For the last five years, Seattle U has taken part in a campaign to help assist students with tuition costs. The Faculty and Staff Giving Campaign is designed to give faculty and staff members the opportunity to express their faith and devotion in the mission of the university in which they work.

The giving campaign offers financial support to university students and endorses the Jesuit education.

Janet Shandley, the director of graduate admissions, and Dr. Patrick Murphy, an associate professor of the School of Nursing, are the co-chairs for the 2013 campaign.

Shandley continues to be a prominent figure at Seattle U through both this campaign, and the fact that she began at the university in 1986 as the director of undergraduate admissions. As a staff member of Seattle U, Shandley was able to send her daughter through the undergraduate program without the burden of today’s tuition costs.

However she experienced first-hand the struggles her daughter’s peers faced with such costs and student loans. These struggles are what led Shandley to be a part of the Faculty Staff and Giving Campaign.

“When we don’t have the wherewithal to achieve our aspirations, we all lose,” said Shandley about the tuition costs blockading the ability of student achievement.

Murphy has taught at Seattle U for seven years in the School of Nursing.

“The university contributes to resources I believe in and I believe it is my responsibility to acknowledge that support and reciprocate,” he said. “It is a more overt way to publicly show how much we believe in our mission.”

The staff and faculty contributions aren’t always public, though, as donations can be anonymous.

“Donations can be as enthusiastic and public or as quiet and humble as the donor wishes,” he added.

Staff and faculty have been fairly receptive, despite the amount of time and energy already given to the university.

Class preparation, reading, grading papers, prepping lectures and PowerPoint presentations, attending plays and organizing office hours are all components of a professor’s course load. That is a notable amount of work.

Murphy acknowledges the fact that faculty and staff are often willing to give more.

Despite their daily work, many professor’s still foster a desire to further support their students in a true testament to the mission Seattle U enacts.

“In the classroom, students will do what is required. But a lot of times students will do more than they need to, because they believe in what the class teaches.”

Murphy used this as a metaphor for the campaign to demonstrate the nature and tenacity of our professors’ desire to help our school.

Another incentive for a successful campaign is the fact that outside potential donors are more likely to give such outside support upon seeing support from the inside of the university itself.

Emily may be reached at [email protected]