an open letter do Molly Bodnar, associate director of annual giving
September 18, 2005

Molly Bodnar
Develop/Budget & Administration
8000 Wolverine Tower
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-1288

Dear Ms. Bodnar:

As a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, College of Literature, Science and Arts, I received a phone call from a Telfund student soliciting contributions from alumni.

I find it morally repugnant that donations would be sought so soon after graduation. Many recent graduates are still seeking to find employment with their less than marketable liberal arts degrees. Many, like myself, are graduate students, amassing even more debt. The fact that these solicitations are made one month before most student loans enter repayment adds insult to injury. Asking for donations from newly graduated students is tacky, and makes the university appear needy and thoughtless.

To have some poor student calling other poor students begging for money while university President Mary Sue Coleman lives in a mansion and earns $484,500 a year is unethical. To beg for money while the departments are paying inflated wages to lecturers and graduate students is unethical. To beg for money from those that still owe the university thousands of dollars is unethical. To beg for money while thousands of Americans in the South are without shelter, food, and clothing is unethical.

If funding scholarships and improving technology is of the utmost importance that the Telefund representative made it out to be, then the fat should be trimmed from within to fund these programs, and this should start at the top. How much of your $59,450 salary do you contribute to the university each year? I'm positive it's a much lower share of your income than the $40 would be from my (non-existent) income.

I hereby request that my name and information be removed from further solicitations, as I pledge to you now to never donate a cent to the College of Literature, Science and Arts.

Sincerely,



Paul