November 17, 2003, here on slacktivist: Distinguished alumni
At its best, Eastern is proud of alumni like Bryan Stevenson. The school is proud, and rightly so, that it helped to produce someone who has placed the pursuit of justice ahead of the pursuit of personal financial gain.
Yet one also detects a faint whiff of something else. The school’s genuine desire to produce more such champions of justice also carries with it a note of fear — What if all of our alumni were to do this? What would happen to alumni giving? And can you really attract prospective students to a $17,000-a-year institution with the promise of earning a lousy $25,000 a year working alongside the poor, the despised and the outcast?
I don’t pretend to have the answers for Eastern or for other institutions struggling to balance their financial realities with their commitments to justice and public service. The deck seems to be stacked against the latter.
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