Alumni Bulletin | Vol. 4, No. 2 | July 1926
ALUMNI NEWS MAGAZINE | 100th Anniversary Edition
Considerable progress has been made with this campaign, and while the results are such as to give a measure of encouragement, the committee feels that the majority of our alumni fail to realize the necessity of extending their support to this movement at the earliest possible moment through a systematic form of contributions. None should wait to see what the other fellow is going to do. In nine cases out of ten such a one is waiting until called on personally to learn what others have done, and if he finds that you have done nothing so far, he will be inclined to postpone making his contribution, or if he doesn't want to send the canvasser away absolutely downcast he will make a contribution smaller than it would otherwise have been. There should be no waiting.
There is therefore a responsibility attached to each, beyond that of contributing financial support to this campaign.
The psychological effect of voluntary support is such as to incite a more general response. This is especially true in respect to the effect of solicitations from friends who never were privileged to attend U.N.B. It is certain that the support from those not included among our alumni and alumnae will be materially lessened by the failure of ourselves to help ourselves. While it has been given considerable prominence that the· fund is to be raised within a period of twenty years, it is hoped that the objective may be reached well within that time. A twenty-year basis was a convenient one to make calculations, on which to formulate a plan for systematic contributing. The present is a crisis in our history, and funds are needed NOW, and the returns from this fund should certainly be available within ten years.
Statements have been made to canvassers that there was plenty of time in which to contribute, as the fund was not to be used for twenty years. That is wide of the mark. The returns will be used as soon as the half-million is there to provide the income, and none know better than our alumni the necessity for these extra dollars NOW.
Each and every alumnus should start now with his contribution. If you can't give much now, start on a systematic plan of giving, if it is only small.
Perhaps in a few years' time you will be able to increase it. It is only in this way that the fund will grow and develop, and your giving will be contagious.
With the same spirit toward this undertaking in every heart as has been shown by the Victoria and Boston U. N. B. Clubs the success of the campaign is assured. In Fredericton eleven teams of two each made a canvass of the alumni and in a week had over $1200 in cash and about $8000 in pledges. A citizens' committee of thirty undertook to canvass the commercial and professional classes. This canvass is not yet complete, but the reports are encouraging. During this canvass the committee was entertained at luncheon by the Fredericton members of the Alumnae Society.
In Saint John the U.N.B. club members have under way a personal canvass of the members. A more intensive canvass of the city will be made later. A canvass of the other centres in the province by the secretary is in progress at time of writing.
In another place in this issue a report is given of the activities of committees in Boston and Victoria.
To date no organized attempt to canvass has been made in other centres though reports of individual contributions by means of insurance are being received through the agents.
At this date over $35,000.00 has been received in cash and pledges amounting to over $90,000 additional have been made.
Why not start your subscription now, and help the Fund along with your own gift and your example. Two student organizations, the Forestry Society and Engineering Society, have undertaken payments for a period of twenty years.
A prominent Saint John Daily has the following comment regarding our campaign, which should be taken to heart by every friend of U. N. B.
"This fund has been launched at a most fortunate time, for the University now not only has more students than it can rightly accommodate with the facilities and the faculty at its disposal, but is assured of increasingly large entering classes in the future, and therefore it becomes not only a duty but a necessity on the part of the local government as well as on the part of all real friends of the Old College on the Hill to provide the funds necessary for reasonably rapid expansion along sound lines in order that the institution which is the crown of the arch of our public educational system may be permitted to function as it should.”
