HAMPSHIRE'S DEMOCRATIC CAPITAL CAMPAIGN PLANNING PAGE

= HEAR THIS! =

There has been a plan in the works to launch a "DEMOCRATIC CAPITAL CAMPAIGN" as way to keep building the movement that arose on campus in the spring 2010 semester.

A draft website has been made and we would like students, faculty, and staff (including administrative staff), to weigh in on this campaign. The campaign is designed to be a way for all community members, but especially alumni to wiegh in and support the postive momentum that has come out in the last few weeks.

We are dedicated to modeling community engagement for the administration to take lesson from, and therefore want as much input and collaboration from all members of the community. ALSO PLEASE FORWARD THIS PAGE TO ALL STUDENT GROUP LISTS, FACULTY, AND STAFF THAT YOU HAVE INFO FOR! COPY LINK: http://hampedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Capital_Campaign

= DRAFT WEBSITE =



read this draft website (http://tinyurl.com/hamp-capital-camp-draft) and then discuss it below

we would especially like help wording the suggested letter and the list of stipulations.


 * note that the current URL is willdelphia.com/hamp ... this is where it is sitting for now, and after it is ready to go live it will have a snazzier address, something like www.hampshiredemocracy.org. also the form function does not work yet - after they alum, parent, student, whoever fills this out they will be shown a printable version of their letter that they can either print and mail or copy and paste into the online donation form on hampshire.edu

= DISCUSSION: =

Please post comments and ideas here. sign your name when done - you can copy wording from the letter and repost it with your changes or describe changes or other ideas. If you have ideas about how to get this out to as many parents, alumni, and friends of the school as possible also pipe up! We will probebly not recieve supoprt from the office of alumni relations (hopefully! fingers crossed!) or institutional advancement (hopefully! fingers crossed!) so this will need to be a viral and grassroots communications campaign to the website out to people and then collect data on all the successful donations we created.

put some maker after your comment so that we can differentate people's contribitions

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It looks great, and I love the ideas in all of the boxes that stipulate how the donation could/should be used.

From my brief overview right now (I'll look at it again later after I'm not stressed for time), I have one comment, which is about something in the scroll box section, where the sample letter is written. It says this:

"this movement also exposes a troubling policy shift where the people with the most power at Hampshire have decided the only way to balance the budget is to initiate a policy of blatant institutionalized classism – changing the appearance, and possibly the fabric of the Hampshire experience, to appeal to only those students who will not require financial aid to attend. "

I think that could be easily taken apart by administration, and instead of using language like the word "only" is a little too focused, so maybe if you took out the word only, it might read better... Just a quick thought.

This looks great! Wonderful, fast work! -- Dot Goldberger

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I think this idea/targeting campaign/movement is really solid. Especially since everyone currently enrolled and witnessing various behaviors from the administration (this time around) will shortly be alums, getting hit up for $$. following ideas totally open to critique since i havent been a part of the talks leading up to this::::: i wonder if there is a way to include a push for a more comprehensive, safe grievance procedure for staff. also, could there be something about supporting student redesign plans since this school is obviously going to need a lot of physical attention and there are so many passionate students doing architecture, environmentally conscious design projects... yada yada who could work to get input, do research about actual feasibility, and then propose ideas which may have a little chunk of change from alums to support. but yea, i'm really supportive of this and want to help especially leading up to the 40th anniversary. i'll be in town for it and SFU was already talking about ways to get alums to show support/solidarity with current staff members.

rock on, -jags

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I'm so impressed by the quick response to this matter. I'd be very happy to see an addition to this statement that directly demands that--"If the cabinet is to act as a decision-making advisory board to the president, then the composition of the "cabinet" should be altered to include staff, students, and faculty members."

Keep up the great work. I'm happy to help in any way I can. - Heather Madden (visiting faculty, IA)

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Overall, it looks great.

I am interested in the symbolic vs. practical uses of this document. For example, two of the options are vague in their purpose:

My donation must support steps taken to reach a transparent administration.

Practically, I am not sure where these donations would physically go. It would be aweosme if there was a specific place for it. Also:

My donation cannot be used and I will request it be returned IF the promises made about Admissions and the Ash project are gone back on, or any significant plans are made without the direct involvement of the entire Hampshire community.

This is difficult because the "promises made about Admissions and the Ash project" are sketchy at best. I would suggest unpacking the wording in this statement. This one seems more symbolic...Also, "significant plans" is a phrase that can be easily brushed off with semantics...because what may be significant for us might not be read as significant for the administration.

If this is a campaign for the summer and next year, I would suggest making the form slightly less Ash-specific depending on what happens in the next month or two in terms of that ambiguous renovation project.

Best of luck.

-Molly Einhorn

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Hey folks, thanks for everyone who has already responded and let's try and get more feedback, comments, edits, and suggestions

- we dindn't post this out on the groups and lists yesterday because we wanted the main thing that people saw to be the open letter to Ralph Hexter but not that that has had time to gather 134 signatures! So if anyone could please forward this link to all students, staff, and faculty that would be amazing. Wmd08 23:22, 10 May 2010 (UTC) **** wmd08@hampshire.edu COPY THIS TO EMAILS, FB, WHATEVER: https://hampedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Capital_Campaign

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