 "Photo: Courtesy Christine Dellert")
UCF faculty and staff now have the option to contribute long-term relief to Haiti. A new payroll deduction plan, which runs from February until December, offers faculty and staff the ability to contribute more money during a longer period of time.
According to UCF News & Information, the money will be donated to three outside Haiti relief funds: the American Red Cross, the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and the Harris Rosen Foundation Haiti Relief and Sustainability Efforts.
Faculty and staff are able to make one-time contributions to these funds or pledge a specific amount from each paycheck until their goal amount is reached.
“It was suggested to us that, boy, it would be really nice, instead of just having to write one check, if there was a way we could just painlessly take it out of our pay,” said Al Harms, who is the chairman for Task Force H.O.P.E.
The Healing, Outreach, Partnership and Education task force is a volunteer organization of UCF students, staff, faculty and administrators who wish to aid in relief projects in Haiti.
The task force was appointed by President John Hitt to focus UCF’s efforts and contributions in Haiti.
“We made a decision to pick three funds that we thought were pretty universal,” said Harms, the vice president of Strategy, Marketing, Communications & Admissions at UCF.
“All of the fundraising agencies that are credible suggested that we select funds that are established, that have a network that could get aid reliably to Haiti, and also that they had a proven track record of good accounting practices and that the money goes where it’s said it’s going to go.”
Harms said that the task force chose the Red Cross because it was well-established and a “no-brainer,” the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund because it was nationally focused and the Harris Rosen fund because one of UCF’s own trustees headed up the fund.
“He jumped up and made a commitment of $250,000,” Harms said, “and he also made a promise that there would be no overhead. Every single penny that was donated would go to the relief effort itself.”
Some of UCF’s faculty and staff have already given aid and have said that they will not participate in the payroll deduction.
“Me and my wife gave immediately to UNICEF,” said Doan Modianos, the associate vice president of Strategic Planning at UCF.
He said they trusted UNICEF and trusted that their funds would send the most relief to Haiti.
He also said that he and his wife continued to give independently, including watching the benefit concert “Hope for Haiti Now” and buying the album from iTunes.
Though he is not planning to participate in the payroll deduction, he said he encourages his colleagues to give to relief efforts.
Richard Gilson, a professor in the Psychology department and program director for applied and experimental human factors, said he already contributes from every paycheck to a scholarship fund. He has his reservations about Haiti.
“That would not be something I would do, personally,” he said. “As to Haiti, per se, I think it should be individual, and we do as much as we can in that area, but I wouldn’t see it as a payroll deduction. You may not like that, but that’s what I think.”
John Walker, a professor in the Anthropology department, said his family plans out their giving ahead of time, especially in the past few years.
“I guess I’m in favor of this,” he said. “I don’t have anything against it. But that doesn’t mean that it’s going to fit into the budget that I’ve already planned out.”
Harms said that he’s happy that people gave to outside efforts and that the payroll deduction option is for people who have not had the chance to give or who are unable to write a large check at one time.
“Some people, instead of writing that big check, could give $20 a payday or whatever they wanted to do,” he said. “We thought we could set it up for people who wanted to do something on a more enduring basis.”
Harms cautioned people who are looking to donate to funds to outside relief efforts.
“Just be careful,” he said. “Some charities have a very high overhead, and upwards of 50 percent of your donation could end up supporting the organization and not really supporting the people that they’re purporting to help.”
The payroll deduction plan is one effort in UCF’s long-term goals to aid in the rebuilding of Haiti.
Task Force H.O.P.E is looking to Haiti’s future and the rebuilding of the country.
It had a donation drive with Harvest Time International, in cooperation with Volunteer UCF, and it plans several more for the future. Additionally, the task force plans to bring volunteer groups into Haiti in the future to help clean up and rebuild.
“We will either strengthen and/or expand relief teams that will partner with some organization in Haiti, and go down and help,” Harms said. “Official trips that would be sanctioned by the university are going to be put on hold, at least until the State Department says it’s safe to go down there again.”
Until then, Task Force H.O.P.E. is holding benefit dinners and food drives to help the citizens of Haiti.
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