Oregon Made Possible

By Lindsey Goldstein, ’11-Student Alumni Association Spirit and Traditions Chair
Regan Moreland, ’05-Student Alumni Association Advisor

The entire Oregon community contributes to developing University of Oregon students into tomorrow’s leaders. Whether the generous gifts from alumni, parents, faculty, staff, friends, and corporations are $10 or $10 million, each one makes an incredible impact on the quality of education provided to each and every student.

On February 10th, 2010 the Student Alumni Association (SAA) hosted “Oregon Made Possible” at the EMU. Since February 10th was roughly 40% through the school year, this event was geared to educate students about how University of Oregon donors help make up much of the difference between tuition, state support and the actual cost of a UO education. Tuition covers roughly 30% of the school year, with state support covering 9%, and the rest is made up from private and outside funding sources. Students wrote thank you cards expressing how grateful they were that these donors are able to directly impact their education.

During “Oregon Made Possible,” over 200 students stopped by and wrote thank you cards. For every thank you card signed, students were entered to win an iPod Touch and received a 20% coupon to the Duck Store. Not only undergraduate students signed thank you cards, but faculty, staff and graduate students stopped by to express how thankful they were for Oregon’s donors.

SAA Spirit and Traditions Chair, Lindsey Goldstein expressed her gratitude, “As a member of the SAA and a student at UO, this event was extremely important to me. We had students sign thank you cards to let the community know how much we appreciate all of their help. As an out-of-state student, I was not aware of the sources of funding. ‘Oregon Made Possible’ helped me recognize the importance of our donors and alumni and everything that they do to make my future a success.”

The winner of the IPod Touch is UO Mathematics major Tim Neumann from Bend, OR. Tim, a junior, signed one thank you card and expressed his thoughts on the event, “I had no idea how many people support the University of Oregon. It was great to be able to do something more than just put a ticket in a raffle drawing!” This is exactly what the Student Alumni Association is trying to express to fellow students; the importance of sharing our gratitude to our donors and alumni by personally telling them thank you. Tim continued to say that he was just walking by the EMU and thought that it was something easy to do; all he had to do was sign a thank you card to someone directly impacting him. “It felt good being able to thank someone helping my education!” Over 850 thank you cards were signed during “Oregon Made Possible.” With the help from alumni and donors and the Oregon community, each and every one of them and their generous gifts makes Oregon possible! For more information about how you can help, visit www.isupport.uoregon.edu