You're invited....Bah!

[FawkesFyre]

Gawd! My old college department has been doing these little get together events to try to keep in touch with eveyone and to essentially get us to give them money.

I skipped out on the last 2 casual events since the location they chose still allows smoking everywhere...I did make an attempt the first time, but my asthma just can't handle it. Smelling like a dirty ashtray doesn't quite appeal either.

This time, they really want money, and in any way they can get it. We're invited for a full Parisian Dinner at Atmosphere Restaurant in Atlantahttp://www.atmospherebistro.com/. the kicker is, it costs $55 a person...$65 if after Oct 3rd!

Now I might just be considered, lets say, frugal for twitching at $55 per...but they're making a profit off my attendance. Doing the math, the department stands to make between a $3-$20 profit off each person...depending on what people order, and that's assuming we even get much choice.

They also have a "silent auction" that they're very big on doing for gift baskets($65) and Thrashers tickets($100)...

But I guess the final giggle I get is from reading about the restaurant itself...it can accommodate private parties up to 20 people. They invited 264!...plus guests It will be interesting to see what happens when more than 20 ppl RSVP. I'm going to lurk the evite for a while to see how it goes.


I know all this sounds so snarky but I really don't like the direction my old dept has gone...everything revolves around money. One of my old profs retired back in March...they were charging $65 per person to attend his goodbye dinner...and had another silent auction. His own students couldn't even afford to attend. Then the really sad and sick part is that he died 2 weeks later from Cancer complications. The department honors him now by milking us to contribute to a scholarship fund in his name...and in leu of condolences, to send money for the fund.

[Ming]

My college pulls that crap periodically...trying to get the recently graduated alumni to contribute money. Excuse me...when I graduated my tuition was upwards of $35,000 a year....and it's just kept going up. So WHY do you need more money from me? Then they created this "Young Alumni Club" with different membership levels based on how much you give. It's a load of crap and it makes me sick. It's not enough that school put me in debt until I'm in my mid-40s and did absolute jack shit for me when I wanted to find a job though their "highly acclaimed" job placement department...but then they go asking for handouts because they OBVIOUSLY don't have enough money...right.

They won't get anything out of me until I'm completely out of debt. And even then, I'm going to have to think long and hard before I give any of my hard earned money to them. Then they'll probably just give my money to some dumbass athlete who doesn't deserve it anyway.

[FawkesFyre]

They're doing all this on top of just the regular school solicitations for money.

The school bugs me for money 1-2 times a year...complete with all the levels of contribution.

[SirGunslinger]

If SPSU ever begs me for money when I'm an alumni I would likely tell them in many 4 letter words what they can do with themselves.

They hosed me outta 25k in tuition and fees already...

[Al the DLOE]

i dunno if i will give to the alumni or not...there are professional orgs that i have to pay and an amount of student loans