Wilson Joins Front Lines of CSUN Fund Raising : Education: The new college president calls on alumni and parents of current students. She hopes to increase donations by 70%.

Cal State Northridge President Blenda J. Wilson heard first-hand Wednesday how hard it is to raise funds for higher education in recession-wracked Southern California.

To draw attention to the school’s fund-raising drive, she joined student solicitors who do the job seven days a week, for several hours of phoning alumni for contributions.

The responses she heard included:

“My husband was just laid off.”

“I’m pretty well strapped.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to help out at all this year.”

With fewer people working, state revenues have fallen and so has the share given to higher education, including the CSUN campus.

Wilson was hired last year in part because of her experience attracting corporate donors. Her experience was considered crucial for the job because the CSUN fund-raising office in past years has suffered from losses on investments, lack of community interest and little contact with alumni.

As testimony to her powers of persuasion, most of those phoned Wednesday night by Wilson--working alongside about a dozen students who phoned hundreds of others--agreed to pledge some amount, although considerably less than the $1,000 Wilson and the other solicitors originally asked of each caller.

The CSUN president, more accustomed to asking for tens of thousands of dollars and more from corporate leaders, said the telephone solicitation work was harder.

“These are people whose jobs are lost, who have kids in college and the mortgage is due,” Wilson said. “Corporations are in the business of making a profit. It’s easier asking them for money.”

The CSUN administration, facing another year of state budget cuts, is hoping to increase donations from alumni and parents of current students by nearly 70%, with a cash goal of $495,240 for the 1992-93 school year.

To do that, they have 30 student solicitors divided among afternoon and evening shifts operating seven days a week. The students, who earn an hourly wage plus bonuses based on how much they get in pledges, operate 10 telephones connected to computers that automatically dial the home phone numbers of alumni and parents.

The pitch to potential contributors is simple: private donations are needed to supplement the shrinking supply of state dollars. Wilson has predicted that state funding cuts will probably result in staff layoffs in the 1993-94 school year.

Last year, students raised $330,000 by telephone. Altogether, the campus during the 1991-92 school year received $4.4 million in cash and gifts from corporations, foundations, government and private donors, a 9% decline from the previous year.

“The drop had a lot to do with the economy,” said Pamela McClure, interim director of the CSUN Office of University Development. “But we moved up in our ranking among other Cal State schools, so others have experienced the same thing.”

CSUN had ranked 10th among the 20 schools in the California State University system during the 1990-91 school year in total donations received, but its new position has not been calculated.