The President's Committee on the Transitional Year Program (TYP) and the Posse Scholars Program have agreed to match any student's donation to these two programs on a 10-to-one ratio. This fundraising initiative, known as the Student Diversity Initiative, will donate all the money towards the TYP and Posse programs in hopes of expanding diversity on campus.Former Special Projects Coordinator for the Executive Board Lauree Hayden '03 is the driving force behind the student side of the fundraising campaign, which began about a month ago. As a member of Student Union government who focused on issues of diversity and equity at Brandeis, Hayden requested to meet with the chair of the Alumni Committee on TYP and Posse, Eli Segal, to discuss the importance of diversity to students at Brandeis. During the meeting, Segal challenged Hayden to prove that Brandeis students are serious about diversity by raising $1000 for the two programs in 24 hours. Hayden managed to raise the money within hours.

After seeing the results of Hayden's first attempt at fundraising, Segal suggested a larger project in which his committee would donate 10 times the amount each student agreed to give. This money would also help to expand and fund the TYP and Posse programs.

Many participants in these programs are non-white and represent a large amount of racial diversity at Brandeis, according to the organizers of the campaign. Both programs, however, require hefty funds in order to be successful.

Hayden and other students involved in this initiative developed the goal of raising $5,000, which will result in a total $55,000 donated after the alumni's matching gift. According to Hayden, as of Sunday this goal was extremely close to being reached. "By commencement today, we had raised $4,500 for the student diversity."

As former Executive Senator Kate Vogel '03, a student active in this initiative, stated, "This is real money and it matters." Vogel pointed out that in recent years TYP and Posse have both faced monetary problems: TYP had to reduce the number of students in the program from 30 to 20 and Posse had budget problems this year.

"We are trying to promote two programs that do wonders for this community, but it costs a lot," said BTV Station Manager and former Student Union Club Resources Coordinator Nathaniel Westheimer '05, another student who helped organize this campaign.

Westheimer stressed the vast impact money could have in promoting diversity. "This is not just an investment in people, but in our whole community.

It is the hope of students and committee members involved in this fundraising effort that the money raised is just part of a larger effort to increase diversity on the Brandeis campus. "How well Brandeis navigates making access a real opportunity for a diverse group of students is a real test of our ideals and our identity," Hayden said.

Hayden agrees. "In 1948, Brandeis was founded because other institutions of higher learning excluded Jews. Today, the students that are excluded are students of color and poor and working-class students. It's not enough for Brandeis to be on par with our peer institutions. Because of who we are and what we believe, we must do better," she said.

As their goal is quickly being approached, Hayden, Vogel and Westheimer are quick to point out that it is still not too late to make a donation. "This is a long term project. We hope this is just the first year of the diversity initiative," Vogel said.

Students are encouraged by the coordinators to get involved and make this a yearly challenge from the Student Diversity Initiative Committee to the President's Committee on TYP and Posse by the organizers.

According to their Web site, The TYP program was started in 1968 in order to provide talented, yet unprepared, students the chance to pursue a Brandeis education. The Posse program recruits student leaders to Brandeis from urban public schools. Its Web site describes the program's goal: "to recruit students who have extraordinary leadership ability and academic potential that might be overlooked by the traditional university selection process, and to devote the resources and support necessary to allow those students to achieve personal and academic excellence, reach graduation and effect positive changes on their college campus and in their community.