across the country, centers for diversity, equity and inclusion they have endured attacks from Conservative MPs, leading to closures, renaming of centers or reallocation of resources across campus.

Meanwhile, at Stanford University, donor support has added a new level of sustainability to the university’s community centers. In recent years, four of the eight campus community centers that provide targeted support for affinity groups have received endowed directorships, ensuring future investment and continued resources for students.

Background: Stanford has eight community centers-Asian American Activity Center, Black Community Service Center, El Centro Chicano y Latino, First Generation and/or Low Income Student Success Center, Markaz Resource Center, Native American Cultural Center, Student Resources queer and women’s community center.

These centers serve as a hub, offering academic programming and connecting with various departments on campus, as well as a student hangout or study space. Some student organizations also have meetings in the centers, sometimes the centers host their own weekly meetings.

Each center is open to every student on campus, regardless of the student’s identity or program at Stanford.

The centers have a long history of supporting student success and one that resonates with the university’s alumni community, explains Samuel Santos Jr., associate vice provost for inclusion, community and integrative learning at Stanford.

“Alumni were wondering how they can support campus community centers and just student life in general. So we identified that if alumni felt so compelled and wanted to give to a particular community center, either because they had a connection with them or because they just cared about the subject, they could support us by endowment with the role of director.” Santos explained.

Endowed faculty roles are common in higher education and often come with prestige, but endowed roles for student affairs are less common. Santos believes they help increase the work done on campus by these staff members.

At Stanford, a primarily residential campus that exists outside of surrounding cities, the work of student businesspeople is even more important, Santos says. “I like to remind people, who do you think cares about the hearts and minds of students’ spirits when they’re not in the classroom? It’s a great team of student affairs professionals.”

How it works: Each endowed role is funded by an undisclosed gift amount, which provides funding for the director’s salary.

“Then the university’s agreement is that they will use the money they would pay for the director’s salary and put it back into the program to create more flexible funding opportunities — for programming, (for) student support and (to) expand the reach of action centers on campus,” says Santos.

In addition to creating more funds that can go directly to students, the endowment ensures continuity of offerings. While having student-run organizations in affinity spaces is great, “having career staff in these centers really provides a through line,” Santos says. “We really see our work in terms of administration…Having a gifted director and consistent career staff allows us to stay on top of what the research is saying in terms of best practices for community centers and integrative learning in outside the classroom? And how do we respond to what our students tell us?”

The the latest equipment was awarded to the Center for First-Generation or Low-Income Student Success (FLISS), which is also the newest center on campus, becoming a stand-alone office in 2018. One in five Stanford students is considered first-generation or low level. income and the center provides orientation activities, financial support, mentoring, support for basic needs and a community space for learners.

The gift from alumni Kelsey Bateman Murphy and Bobby Murphy, both Class of 2010, not only provides the director role, but also provides funding for undergraduate research projects and need-based student financial aid.

A larger image: While the work of community centers is important to building student membership and retention, Stanford leaders do not want to keep adding centers, but rather consider the institution’s academic mission and how it can best serve students.

In the future, Santos would be interested in seeing endowed principals take on a more academic role, serving as instructors within academic departments to further connect curricular and co-curricular learning.

The role of alumni funding is also critical and speaks to how Stanford views the student holistically, serving them throughout their campus life cycle and staying connected beyond.

“We look at our work here on campus as, once they walk through our doors, what can we do to make sure they have all the resources they need to reach their full potential and achieve their goals?” says Santos. “This is not about charity… These students are brilliant and it is an honor and a privilege for us to help improve their experiences. So when we get these gifts and support from alumni, it really helps us support students in a way that helps them maintain their dignity, but also helps them feel like an important part of this community.”

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