By Jingsia Hathorne, Staff Editor, & Isabel Oalican, Staff Editor and Social Media Head
On Friday, October 1, Bryn Mawr College celebrated their 2011–2021 financial aid campaign Defy Expectation with outdoor food and activities. Defy Expectation raised money in donations from alumni and friends of the college in order to finance campus utilities, clubs and sporting equipment, and other purchases. The celebration included a TikTok filming set, whoopie pie stand, do-your-own nails station, a caricature artist, performance from Pulso Latino, and more. The celebration highlighted the importance of the over $301 million raised for the college in donations, but also unintentionally perpetuated misconceptions about the money raised.
Following the celebration, many Bryn Mawr students began to question aspects of the Defy Expectation event. The Instagram account @bmcdiningconfessions, which is “a safe space for your stories from working in the dining halls at BMC,” posted an anonymous quote on November 10: “We think it’s important to acknowledge the lack of support and respect for our amazing full time staff. They come into work sometimes in extreme pain… all to get 15 dollars from a school that just raised 301 million dollars and did what? Threw a party where they had to work.”
This student worker pointed out the irony of the low minimum wages of full-time workers in a fundraising event for their employer. Some larger questions raised by this post include queries about how the money is being spent and why the wage of student workers—a minimum of $10.40/hour, and dining hall staff, a minimum of $15/hour—hasn’t increased. Another anonymous quote posted on November 12 pointed out how events like the Defy Expectation campaign exclude the student workers on shift, “I get upset when student workers have to work student events…we have to miss out on parts of our May days/other events to serve.” While student workers must work their regular shifts, events like these often require last-minute shift pickups. The confessions page demonstrates serious student frustrations which stem from a larger question: Where is the Defy Expectation money now?
In a town hall on October 27, Chief Alumnae Relations and Development Officer Bob Miller addressed one major misconception about the Defy Expectation campaign money—that the funds are still available for use. Miller revealed that most of the campaign’s $301,884,913 proceeds had already been allocated to various causes. According to Miller, $172 million of this went into the endowment, supporting 100 new scholarships and fellowships. In an email correspondence with The Bi-College News, Miller said that financial aid “will remain a priority for our fundraising efforts even after the campaign.” The campaign also established and continues to sustain the Career and Civic Engagement Center, including supporting 1,000 summer internships and summer fellowships for students.
Miller also mentioned how the campaign “reinvigorated” the Black Alumnae/i Fund, which supports the professional growth of students who identify as members of the African diaspora. The campaign also helped with campus maintenance, putting $103 million toward improving dorms, classrooms, buildings, and infrastructure. Some of the big goals of this renovation include New Dorm, Park Science building, and completing the new Student Life and Wellness Center. Donors provided $65 million to The Bryn Mawr Fund, which covers expenses like the electric bill and supplies, our academic and athletic departments, and unexpected needs like snow removal or COVID tests. The campaign also supported the funding of six endowed professorships, the creation and continuation of the 360° program, areas of student interest like environmental studies and neuroscience, and a $1 million gift supporting the trauma-informed curriculum in our Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research.
Without asking Miller, students might be unaware of the budgetary breakdown of the Defy Expectation fund. To avoid misunderstandings about where the money goes and when it has been used, the college should make this information more accessible. Bryn Mawr has fueled misconceptions by celebrating the Defy Expectation campaign without explaining that the money had already been spent.
This left many students wondering why the money had not been used for current student concerns. During the open forum at the town hall, Jeanne Wolkiewicz ‘24 asked about whether some of the funds could be allocated towards supporting survivors of sexual assault on campus: “The college has a history of inadequately pursuing Title IX cases, failing to care for survivors appropriately, and not following up with survivors through the traumatizing process of reporting,” she said. “Will any of the funds from the Defy Expectation campaign be used for expanding and improving the BiCo Title IX office and procedures as students have suggested to President Cassidy and the Dean’s Office?” Miller replied that the college was open to this idea, but that the money from the campaign had already been spent.
This sort of miscommunication shows the lack of clear, easily accessible information about the campaign. It also increases tensions between the student body and the institution; rumors about Bryn Mawr’s switch from need-blind to need-aware and a heightened sense of wealth disparities between classes have increased student frustration with the college. According to rumor, the college’s financial aid system cycles between “need-blind” to “need-aware” every few years. At the beginning of the cycle, the college is need-blind, accepting more low-income students. Giving more financial aid to students, it then switches from need-blind to need-aware, accepting students who pay more in tuition. The increased amount of money that no longer would be needed for students on financial aid could be used for other things and for the funding of a need-blind incoming class, starting the cycle over again.
Whether true or false, some students speculate that this cycle is why the class of 2025 is the largest and wealthiest of the four grades. When we inquired about the statistics on financial aid for the class of 2025, the Financial Aid Office redirected us to the Wabout General University Statistics that appear on the Office of Institutional Research website. According to Susan Chadwick, Director of Financial Aid, the stats for the 2021–2022 academic year have not been made available yet. In contrast, Haverford College has the class of 2025 profile online, which allows easy access to their financial aid and class year statistics. Bryn Mawr’s class of 2024 profile is the only one of currently enrolled classes available on the college’s website, showing 82% of students receiving some form of aid. The lack of clear information about the college’s finances only further frustrates an already confused student body, leading them to feel angry at Bryn Mawr administration.
While the Defy Expectation event has unintentionally increased student–school tension, it is also a chance to ask for better communication from the institution. It also provides students a chance to get involved in the college’s finances in the future. By staying informed on how the institution handles its finances, Bryn Mawr students can lobby for their concerns, like funding the understaffed mental health services and dining halls, during the next fundraising season. Becoming more informed about the college finances would empower students to know the initiatives the college is prioritizing financially. Let’s work together to defy expectations of Bryn Mawr College by continuing to advocate for the financial support students need and the administration’s transparency that students deserve.
Image credit: Bryn Mawr College
