Class gift shift

Students focus on fund raising after chair Shaki leaves

The voting is done and the selection has been made, but the work is far from over for the 1998 Senior Class Gift Committee.

This year the committee will enter the most critical fund-raising phase for the gift with a new chair and a smaller committee.

Former Overall Chair of the Senior Class Gift Committee Paula Shaki resigned her position when she decided to leave State College. She is working at an internship at The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in northern Virginia.

"I left because I wanted to be with my fiance and take an internship that would help my career," Shaki said.

The announcement came just as the committee was finishing the Fall Semester fund-raising drive and was beginning to prepare for bigger efforts in the Spring Semester, said Stephanie Twine, the former gift selection chair who was appointed overall chair after Shaki's announcement.

The focus of the Spring Semester will be on fund raising through phone calls, mailings and other methods, said Meghan Marshall, advertising and public relations chair.

So far the committee has received about 650 pledges for about $24,000 total, said Sue Powell, the adviser to the committee.

The committee also met with the architects of the HUB to discuss designs for the gift, a terrace to be added to the renovated HUB, Powell added.

"I couldn't be happier with the communication that this senior class has with the construction," she said. "The volume of people who are going to use this is significant." In the middle of the "fast and furious" fund-raising campaign, losing the overall chair -- something Powell has never seen -- was devastating to her. However, the strength of the committee made the change easier.

"It's a huge school. It's a huge task," Powell said. "The transition was relatively easy so there's no (noticeable) difference in leadership."

The decision was not easy for Shaki.

"I didn't want to shirk on an obligation or a responsibility that I had," she said. "There was no happy way to do it."

Some members of the overall committee said they were surprised when they found out in early November about her resignation but were more concerned about the next phase of the fund raising for the selected gift.

"I can look back now and know that it was a little frightening when she told us she was leaving," Twine said.

Because Twine's official duties were completed, she was the likely candidate for Shaki's successor, said Shaki, who added that Twine is a take-charge person who can get a lot done.

Because the committee always worked so well together, Marshall said the transition was rather smooth, although Shaki will be missed.

And since Shaki's departure, the committee was brought closer together to achieve their goal of $100,000, said Bret Gregory, technology chair.