HOLLAND (WHTC) — Hope College’s second annual Scholarship Day of Giving raised garnered more donors and raised more money than last year — but the event could be a barometer of support for the school’s president.
Hope College’s annual scholaship drive is the most direct way to help students with tuition. This year’s goal of 750 donations. By 8 p.m. the 750 donation goal was met; by midnight 814 donations were recorded for a total of $143,054 dollars. One donor gave 20-thousand-dollars.
Last year, 661 donors raised just over $133,300 dollars.
While this year’s donations are an overall increase, it reflects a drop in the average donation from 2015’s $200 per donor to just under $175.
The campus has been grappling with a political and spiritual crisis since the April 11 announcement by President John C. Knapp that the school’s Provost Richard Ray would be stepping down. Characterized as a difference in leadership, Knapp’s letter to the students, staff and faculty left the door open for Ray to return and teach in the summer of 2017.
Hope’s board of trustees held an emergency meeting and speculation ran rampant that Knapp was about to get fired. Students held a silent on-campus protest Friday supporting Knapp that attracted hundreds. Faculty spoke out anonymously to local media.
On Monday, the Washington D.C.-based journal Inside Higher Education published confidential emails showing that trustees had considered firing Knapp and may again, when the board meets in May. The journal framed the issue as a fight between those who support Knapp’s more-inclusive policies, particularly for lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual students, and those who oppose them.
But the growing publicity has led some alumni to reconsider donations and speak out. Hope alum Andrew Bredow wrote a blog shared hundreds of times, asking people to use Day of Giving donations to show support for Knapp.
A petition asking trustees to retain Knapp has garnered nearly 1,000 signatures.
