The University has been mentioned in two separate media stories today and, given some inaccuracies present in both, we wanted to ensure staff and students were aware of the University’s position.
The Southern Daily Echo carries a story about the recruitment of a part-time university driver. The University’s response is:
“The advertisement is for an existing job with dual responsibilities and is seeking a replacement for a colleague who is retiring. The role is for someone to work part-time in a caretaking role, and part-time as a driver for the University pool car. This car is used by a wide range of visitors and senior members of staff, including the Vice-Chancellor who is a minority user of this service, so they can work while in transit and where public transport is not available. The vehicle is only used in the context of work-related travel. The Vice-Chancellor travels to and from work in his own car for which he pays the University parking charge.”
The Daily Mail’s lead story is about the use of wealth-screening of alumni by university fundraising departments. Southampton is not mentioned in the main story but is included in a table of universities.
The University’s response is:
“The University was recently contacted by the Daily Mail enquiring about our past involvement in the wealth-screening of our graduates. This activity was used by us between 2010 – 2013 to closely align our fundraising activity with the interests and means of our alumni and supporters. No such activity has taken place since then. The figure quoted in the Daily Mail of 497,917 represented the total number of records over a three year period. The actual number of individual records shared was 197,000. We are a signatory to the Fundraising Regulatory Code of Practice and this activity was fully compliant with the law and disclosed on our websites at the time.
“Our University was founded on philanthropy and, throughout its history, thousands of donors have supported many projects including: scholarships to provide access to education for talented students regardless of their background, funding to help save lives by developing immunotherapies for cancer, bursaries to enable our students to become global citizens by accessing educational exchanges across the world, enterprise start-up funds for emerging entrepreneurs, and award winning societies that help develop a broader set of life experiences. Philanthropy at Southampton has raised over £39m since 2010. We are extremely proud of and grateful for the support we receive from our alumni and donors.“
