560,658 Alumni are far less when it comes to BOT voting and making donations

500,000 and 600,000 are numbers that are oft repeated when speaking of PSU alumni, however, when it comes to voting for the BOT and making donations to PSU the numbers are far, far less.

By 
Ray Blehar

With the vote for new alumni trustees upon us, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how many PSU alumni do what matters most:  vote and donate money.

Voting

PS4RS provided this graphic on how many alumni voted in the last election, which stated 37,563 (about 6% of alumni).  The total votes were 101,308 or 2.7 votes per ballot.  The fact that only 6% of alumni vote in trustee elections is astonishing, but I am quite certain we will see a dramatic increase this spring.

Jay Paterno wrote in statecollege.com that PSU alumni should be wary of voting irregularities in this years election and recommended observers.  Bob Horst noted that the BOT routinely rigged the mechanical and engineering trustee elections in years past.

It may be prudent for PS4RS to hold their own "mock" election to ensure that their membership vote is not undercounted.  

My goodness, PSU has become a third world Banana Republic, where we have to be concerned about rigged elections.  Of course, we will all be labeled as dissidents in the next issue of The Collegian....so, have some North Korea with those bananas.

Donations

The 2011-2012 PSU President's Report on Philanthropy and Endowments (page 29) revealed that only 75,593 alumni donated to PSU (13.5%).  That is an eye opening number.  The inverse shows that 480,065 do not donate to Dear Old State.  I suspect the percentage will be lower in 2012-2013 given what has transpired over the last year.  I anxiously await the next report to find out.

Page 30 reveals that almost one quarter of the annual giving is to PSU Athletics ($51.4M).  However, the Nittany Lion Club Annual Report for 2011 indicated that over $81M was raised, including endowments.  The total number of donors to the NLC was 23,374, which includes students and non-alums.

Another interesting point is that donations to THON are included in the PSU donation total, thus alumni who contribute to THON are among the 75,593.  Given that THON is a special philanthropy that draws in a considerable number of small donors, one can surmise that the number of alumni donors to THON is quite large.  What is unknown (more research needed) is just how many alums donate to THON and nothing else.

Conclusion

The bottom line is for an alumni base the size of PSU's, it is surprising how few donate and vote.  In other words, the vast majority of alumni leave PSU and really don't take an active interest in the University.  PS4RS boasts a membership of around 15,000 -- a very powerful voting/donation block if it can be harnessed in the BOT election and in directing (or dare I say, withholding) donations.