Chris Blattman

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When is UC Berkeley going to figure out that it’s not OK to call alumni at midnight on Friday to ask for money? @Cal

Apparently, someone missed the memo that not all people who went to Cal live in PST. Though 9pm PST on a Friday even seems like a dodgy time to call.

Conveniently, they also seemed to have missed the request that I be taken off the calling list, requested each of the last three times they called at midnight o a Friday.

Needless to say, I am not giving.

In fact, at the moment, I have an overwhelming urge to give to Stanford.

12 Responses

  1. Let me guess, you kept your phone number when you moved across the country, and they are using your area code to identify where you live and decide when to call?

    Same problem here but in reverse. I moved to San Diego from Boston, and back in the early 2000s when I still went to Blockbuster, I would get reminder phone calls at 6:30am that my video was due.

  2. As someone who used to work as a telefundraiser in college for an anonymous university… let me say that we were not supposed to call after 9pm in whatever time zone you lived in :) And yes, I’ll confirm that we didn’t work 9-5pm we were students who worked 6pm-10pm and I believe that’s the case at most universities. Probably a computer mix up…

  3. The joke about giving to Stanford was *not* funny. I am a Cal grad in NY, and I never get calls; perhaps, that is because I make regular, albeit small, donations as a way to pay back Berkeley and the people of California for the free-ride I received. It continually amazes me what Cal does with far fewer resources than Stanford or, dare I say, Yale. If Cal had the endowment and fundraising of the private schools in its cohort, it would blow them all out of the water. You would be pining for a tenure track opening in PEIS, but you would not have a chance because you failed to give a little $ when needed.

  4. What? Fundraisers never call 9-5. they work evenings exclusively. Good times and bad.

    I was understanding the first and (to a lesser extent) the second time they made the mistake. the third time…

  5. I work on campus (different department of course) but have a very hard time believing any member of staff would still be calling around that late. Most folks leave by 5.
    If there is someone at work & still making calls that late, you should feel sad for them. They’re probably just trying to hang onto their jobs. Layoffs are making everyone crazy & staff are treated like lower class citizens that are extremely expendable.

  6. I finally managed to get off my undergrad alma mater’s fundraising lists, but it involved indignant emails, several phone calls, and use of the question, “What part of ‘dead to me’ was unclear?” It worked, though. :)

  7. Just donate directly to the Cal GEA. We’ll *never* call you at midnight. Heck, we’ll never call you at all if you’d like :-)

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