Why I'm not giving any money to Harvard
Fellow Harvard alums, feel free to borrow
from this open letter to explain why you feel fair Harvard can continue to
stagger along without your contribution to its 17 billion dollar
endowment.
Dear Class of 1990 Participation
Chairs,
I was initially intrigued to receive your e-mail message entitled “Support the class of 1990,” as I was somewhat fond of various members of the class, and would consider supporting them in their worthy endeavors. I soon realized, however, that your message was in fact an exhortation to send my hard-earned dollars to the Harvard College Fund. I fear I must respectfully decline.
As shown in this report, Harvard’s endowment was worth 17 billion dollars in 2002. 17 billion dollars is quite a large sum of money. It is significantly larger than any other university endowment. It is larger than the assets of many corporations. It may well be larger than the budgets of several small third-world nations. The obvious question arises: Why does Harvard need yet more money?
What is lacking from your letter is any indication of some ultimate goal, some final point at which the Harvard administration will at last relax, and decide that they have enough money. If $17 billion isn’t sufficient, what is? Quite frankly, donating money to Harvard feels a lot like spitting into the Grand Canyon. After a while, it gets tiring, and it’s hard to see the point.
Yes, yes, yes, Harvard is a grand old institution of higher learning, and it provides financial aid to many of its students. But there are other schools of at least comparable merit that provide similar levels of financial aid. Yet arch-rival Yale somehow manages to get by on a measly $10.5 billion endowment. Princeton’s endowment is a mere $8.3 billion, while Stanford’s is a modest $7.6 billion. My graduate school, MIT, makes do with a feeble $5.3 billion endowment. Surely MIT must need me more? The entire University of California system, comprising eight campuses and ten times as many students as Harvard University, has an endowment of only $4 billion. While the UC system also gets money from the state, California’s financial health is none too good these days, so I can’t help but feel that my fellow state citizens might also need my contributions more than Harvard does.
After all, we must face the tragic truth: not everyone can attend Harvard. Given that Harvard has sufficient funds to get by for a while on its own, it seems only fair to spread the wealth a bit. Students who have already suffered the devastating blow of being forced to attend a “lesser school” should not have to struggle further for lack of financial aid because all the donation dollars have gone to Harvard.
Your argument that “a gift is a vote of confidence in Harvard’s positive role in our society” is duly noted. Please inform the fine folks administering the University that my declining to donate should not be taken personally. If they need a vote of confidence, why not set up a new “vote whether you think Harvard plays a positive role in our society” page linked to the donation website? I’d be happy to click the “yes” box to show my support!
Sincerely,
Barrie
P.S. I hope you have a great summer!
I was initially intrigued to receive your e-mail message entitled “Support the class of 1990,” as I was somewhat fond of various members of the class, and would consider supporting them in their worthy endeavors. I soon realized, however, that your message was in fact an exhortation to send my hard-earned dollars to the Harvard College Fund. I fear I must respectfully decline.
As shown in this report, Harvard’s endowment was worth 17 billion dollars in 2002. 17 billion dollars is quite a large sum of money. It is significantly larger than any other university endowment. It is larger than the assets of many corporations. It may well be larger than the budgets of several small third-world nations. The obvious question arises: Why does Harvard need yet more money?
What is lacking from your letter is any indication of some ultimate goal, some final point at which the Harvard administration will at last relax, and decide that they have enough money. If $17 billion isn’t sufficient, what is? Quite frankly, donating money to Harvard feels a lot like spitting into the Grand Canyon. After a while, it gets tiring, and it’s hard to see the point.
Yes, yes, yes, Harvard is a grand old institution of higher learning, and it provides financial aid to many of its students. But there are other schools of at least comparable merit that provide similar levels of financial aid. Yet arch-rival Yale somehow manages to get by on a measly $10.5 billion endowment. Princeton’s endowment is a mere $8.3 billion, while Stanford’s is a modest $7.6 billion. My graduate school, MIT, makes do with a feeble $5.3 billion endowment. Surely MIT must need me more? The entire University of California system, comprising eight campuses and ten times as many students as Harvard University, has an endowment of only $4 billion. While the UC system also gets money from the state, California’s financial health is none too good these days, so I can’t help but feel that my fellow state citizens might also need my contributions more than Harvard does.
After all, we must face the tragic truth: not everyone can attend Harvard. Given that Harvard has sufficient funds to get by for a while on its own, it seems only fair to spread the wealth a bit. Students who have already suffered the devastating blow of being forced to attend a “lesser school” should not have to struggle further for lack of financial aid because all the donation dollars have gone to Harvard.
Your argument that “a gift is a vote of confidence in Harvard’s positive role in our society” is duly noted. Please inform the fine folks administering the University that my declining to donate should not be taken personally. If they need a vote of confidence, why not set up a new “vote whether you think Harvard plays a positive role in our society” page linked to the donation website? I’d be happy to click the “yes” box to show my support!
Sincerely,
Barrie
P.S. I hope you have a great summer!
Posted: Sat - July 5, 2003 at 04:05 PM
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Published On: Nov 16, 2003 06:43 PM
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Published On: Nov 16, 2003 06:43 PM