An Item To Budget
IT MAY BE SEASONABLE TO REMIND readers of this MAGAZINE that the next Alumni Fund subscription will come easier and hurt less if it be foreseen as a recurring item in the personal budget, to be provided for by wise planning in advance. The colleges, in many cases, bid fair to weather the war crisis in better shape than appeared at first to be probable, by dint of the utilization of their facilities as training grounds for Army and Navy personnel. That, however, doesn't mean that they will escape the customary problems presented by the conditions in which endowed institutions of learning exist. Depleted income from endowments, coupled with the traditional discrepancy between operating expense and operating revenue, continue to necessitate the discovery of means to bridge the chasm of deficit. In Dartmouth's case this means that the Alumni Fund will be needed as usual, in amount fully comparable to the amount required in normal times. It is not too early to begin thinking about it—and planning for it.
Naturally the campaign for raising it will not come until much later than this writing, but when it does come it will be well to be ready for it throughout the Dartmouth ranks. The suggestion made here is simply that the Fund contribution be treated as a budget item, to enable the accumulation of funds to meet this requirement at maturity, which every alumnus of normal loyalty will desire to do as a matter of course. Make it easier for yourself and treat it as a recurring obligation to be shouldered as readily as ble when the time for doing it arrives. For it really is an obligation, an essential part of our lives and a duty toward something which we all hold dear; to wit, Dartmouth College, without whose ministrations we should not be what we are today, which needs us and our backing now as in the past. In youth it nourished us with the bread essential to the development of our souls. It must stand ready to do the same for those who come after us. But it cannot, unless we, grown older and more appreciative than ever, continue to enable it.
