A few days ago I received a call from the university alumni association asking for a donation. Of course, they don't immediately ask for money, there's a few other questions first.
I don't want to sound too cynical - I understand that the university needs money, and asking for it up front is both unprofitable and impolite. But it is a bit, um, artificial to pretend the call is to make sure you still have my contact information correct. They did, after all, call me.
But they also talk about the new buildings on campus. Again, I understand: it's a nice segue to asking for money. But they always seem to bring it up by asking if I've been to campus lately. So I have to ask, what am I supposed to be doing on campus, all these years after I've graduated? Both the alumni association and newsletter make it sound like I should hanging out there on a regular basis, but I can't really think what would bring me to campus to see all the new buildings my donation helped pay for.
Sure, I have been back to campus since graduation: a few times I've used the library, and I've researched grad school possibilities. But being in a fast-changing field, and knowing about the Internet, there's less reason to actually go to their library. If we had, you know, school spirit, I might go to football games.
Eventually, when they ask if I've been to campus lately, I'll just say, I don't remember, have you had reports of some creepy old guy hanging out nearby?
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