The Independent Cambridge Student Newspaper
18th February 2011 Issue No. 736
ESTD 1947
Stingy students dodge donations MICHAEL DERRINGER
OPINION What £9,000 tuition fees will mean for students and academics alike p6
CULTURE Hard facts from the Varsity porn survey
Guilt-free partying:The days before the collective charitable donation
Majority of students opt out of May Balls’ charity fundraising initiative SAMANTHA SHARMAN news correspondent
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SPORT Basketball Blues in Northampton defeat p16 07 > 9 771758 444002
Many students have refused to pay an optional donation added to May Ball ticket prices, undermining the new fundraising initiative set up by the crosscollege May Ball Committee. As Varsity reported last week, a May Ball Presidents’ Committee has been set up to improve collaboration between different Colleges. This year a number of May Balls will be donating money collectively towards East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH). However, the newly-launched scheme has already encountered problems. Now that tickets are on sale for the majority of balls, it has become apparent that students are often opting out of the charitable addition. Both Trinity and Emmanuel Colleges have reported that, in their ticket sales so far, around 65 per cent of students have chosen to give a donation to charity. Both Colleges used an opt-out rather than an opt-in system, so these ticket-buyers actively chose to remove the donation from their bill. The May Ball charity donation scheme was set up half way through ticket sales for Churchill Spring Ball, which took place last Friday, but of around 250 tickets sold after the College introduced an opt-in system, only
22 buyers actually chose to donate to the charity – a contribution rate of less than 9 per cent. “I think it’s ridiculous that people are opting-out of a charitable donation when they’re already prepared to pay so much money,” said Freddie Tapner of Pembroke College. “This is student stinginess gone too far.” Most of the Colleges suggest a charitable donation of £2, which is less than many alcoholic drink prices at Cindies. Speaking to Varsity, the Treasurer for St John’s May Ball, Andrew Dowsett, said that he was unsurprised at the extent to which students have chosen to opt out. St John’s have been raising money for charity through the sale of May Ball tickets for around 20 years and therefore are “aware of the problem,” having been through this before. St John’s May Ball Committee offer ticket-buyers an optional £5 donation. This year 507 of 824 registered users opted out of giving money to charity. This means that out of a possible £4,120 that could have been raised, the actual total was only £1,910. Mr Dowsett suggests an alternative system: “I would be in favour of making it compulsory – just charging, say, £300 and not allowing people to opt-out.” He added: “I like to think that next year we will push for this compulsory
charity donation.” In such a system, Colleges would be able to decide on a set percentage of their income from ticket sales which would go automatically to charity. However, Nick Chapman, founder and Chair of the May Ball Presidents’ Committee and President of Trinity May Ball, believes that it is important that the charitable donation is optional, and that people have the choice to optout if they so wish. He argues: “While a 100 per cent success rate is of course the Presidents’ desired result, it is important to remember that May Balls are not primarily charity fundraisers; it’s easy to get carried away with the idea that all applicants should feel obliged to donate.” First year undergraduate Richard Stockwell agreed: “Students should not be vilified for opting out of a charitable donation. Whether people are not able to spare the extra money, would rather donate to a different charity or simply do not want to give is a matter of personal choice. Charity ceases to be charity when it is not done voluntarily.” Part of the problem this year is that the charity to which a group of May Balls are donating, EACH, was chosen after many Colleges had started selling tickets.
A representative from Churchill Spring Ball Committee said: “We think that the fact that no charity was chosen yet when we implemented the system meant that very few people would be likely to donate – ‘donate to charity’ isn’t as convincing as ‘donate to East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices’.” One student who chose to opt out explained their choice: “At the time I had no idea what charity it was going to, and though I figured it was bound to be a worthy cause, I’d still rather be able to make an informed choice.” Mr Chapman is optimistic that next year will prove more successful, seeing as the collective charity for 2012, IntoUniversity, has already been chosen. “At this stage it matters little whether the donation rate is 70% or 10%,” he said. “What RAG President Emma Cooper and I have tried to set up this year is a mechanism through which more money, however large or small the amount, can be raised for charity.” Some comfort can be found in a few success stories: Jesus College have raised an estimated £2910 for EACH, and from the 40 per cent of tickets sold so far for Wolfson May Ball, 85 per cent have opted in and already raised approximately £600.