Campus program makes donating easier for students

Students will be faced with a myriad of opportunities to donate funds to the charities of their choice when logging on to register for classes in the next few weeks. \nUtilizing an innovative check-off system, area philanthropies may solicit student donations during the registration process.\nOne such cause is the IU Student Association rape crisis fund, in which $3 is contributed to Middle Way House, a domestic violence shelter and rape crisis line serving the greater Bloomington area. All donations go into one Student Activities Office account, from which a check is cut. \nThe fund contributed an estimated $27,800 in donations gleaned from student fees to Middle Way last year, according to IUSA estimates.\nThe money doesn't necessarily have to go to the shelter, however. Student Congress must vote on what to do with student donations, but typically, such funding is contributed to the shelter, IUSA Vice President for Congress Grant McFann said. \nMiddle Way economic development coordinator Charlotte Zietlow said the donations are a "hefty amount" and extremely important in maintaining operating expenses for Middle Way's services. Donations are used to finance upkeep of the 24-hour crisis line and phones, case management and to pay staff. \n"It's very hands-on use," Zietlow said. \nThe crisis line originated in the 1980s, at a time when sexual assault and campus safety was particularly prevalent. Middle Way boasts one of the few crisis lines of its kind in Indiana in which a human is always present to answer calls. \n"There was real interest from the University, of course, and there was the decision to implement the rape crisis line at Middle Way," Zietlow said. "There's a lot of concern -- there always has been -- with sexual assault and safety on campus, and apparently that was when the check-off started."\nApplying for check-off status is time-consuming, however, and most groups don't have the time to apply.\nIU Habitat for Humanity is one such group. Mustering the required signatures and social security numbers necessary to propel a group through the initial application stage proved too difficult on numerous occasions for this organization. \n"Getting the signatures requires pretty much going out to classes and making announcements," Habitat for Humanity supervisor Laura Coenig said. "A lot of professors are willing to do it, but it does take time from classes. You have to contact profs beforehand and find people to go to all the classes, and with students, that's just not possible sometimes."\nSecuring check-off funding would optimally allow nearly $90,000 to be allocated for Habitat building activities, if each student donated $3, Coenig said. That figure would facilitate the construction of two houses. \nHabitat does not plan to apply for check-off status this semester, but may consider the possibility in the spring, Coenig said. \nThe check-off system isn't the only avenue of access to student donations, however. The Indiana Public Interest Research Group utilizes a decidedly unique system to receive student funding. \nSince 1997, INPIRG has been directly soliciting voluntary donations from students through face-to-face contact on campus and in the community. Students are asked to charge $5 per semester to their Bursar bill by signing a one-time pledge. \n"Basically the idea is that when you sign the pledge, 10 percent of the student body has to pledge along with you for us to stay here and keep doing public student advocacy," said Megan Foster, INPIRG organizer. "Unless there's a collective decision to have this group here, then we won't be here."\nUtilizing the Bursar pledge system has produced "ideal" fiscal results for the group, Foster claims. \n"To get that many signatures just to have a check-off seems like what we'd not want to do," Foster said.\n-- Contact Weekend Editor in chief Holly Johnson at hljohnso@indiana.edu.