On Tuesday, we embarked on our first major decision as a class, we are decided how and where will we distribute the $10,000 the class has to give away. Professor Campbell gave us an assignment in order to facilitate that process. We were ordered to identify and rationalize finalists for our presentation, all the while incorporating the following three elements: the criteria used in our selection, how we applied said criteria, and a discussion about our reasoning in our selection. At first this assignment seemed pretty straight forward. In fact, it seemed too easy. After all, throughout the entire semester, we all have been working on our individual core values and our class core values. Going into this project, I thought I knew exactly the types of causes I wanted to support and how to persuade people to vote for the organization I wanted.
However, I realized something in our class last week that I feel I overlooked when I signed up for this class. Whatever the causes that I believe in are, and regardless of how much need there may be for that specific cause, from the very beginning of this class I have been selfish. My intentions for joining the class were good, but it wasn’t until last week sitting in my group discussion that I realized how removed I was from the Binghamton community. Maybe it’s just me, but every time I’ve talked about this class, I have mentioned about the organizations that I want to win. With the exception of the last assignment, how much do we all truly know about Binghamton? Even that assignment tended to be specifically tailored to our own interests, as we were granted the freedom to pick our own topic.
In the midst of trying to win tweet of the week and trying to advance and semi-impose my own core values in this process. I truly wonder if we are really helping the Binghamton community or if we are all just stroking our own egos. I care a lot about drug and prison reform, and admittedly Binghamton is troubled by both, but are these two issues truly the most pressing matters for the community? Throughout the semester, I have emphasized the point that no one issue supersedes one another. All the issues are equally troublesome, but can we truly say that all of them our worth our money? I feel uneasy about it, to say the least. On one hand, like I’ve said many times before, no one issue is more important than another, but for me the question has become: what issue can the $10,000 have tangible effects that at least helps diminish the other issues? What issue can empower this community to help them help themselves? To be honest, I don’t have an answer. All I can offer is my own confusion and the hope that at the end of this process, we as a class make the right call. I want our donation to make a lasting effect on the community’s issue areas, not our own. Perhaps in future years there can be a way to get a survey out to the local community. There is a missing piece in this process and I think its the voices of the people we are trying to help. Obviously due to logistical reasons, it would be difficult to coordinate a survey, but there has to be a way to get community input outside from the organizations we contact. So if anyone has any ideas, please do share them in class!
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ReplyDeleteStephanie,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the post, I feel like these are issues that we fail to bring up in class even through we do talk so much about how we are feeling about making our choices, our personal values, and what we think is important.
To what an extent can we really understand a community we are not directly a part of? I wrote a bit about this in my paper, in terms of feeling like I understand the community on a certain level, or that I've experienced similar communities and therefore can make a decision on what is important and what isn’t. However, we will never really know until we are a part of the issues that are being addressed by the organizations who applied for the grant. No one but the people who these non-profits are directed towards can talk about the extent to which they are effective. Even the people who work there are often not as understanding of the situation, because they've simply never been a part of it. I am not blaming our class or the people who are working to eliminate local problems, I just think the quality of our future decision is concerning. I am really interested whether we could get in touch with people who have used the services of the finalist organizations. This would give us a great perspective from the beneficiary and how helpful an organization’s services were to him or her. I think this is definitely a lens that we should consider, and is one that would help us out a lot. I believe that some of the organizations have Facebook groups for their participants, we can reach out to the organizations and ask if their databases are open or confidential, as well as see if we could speak to anyone who is around during the visits to the finalist organizations.
Stephanie-
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post, thanks for sharing! You brought up some interesting and thought provoking questions about our motives in this class, which I think is very important in our decision making process. I’ve been having some similar concerns as you that I touched on in my blog post last week. When I won the tweet of the week last week I felt overwhelmed with joy that our class supported Meghan. However, when I later reflected on the choice the class made it felt bittersweet and I wasn’t sure if I had done the right thing at all. I put my personal connection and Meghan’s tragic event and imposed this onto our class. I’ll be the first to admit that there are more suffering areas in the Binghamton community that need our attention, however I saw Meghan as a victim in need. I have the same feelings as you that we may be imposing our own ideas and overlooking the bigger issues at hand.
I definitely agree with you that our own values and interests have a persuading effect on our decision on a daily basis. I could probably go around the class and name the specific interests of most individuals just from listening to one another each day this semester. It is no secret that we all have different desires of where this money ends up, however I think we all want to come out of this with the same goal. We all want this money to go to organizations that will have the greatest benefit from our help, but I do agree we need to pull away from the ties we hold and look at this from the eyes of the people we’re helping. I think surveying the community is an excellent idea in deciding where the most help is needed. Although we are submerged into the Binghamton community we really only see what we want and what the University wants us to see to an extent. I live next door to the YWCA and pass countless homeless people each day as I commute to school, however I don’t know these people or any of the problems they are dealing with. We are looking from somewhat of an external point of view, and even though we live here we have no idea what is going on in the community around us. If we were somehow able to look from an internal view as a Binghamton citizen with ideas and needs from our community I think we would have a better understanding of where this money exactly needs to go. These people know what they need better than any of us could tell them and I really think it is important and beneficial that these silenced voices be heard.
Stephanie, while reading the blog posts this week, I found the juxtaposition of your post and Kyle's post to be very interesting.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote of a sense of removal from the Binghamton community and a doubt in your intentions for this class. Kyle on the other hand, gave a new perspective on Binghamton with his in depth description of its needs. However, both of your posts tied into a strong belief in drug reform. Even though you felt selfish and disconnected with Binghamton, you actually held the same beliefs as a native of the region.
I agree with you the the majority of our class is far removed from the Binghamton community. Although I do wish we spent more time learning about our city's history and issues, I believe that it isn't selfish of you to act with ulterior motives. Philanthropy is a very personal decision and as we've mentioned again and again, having different people with different viewpoints strengthens our decisions as a whole. I argue that selfishness will breed a better class decision, if we all simply passively agree, like Michael stated in his blog post, what was the point in all this discussion?
Hi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI really liked what you had to say. I will be the first to admit that I did not take this class for purely selfless reasons. I was interested in the giving aspect but was mostly going in with the intention of trying to learn more about the non-profit world. So in that sense you're not alone with having somewhat selfish intentions.
I definitely agree with your statement that there is an immense amounnt of disconnect between the university students and an understanding of the greater Binghamton community and the community's needs. Sadly we as students have been taught by society to act in a selfish manner, coming to a university simply to study, get involved in extra curriculars and get into a good graduate school program. The second we get that acceptance letter we get out of here without ever really knowing our area.
I think as a class and as a general curriculum for this university we need to have a better understanding of the needs in this community. Each of us are so lucky to have the opportunity for an education. We complain to no end about how stressed we are about tests and papers, but education is a powerful tool and a blessing that we take advantage of. It should be incument upon each of us college students to make sure that others have equal opportunities.
I had a very similar experience sitting at our group meeting while learning about the specific needs of THIS community. Selfishly, I have always stood behind science-based endeavors, which promote education and curiosity to young boys and girls. For this reason, I have consistently stood behind Kopernik Observatory as a strong candidate for a portion of the grant money. While my support hasn't (and probably wont be) shifted, my arguments were all based on my understanding for larger scale education reform, and not the immediate needs of Broome County. STEM fields are growing at a faster pace then ever before, and institutional education has not been able to keep up; if it had, students would be learning code in elementary school.
ReplyDeleteI have developed this mindset while reading the book, Outliers, in which different “societal outliers” (geniuses, athletes, millionaires etc.) are looked at as products of their surrounding as products of special circumstance and not innately unique. Allowing kids to channel their creativity in a technical and critically applied environment lends them the opportunity to gain speed in these developing fields. I am very confident in this developed stance in supporting the education system by creating supplementary programs, however, I am not so sure that this is the most critical need of Broome County. How can a science center by supported when there are programs enabling men to fulfill their basic human need of food? This mentality aligns well with the effective philanthropy talks we had, however, I am having trouble comparing organizations without comparing needs.
Selfish or selfless. This is one of those philosophical questions that have been argued forever and will never be answered. That said, I prefer not to ask "selfish or selfish" but rather "what have I learned about myself." Personally, I am not bothered by whether or not I am selfish. I think it's natural to be self interested and want to give to organizations either because we like them or because it makes us feel good. What this class has shown me is that in the future when I look into donating to organizations, I don't want to have to go through any group decision making processes. I admit to full selfishness in wanting to give to a group I believe in, and being in full control of that. I will look to find others to increase the donations and effectiveness of them, but ultimately I want to have full control over where my money goes. Does this make me selfish? Of course. But I think that so long as I rock that selfish outlook and justify my decisions then it doesn't matter how I come to the decisions about where my money goes, so long as it is going somewhere truly worthy of it.
ReplyDelete