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Whether you tend to see cups as half-empty or half-full, one measure remains constant: Student fees only cover 67 percent of the �Ա���Ƶ experience.

Since those 13 men with 13 dollars and 13 prayers first gathered at Olmstead house, alumni and friends have stepped forward to fill the legendary “gap.”

If the university started funding its mission exclusively with tuition revenue on Move-In Day, those dollars would run out at approximately the same time students return from Spring Break on March 21. To commemorate the moment, undergraduates and members of the university’s advancement staff have expanded it into a week-long celebration: Tuition-Free Week.

Signs posted around the university, March 21-28, will recognize generous alumni and remind everyone that philanthropy has an impact on each aspect of campus life — the courses students take, professors they encounter, trips they join, buildings they inhabit, and even the food they eat.

On Wednesday, March 24, students will gather in the Coop for a Thank-a-Thon, a new initiative that gives undergraduates a chance to send personal notes to alumni who have provided critical support for scholarships, financial aid, and more. Two days later, student members of the Presidents’ Club — the university’s leadership giving society — will have an opportunity to say “thank you” in person when they meet with the Board of Trustees for a networking luncheon in Donovan’s Pub.

“This is a perfect time to talk with students about philanthropy while they’re on campus,” says annual fund assistant director Mike Tone ’07, who coordinates the program.

For more information on the various ways that alumni and friends make the �Ա���Ƶ experience possible, visit .