NYU Launches ‘Call to Action’ For Student Aid With Lead Gift

By Eric Narburgh

This fall marks the launch of NYU’s “Call to Action,” a new initiative to increase support of scholarships and fellowships for students, which comes at a crucial moment in higher education. With tuition rising nationally and the economy distressed, several Ivy League institutions have made headlines for their efforts to increase financial aid, but with a per-student endowment of only $62,000—compared to $2 million at Princeton and Yale—NYU lacks the resources to do the same. Nonetheless, NYU still admits more low-income students than many of its peers. 
    The lengths to which students go to attend NYU illustrate their determination: 80 percent of undergraduates work one part-time job, 25 percent work two, and almost 500 students work three. Still, the average debt of a graduating student is over $34,000. Through NYU’s Call to Action, the University is asking its entire community to help alleviate this burden.    
    The effort is off to a positive start, thanks to a leadership gift from alumna Steffi Mokotoff Berne (WSC ’63), who recently made a contribution to establish the Steffi Berne Scholarship Fund at the College of Arts and Science. The scholarship will be awarded to students enrolled in the Collegiate Seminar Program, which connects students with faculty mentors who guide them throughout their academic career at NYU. The Collegiate Seminar Program was launched in 2007, thanks to a gift from NYU Trustee Constance Milstein and her foundation. 
    Berne intends to endow her scholarship in perpetuity by leaving a legacy in her will in support of the University. However, beginning in 2009, she will make annual contributions in support of expendable scholarships so that students can benefit now. 
    “Steffi’s transformative gift provides essential aid in perpetuity to some of the college’s most talented and deserving students,” said Matthew Santirocco, dean of the College of Arts and Science. “It also sends the clear message that NYU and its alumni care about our current undergraduates. Steffi’s vision and generosity will not only improve the lives of students in the college, but it will also inspire others to answer the Call to Action.”
    Through the initiative, donors can sponsor a student for four years by providing a scholarship or fellowship, join others in establishing an endowed fund, or make a gift of any amount to The Fund for NYU, a vital source of financial aid funding. In the process, the University will narrow the tuition gap, reduce the burdens of student loan debt and part-time jobs, and support more graduate and post-doctoral students in the face of diminished government funding. 
    In addition to providing much-needed scholarship and fellowship support, the Call to Action will have an additional benefit—inspiring a new generation of students and scholarship recipients to give back. 
    “As we help current undergraduates, we hope they will continue our tradition of supporting scholarships,” said Berne, a successful cookbook author who majored in comparative literature at NYU. “Today’s students are the alumni of tomorrow, and they will have an opportunity to help future generations become part of the NYU family.”  
    To find out more about NYU’s Call to Action, visit giving.nyu.edu/ calltoaction.