As the Senior Class Gift (SCG) committee members begin to talk to fellow seniors about participating in the Class of 2013 SCG, we hope you understand why we are filling your inbox with emails, saying hello to you in the Mac the Scot costume, and planning cool events like a Surly Brewery tour.

The first and most important reason to give to the SCG is to commemorate our Class of 2013. We are a lovely and impressive group of Macalester students, and if we reach a participation rate of 61 percent, we will have our time here marked with a plaque honoring the Class of 2013 on the new studio art building’s foundry.

The second reason to give is to learn about and engage in giving at Macalester. This will be an important part of our experience as alums and something worth learning about now, before we leave. We all know how much this school has given to us and giving back to it is one way of ensuring that future generations can have the fantastic experiences we are starting to get so sappy about.

You ask: Why should I give when I/my parents paid full tuition/don’t get enough financial aid?

For every student, the actual cost of a year of Macalester education is $16,000 more than their tuition bill (including any financial aid received). Donor support of the Annual Fund (where our Senior Class Gift is going) makes up this difference. Aside from the things listed above, if you give to the SCG, you will be invited to fun, mostly beer-infused events this semester, such as the Surly tour and events with the man himself, PBR.

Further, for each $5 you give to the class gift, you can honor a peer, professor or staff member who has made your time at Macalester memorable. This is a great way to say thank you to those people who constantly blow our minds in their phenomenal classes, who make our meals in Cafe Mac a little better, who write all those pesky recommendation letters for us, and much more.

For every student or alum who gives to Mac, our participation rate rises. This number is a key factor that outside bodies look at when considering whether or not to give Macalester huge grants. Ruth Stricker Dayton’s first gift to Macalester was $20. We are asking seniors to give $20.13, but that’s really just an arbitrary number in honor of our class. Your gift should correspond to what you feel is appropriate. While we may not all grow up to be Ms. Stricker Dayton, smaller gift donors contribute a total of $600,000 to the Annual Fund every year. Obviously, these things add up.

And what if donating to the Annual Fund supports things the administration does that you don’t agree with?

Everyone knows that Macalester students are not afraid to take a stand for what they believe in, and that’s part of what makes our school great. As students, we understandably want to make sure that what the administration does with our money is in line with our values and beliefs. And that’s part of why the Senior Class Gift goes to the Annual Fund. It’s hard to think of one gift the entire class could agree on, so donating to the Annual Fund allows us to honor the conversations, actions and ideas fostered at Macalester that we haven’t found in other places, as well as the faculty and staff who worked with us to make our projects happen.

The fact of the matter is that the Macalester we know and love would not exist without the Annual Fund. Period. The Annual Fund provides money that pays our heating bills, our professors’ salaries, and everything else that is not covered by tuition or the endowment. It provides millions of dollars each year to make Macalester awesome.

I encourage you to ask one of us about the Senior Class Gift, the Annual Fund, and any questions you might have relating to giving back to Mac, now or in the future. We’d love to have those conversations. Mac students are informed about so many things, why not bring ourselves up to speed on what the Senior Class Gift is really all about and make a decision that is both informed and positive?

Giving is easy online at: macalester.edu/giving