St. Jude's). I will literally be weighing sick children against my alma maters.


4. Failing to donate doesn't mean you don't care about Boalt. I care very much for my classmates, I'm very thankful for the alums that have donated, and I hope the very best for future Boalt grads. I'm loyal to all these people, but that's where my loyalty ends. My Boalt experience has been very frustrating, with the lack of a courtyard after the first year, having to tolerate the "chairs" of the Hearst Annex, having protestors disrupt class twice a week, the sheer amount of noise from construction, the lack of student offices for a semester, the lack of janitors and cleaning crew to actually empty the garbages once in a while... Tuition increases have been discussed ad nauseum here and elsewhere, so I won't get into that, other than to say it is also frustrating that the ceilings on borrowing federal dollars haven't been bumped to match, unless you want to take Grad "grab your ankles" PLUS loans.


5. The more someone bugs me about something, the less likely I am to do it. Am I the only one? Maybe it's the Irish blood in me, but it seems that the tactic of bugging someone to do something they don't want to do will only have a perverse effect on whether or not they do it. In the past, people have commented saying "im really glad they reminded me a couple times, since i would have forgot lol!". There is a fine line here, and it's crossed the attempt after someone says "No."

Having said all this, I'm also very pragmatic. If someone were to, say, buy a pitcher of beer to share with me, then I would let them donate $1 in my name. But for the sake of decency, if others don't want to contribute (more likely this year than ever), don't burn bridges or destroy friendships.

3L campaign email announcement included after the jump.