Editorial
Counseling Center donation: A necessary gift
By Editorial Staff
October 1, 2015
The editorial board of The Spectator proudly applauds the Class of 2016’s selection of a donation to the Counseling Center as their official Senior Gift.
Senior Gifts are often symbolic—take the Class of 2014’s sun porch on the Siuda House that commemorated the “need-blind” admissions policy initiated with their class. In making a gift to the Counseling Center, the Class of 2016 also calls attention to the important issue of mental health on campus, and more generally, valuing and acknowledging the lives of our fellow Hamilton students.
As our front page story reports, 337 seniors participated in this year’s Senior Gift selection as of Wednesday evening. Of that number, 182 (roughly 54 percent) voted for giving a donation to the counseling center, while no other option received more than 75 votes. In fact, two options received less than 50 each.
Word going around that seniors “weren’t allowed” to offer physical gift options this year is just inaccurate. Seniors chose to do something valuable by helping existing Hamilton resources that desperately need attention rather than devising an obscure physical gift. While physical gifts--take the Class of 2013’s outdoor recreation facility (the basketball court by Babbitt Pavillion) or the Class of 2015’s outdoor classroom (see a trend of ‘outdoor’ gifts to a college in central New York, where most of the year the campus is covered in snow?)--have definitely been popular in recent years, they are bestowed with more of a desire to out-do previous classes with a unique gift than to truly make a needed and appreciated impact on the Hill. Sure, they sound cool, but they really serve no purpose in the long run and sometimes, like in the case of the outdoor recreational center, cost a lot more than anticipated, raised and warranted.
To those students who still wish for a physical gift, or even complain about this year’s selection: Think about how many current and future students, let alone the senior class, the Class of 2016’s gift will help.
So how many people use the recreational facility? Or will actually have classes frequently held in the outdoor classroom? Or know the purpose of the windmill by Minor Field (yup, that exists and was the Class of 1991’s gift)?
Members of the Class of 2016 may not have a physical, tangible gift to look upon with pride when they return to the Hill in the future, but what they will possess is much more significant: They will know that they helped the Counseling Center protect the health and save the lives of students just like us.