University Library E-News
Almost everyone agrees that higher education should be more affordable, especially for those who can afford it the least. Perhaps Bill Clinton said it most succinctly: “When we make college more affordable, we make the American dream more achievable.”
But how do we expand our access to more and more students and provide them with better tools while at the same time keeping the costs of a university education at reasonable levels? We need to embrace expansion, growth, and new technologies, but how do we do this without raising costs and limiting access to people in the state, regardless of economic challenge, who desire a college education?
At this time of year, our hearts and minds often turn to giving. Why is this so? Some might posit that we think of gifts during this season because the fall and winter holidays often celebrated in the United States -- such as Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas -- bring with them the spirit of giving.
Others (perhaps the more cynical among us) believe that giving in December has more to do with the end-of-year tax benefits. Regardless the time of year, my own view is that most of us give because we are giving back.
Winston Churchill, one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century, once said that “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” I think what he meant by this statement was that the act of giving to people and organizations dear to our hearts enriches not just the recipient but also the giver. Generosity allows us to see more clearly that the world is much bigger than ourselves.
When I was a boy, I was inspired by the athletic skill and bold rhetoric of boxing champion Muhammed Ali. Later I learned of his commitment to service, what we often refer to as “giving back.” Ali said that “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” This is a helpful metaphor that perfectly captures the spirit of service: it’s an obligation that we have toward our fellow travelers on this planet that allows us to “give back” to others in a variety of ways. Some of us give back with our time; some with our treasure; and some through service-oriented careers.
Several years ago I had the privilege of hosting a refugee family. What started off as an offer of temporary housing turned into a three-year sojourn and eventually a lifetime friendship. From an outsider’s perspective, this may have seemed like a sacrifice on my part, and on some level it was. There were relatively minor sacrifices of time, finances, and privacy.
In retrospect, however, I received so much more than I gave. My new friends, displaced from their country of birth, could not reciprocate with money, but they more than “evened the score” with their gifts of love, thankfulness, cultural interchange, and loyalty.
