There probably aren’t many people — if any — who enjoy phone calls from telemarketers. The calls always seem to come at a bad time and usually they’re pushing a product on us that we just don’t want.
But MSU Telemarketing employees, who generated $3.9 million for the university in the last fiscal year, should be treated with a little more respect when calling our alumni for money.
It’s unlikely that alumni will donate anything without someone asking for it, so it’s a necessary evil students will have to put up with after they graduate, for better or worse.
And at nearly $4 million a year, it does make a difference to the functionality of our school.
If you’re going to get solicited by telephone anyway, wouldn’t you rather it be from someone representing the university you received your degree from?
Talking to someone representing MSU is much more bearable than listening to a 15-minute speech about why you need to open another bank account or apply for a new credit card.
And something that shouldn’t ever come up during a phone call from a telemarketer, but unfortunately does, is the performance of MSU sports — especially football — as an excuse to not give money back to the university.
There was a 6 percent average drop in pledges the Sunday following MSU’s loss on the football field to Michigan.
Psychology senior and MSU telemarketer Larry Kemp said in the article, “(The alumni) attribute the sports program to whether or not they want to give to academics.”
That excuse is ludicrous.
The quality of MSU’s academic programs and the quality of their athletics programs from year to year absolutely do not go hand in hand.
And contrary to popular belief, the prestige of a school is not based on whether the football program is 4-8, 10-2 or 0-12. You would think people would be able to recognize the difference between the two.
Mark Dantonio is trying to build a winning football team at MSU. But MSU also is trying to build a great academic reputation.
What kind of message does it send when you refuse to donate to your college because they lost a football game that Saturday?
Most of the money MSU telemarketers are asking for doesn’t go to athletics programs anyway, though some of it is collected for that, too.
It’s money in the general fund that will be used for students in the academic program the alumni went through.
To all those alumni who said they wouldn’t donate money until John L. Smith was fired, well, you weren’t helping your case. Smith was fired because he was a lousy football coach, not because you held tight to your pocketbook.
The only people you affect by basing donation decisions on the quality of our athletics programs are the current and future students who are working toward their degrees.
And believe us, it’s not a positive effect.
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