Acknowledgment for Education: A Box of Money Sent to a New York College Teacher

Returning to personal teaching this semester, Vinod Menon, professor of physics at City College of New York in Harlem, finally looked through a stack of office mail and found a toaster-sized cardboard box. He told the story of the mysterious parcel The New York Times.

Box heavy enough to cover $ 90 postage for Priority Mail. It was addressed to the "Chairman of the Physics Department" - his position.

Perhaps it was a token of gratitude from a former student, Dr. Menon thought. He began inspecting the postmarked parcel on November 10, 2020. The package was held for more than nine months, first at the campus post office and then at the physics department office.

A letter is attached to the parcel

For Dr. Menon, 49, who specializes in nano- and micro-photonics, the exciting moment usually comes in the lab on campus with some kind of breakthrough in exploring how light interacts with matter at the quantum level.

But the matter enclosed in a cardboard box gave him a lot of charge. It was full of $ 50 and $ 100 bills held together by paper ribbons. The total amount of money in the box is $ 180.

The attached letter to Dr. Menon explains that the money was a donation. They were meant for helping physicists in need and mathematicians at City College.

“It was a complete shock - I know a lot of scientists and have never heard anything like it,” he said. "I didn't know if the college accepted cash, so I didn't know if they would keep the money."

The letter explains the donor's motives.

“Assuming you're a little curious as to why I'm doing this, the reason is simple,” wrote the donor, who said he or she “a long time ago” took advantage of the “great educational opportunity”.

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The donor, according to the note, attended Stuyvesant High School and received his BA and MA in physics from City College. This helped him to pursue a "long, productive and extremely rewarding" scientific career.

The note was unsigned, and the name on the return address was Kyle Paisley. However, a graduate with this name is not in the archival documents of the university.

College donations are not uncommon

The City College received larger donations. It has raised $ 17,2 million since the start of the fiscal year in July.

But Dr. Menon said the gift was not so much in dollar terms as "evidence of what the physics department has been doing all these years."

He noted that since the annual tuition fee at City College is $ 7500, donations will go much further than an expensive private educational institution.

The leaders of both the college and the entire CUNY system could not remember this kind of donation.

"Kyle Paisley" seemed to be a fictitious name, said Chief Pat Morena, who heads the Department of Public Safety at City College, the parent school in the city's 25-college public university system, the largest public city university system in the country.

"Who gets the $ 180 sent to them in cash, and the person who sends it is anonymous?" - he asked.

Money was "treated like evidence"

It is also noteworthy that the donation was intended for the physics department, which has a long and distinguished history. In 1921, Albert Einstein gave one of his first lectures there in the United States. The department broke its records long ago: three of its graduates became Nobel Prize winners in physics.

Due to the proliferation of mail on campus caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the unobtrusive mailbox has probably been in the main post office of the college for several months as a "regular daily package." It was delivered along with other stockpiled packages, most likely in March, said Post Office manager Robin Cruz.

But Dr. Menon has been teaching remotely since March 2020. He was doing research in a lab across from the chairman's office and checking mail at the end of the summer.

“It's crazy that they were just lying in the post office or even mailed - the person trusted the system a lot,” Menon said. At first, he was afraid to even touch the money when he opened the drawer.

The money was “treated like evidence” and kept in a safe at the public security office. Office officials contacted federal authorities to "find out if it was possible that it was the proceeds of crime."

Based on information about the cash-packing gangs, federal agents determined they had been seized from several banks in Maryland in recent years and were not associated with criminal activity, Chief Moreno said.

As a result, the college accepted a generous gift.

The address on the package is a real house in Pensacola CUNY state of Florida. But the address did not lead to anyone involved with the donation.

Employees of the federal postal inspection service were unable to obtain a video recording of the parcel being sent. So after a month-long investigation, authorities told college officials that the donor's identity was "really not traceable."

The Board of Trustees received permission to formally vote to accept the gift at its meeting on December 13th.

They did it with great joy.

“It's just amazing $ 180 in cash in a box,” said Chairman William C. Thompson, introducing the vote.

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When asked by a board member if this was the first time, CUNY Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez said, “I think this is the first time.”

Dr. Menon said money will have a huge impact. The department will spend it funding two full-time scholarships each year for over ten years. In the spirit of donation, he said, the scholarship would require students to "give back in some way." Perhaps through peer mentoring.

The professor emigrated from India in 1996. He has taught and conducted research at public universities and private institutions. Menon has worked at Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others.

He received offers to teach in elite schools. Dr. Menon stayed at City College largely because of his desire to offer affordable education to a diverse range of students. Many college students are immigrants. Many of his students come from families that have never attended college, he said. Many of them have never been to laboratories.