LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The Culture of Giving

In reading the May 2000 issue of Columbia College Today, I came across the Class Notes for the Class of 1950 that included their plans for their 50th Reunion. It seems that their 50th reunion committee has set a goal of $100,000 for the class gift to the College for that year. According to the committee this will make the Class of 1950 noteworthy in the College's history! I suppose that by Columbia College standards $100,000 is indeed noteworthy. However, I have just returned from accompanying my wife, Virginia, to her 50th Reunion at Mount Holyoke College. Her class's gift to the College to mark their 50th anniversary totaled $1,222,500 from a class of 214 living alumnae, and also reflected 100 percent participation This was a record for a Mount Holyoke 50th Reunion Class giving - indeed noteworthy.

All this brought back some very frustrating memories. When I was President of the Columbia College Alumni Association (1986-88), I tried to change the culture of Columbia College Alumni giving. Being aware for many years of how well Mount Holyoke College alumnae performed in this area, I prepared a presentation to various groups that demonstrated how Mount Holyoke College did this and that, and indeed it was a different culture. It is not just a one-year thing. Freshmen are asked to donate, even if is only 50 cents or a dollar! This gets everybody in the "habit" of giving from the very beginning. The graduating class always gives a College gift. The five-year anniversary classes always give the college a substantial gift, as shown by the Class of 1950's gift this year. But it is a five-year plan and not a one-year gift. Alumnae giving to the annual Alumnae Association Fund is continued along with the five-year reunion gift.

The response to my presentation was at best polite, and the Administration and the Alumni Office of that period did not even bother to respond. The Board of Visitors was the only group that showed any enthusiasm for the idea; this was led by Frank Lorenzo '61, and that was because his wife, Sharon, is a Mount Holyoke alumna. By the way, Mount Holyoke is not a college just for rich women, it also has a need-blind admission policy.

Oh well, I keep hearing that things are changing at our College and all for the better. So perhaps some time in the future we will tackle the culture of alumni giving.

By the way, I think Columbia College Today is better than ever. Keep up the very good work.

Joseph Brouillard '51
WAREN, VT.

Editor's note: We offered the executive director of the Office of Alumni Affairs and Development an opportunity to respond:

Your observations about fund raising certainly strike a responsive chord. Perhaps you can take some solace in the following: Since annual (and habitual) giving has been given attention in the last four years, dollars have risen significantly, even during a capital campaign.

As you say, the notion of giving back is something that must be instilled among our undergraduates. This is something we are working on. Also, the College is embarking on a program to improve participation, beginning with the survey of attitudes of alumni referred to in the Sept. 2000 issue. As this unfolds you will hear much more about it.

In the meantime, your concern about the future financial health of the College is deeply appreciated. The progress we have made only underscores how much more we have to accomplish.

Derek A. Wittner '65

Chess at Columbia

After the passage of a half-century, it pleased this old Columbia College alumnus to read the letter (September 2000) from Ivan Leigh arguing that our chess teams of the early 1950s were "among the greatest, if not the greatest" of Columbia's teams of the 20th century. However, I wanted to correct, extend and update a few of Leigh's comments.

During 1949-53, Columbia's team (James Sherwin '53, Francis Mechner '52, Karl Burger '54 and myself) won the National Intercollegiate Championship both times this biennial event was held, in 1950 and 1952. Each time the tournaments were contested in the old John Jay Hall cafeteria, and so we possessed the home-field advantage (I don't know whether that was really an advantage, because the playing rooms were the most dimly lit I've ever encountered). In 1950 we barely edged out CCNY (which fielded a team headed by future U.S. champion and International Grandmaster Larry Evans, who beat me in one of the most exciting games I have ever lost). In 1952 our team was stronger and deeper and we clinched the national title one round before the finish. As captain, I gave all our top players a rest in the final round, but the "subs" we sent in won 4-0, anyway.

From 1949-53 Columbia won every individual match it played against other universities, except for a match with NYU that was tied 2-2 with one game unfinished. It was adjourned in a very complicated position and both teams lacked the courage to complete the game. So I suppose that match should be scored a tie and the only blemish on our four-year record. I don't know whether another happening should be considered a blemish, too. King's Crown Activities had to close the chess club for a few days on more than one occasion because other student activities offices on the fourth floor of John Jay complained about how noisy the chess club was. And we were located right near the Debating Team's and Spectator's quarters!

In later years none of us became a Grandmaster, as Leigh incorrectly stated, but Sherwin and Burger both gained the title of International Master, one notch below Grandmaster. All of us completed graduate school at Columbia and later devoted more time to our professional lives in psychology, law and medicine than to chess.

In March 1999, Jimmy Sherwin and I gave an outdoor tandem simultaneous exhibition on Low Plaza to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our first one. In a tandem exhibition the players alternate moves and have to figure out their partner's plans as well as the plans of their opponents. We felt beforehand that old-timers like us could endure about five hours of play, but we managed to continue from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. without a break, encountering 63 opponents, as many as 10 at a time, and scoring about as well as we did 50 years before. Right after the event I went home and didn't even want to think about chess, but Jimmy rushed down to the Manhattan Chess Club to play in a speed-chess tourney that started around 8 p.m. He never could get his fill of chess, and is now returning successfully to active play while semi-retired near Bath, England.

I regret to inform Karl Burger's many friends that he passed away early this year after a long illness. His wit and enthusiasm equaled his chess skill.

Columbia's chess teams won other national championships after we graduated and should also receive credit. In our time the fencing team and the chess team were considered Columbia's best. We had hoped to get the fencers to play us a chess match to decide who was better, but we worried that they might ask us to face their epees and sabres rather than their rooks and knights!

Eliot Hearst '53
TUCSON, ARIZ.