Oh gee, let's beat Purdue

IU and Purdue came together last week, and in the spirit of that famous school rivalry we know all too well, asked their respective seniors to donate money to their imminent alma mater.\nAh, there's nothing like one last attempt to stick it to the other school.\nThe IU Foundation and its Purdue counterpart began asking seniors once again last week to donate money to the University as a last hoorah. The donation process was actually very streamlined and applicable -- seniors could donate any amount of money to any school section, department, library, lab, etc. of their choice.\nWhere the train jumps the tracks is they've pulled school rivalry into the already-murky process.\n"(We get) donations ... and whoever wins gets the pride of winning," said Nathan McCarthy, the IU Foundation annual fund associate (Indiana Daily Student, Wednesday).\nThe winning school isn't necessarily the school raising the most money, either -- it's the school whose seniors composite the greater percentage of donators. Twenty-five percent of Purdue seniors could donate $100 a piece, but if 26 percent of IU seniors donate a nickel a piece, we would still win. \n"I think if you get seniors while (students are) still here to get in the mindset of donating money, (they'll realize it) is a good thing, and hopefully when they become alumni, they will have the same mentality and want to give," said IU Student Foundation President Vince DeFazio (IDS, Wednesday)\nThe rivalry issue is just a silly spin that's poorly done. In almost every case in which someone uses a gimmick to sell an idea, we want and prefer the truth to the ploy. If it's about getting us to learn to donate, IUF should give us some credit. \nWe'll donate to the University because we take our school seriously and we want to see it succeed, not because we want to beat Purdue. We highly doubt alumni who graduated 30 years ago get together and have a contest to see if they can donate in a higher percentage than Purdue. It's just not the point.\nPlaying on our mutual hatred for each for a good cause has worked, though. For the past seven years, the IU Alumni Association has gone head-to-head and heart-to-heart with Purdue to raise the most units of donated blood. That cause carries tangible civility, responsibility and pride.\nWhile there's no denying an underlying sense of competition for a good cause somewhere in a race for funds, donating money is nonetheless circuitous and dehumanized -- it's not a challenge to students.\nRivalry is an idea that works for the blood drive challenge -- but it's an idea that comes off as cheap and transparent when we're asked to donate money to our school just to beat another school.