Recently I received the annual (biannual? quarterly?) e-mail from the dreaded “SBL Development” arm. That is, this was the regular request from the Society of Biblical Literature that I support the society that makes my profession great.
This always fills me with wonder. I imagine the several thousand low-wage-earning academics to whom the letter has come, sometimes of my annual dues and conference fees, and reverently escort it to the recycling bin.
At times, while at SBL, I think I’ve seen a purple “Donor” ribbon adorning some people’s name tags. The impression this has left in my mind is a
higher sense of awe that someone has invested in the society not only for the propagation of their own career but of the society itself.
And it’s that latter realization that makes me think that this could be a generational (or age) problem. Is mine simply not a generation of givers? A full generation removed from that “great” baby boomer generation, two generations removed from those who gave up everything to fight in World War 2, is our generation mired in a slough of entitlement?
At my first full time academic job, the development officer paid me a visit. He explained that one of his goals was 100% buy in from the faculty. He didn’t ask for much, but did ask that I participate annually with some sort of contribution to the school’s annual fund.
Though his request struck me as odd at first (my stance seems to be, by default, you’re my employer, go find money so you can pay me) I gave it a shot. I didn’t have much. I didn’t give much. But it was amazing how much the sense of entitlement dissipated when I was part of the support base. My frame of reference shifted ever so slightly from an employee of an institution to a member of it, working with it for its good. There was a shift from an “I” “you” relation to a “we” relation.
Giving, it seems, has the power to start unraveling my sense of entitlement.
Maybe I need to go fish that SBL Development letter out of the recycling bin.
In business, we call it ‘skin in the game’. Most people are less likely to walk away from something they are financially invested in, even if it’s a better opportunity.
I have discovered that many in our generation are in fact givers, but maybe not in the traditional sense. Many of the people I know won’t give money to a local church, but they will financially contribute when they see a need of another person; especially if it’s someone they know.
They give in ways that they believe will make a marked difference in another person’s life.
Or maybe that’s just how I am.
As much as I appreciate the sentiment behind this post, I question giving money to SBL, simply because SBL is foolish enough to ask those with student memberships to give. Asking for money from those with loan debt to pay off seems even more insulting than asking a poor professor, so we are already accustomed to rolling our eyes at them. ;o)
What? You think that when you become a professor your student loan debt goes away? If that’s supposed to happen would you mind dropping a line to a couple folks for me?
I do think that there is a particular need on the part of Development to careful consider how they ask for money. I remember a few years ago when they sent us a PayDay candy bar (yum, yum!) with the note “Would you let us take a bite out of your PayDay?”
I found that incredibly tasteless and offensive, and didn’t give that year. A year later, when the note was along the lines of “we know you’re all struggling, but we’d like to ask you to consider donating” (or something along those lines), I was pretty happy to contribute a small (in keeping with my current paycheck-to-paycheck income) amount.