Minority Opposes Plans For 'Cliffe Fund Drive

Radcliffe College will hold its annual charity fund drive the week of Mar. 1, despite protests from a vocal minority which has called the drive "hypocritical" and "poorly organized."

For the first time, students will be able to write in the charities of their choice if they object to the four or five recommended organizations to be selected by the Student Government Association representatives at their next meet-in February.

The change was urged by 35 per cent of the students who returned a questionnaire about the drive. Those replying also approved the decision to run the drive separately from Harvard's.

The dissenters listed a number of "philosophical objections" and questioned the purpose of organized donations. "Massive drives are not only obnoxious: they lead to facile giving and discourage us from thinking about what we're doing," one girl declared. "Giving should be a personal matter."

"It's hypocritical," explained another. "We're giving our parents' money, not our own."

"I agree that Radcliffe should try to be a good citizen of Cambridge, but this is not the way to do it," a spokesman for the dissatisfied group commented. "It would be better to do something only Radcliffe could do, such as offering a local scholarship."

Pointing out that the drive nets less than $2,000 yearly, she said, "It's really shameful to gather chicken feed and give it in the name of the whole College. We're only pretending to be generous."

"Pious, but ..."

She characterized past drives as "very pious and very snotty" and criticized the SGA for failing to sound out student opinion on the issue. "It's encouraging that for once we've had the opportunity to talk about it--I just hope someone was listening."

At the last SGA meeting, a few representatives urged that the charity drive be reviewed by student leaders and Administration officials at the semiannual Cedar Hill Conference Feb. 7. The move was squelched by others who argued, "We're never going to resolve this question."

"We've talked about the drive a lot, but what's happened? There's someone off running the damn thing, as usual," a member of the opposition grumbled. Prophesied a representative from the dormitory most strongly critical of the fund campaign: "We're going to have one hell of a time collecting money from Whitman."

Karen S. Cotzin '63, chairman of the drive, spoke out in favor of it last night. "A lot of girls like to give to charity this way. They don't know how to do it otherwise. People who don't want to give don't have to., We won't harass them."

Miss Cotzin hopes to set a goal of $2,000, although she admitted, "I have no idea how much money we'll get."