June 11, 2004

Survey Notes Negative Correlation Between Alumni Giving and Political Commencement Speeches

By ERIN STROUT

Political campaigns and higher-education fund-raising campaigns apparently don't mix.

Inviting President Bush or Sen. John F. Kerry to speak on a campus may produce a wealth of publicity, but the riches end there for institutions trying to raise real money, according to a survey of 669 college graduates by Opinion Dynamics Corporation, a public-opinion-research company based in Cambridge, Mass.

The survey shows that colleges with alumni groups that mirror the country's partisan