Alumni Donations Down; Director Blames Economy

Alumni contributions to Harvard College are declining for the second straight year. The total number of donors to the Harvard College Fund is off 18 per cent compared to this date last year, while the total amount given has declined 8 per cent.

Albert H. Gordon '23, chairman of the Fund, said last week that the Fund is caught in an economic bind. Inflationary pressures have made an annual increase in alumni giving imperative to meet the costs of higher education, but the economic decline of the country has combined with alumni uneasiness over student unrest to hold back the needed increase.

"This is an over-generalization, but some people instinctively don't like giving money," Gordon said last Wednesday. "If they have a good rationalization to stop giving they will, and once they stop, they won't start again. The economic conditions have kept us from getting any new contributors.

"As of today, the economic factors are the most important. The graduates feel that the 'lunacy', to use Steve Kelman's word, has ceased," Gordon said, referring to Push Comes to Shove, a critique of Harvard radicalism by Steven J. Kelman '70.

Uneasiness

Gordon maintained, however, that the alumni's uneasiness towards the "conditions" at Harvard precipitated the decline in alumni giving, while the economic factors have only compounded the problem.

"Take the Business School, for example," Gordon said. "Alumni giving is up 5 per cent despite the economic downfall. The graduates of the Business School feel that the Business School students have a more realistic attitude."

The decline in alumni giving bodes particularly poorly for maintenance of Harvard's ability to supply scholarships to all who need them. The money raised by the Harvard College Fund comprises 60 per cent of the "unrestricted" budget of the College, and half of all scholarship money comes from the unrestricted funds.

Gordon said it's sometimes easier to raise money for specific projects such as the $43 million science center than for financial aid to students.

"A lot of people won't give money specifically for scholarships," Gordon said. "They think it's overdone. They say, 'Look, we give this money, and he scholarship students burn down buildings.' They don't know that scholarship boys cause less trouble than non-scholarship students. I guess being on scholarship gives them a sense of responsibility."

A few people also wonder why a fund-raising drive spends over $200,000 of the money it raises on reunions.

Reunions Are Not Ridiculous

"Look at how much money reunions raise." Gordon said. "You may think they're ridiculous, but they really generate enthusiasm."

Yale, Princeton, and Dartmouth all have a higher percentage of alumni who donate annually to the college than Harvard does, but only the Yale alumni contributed more money last year. Fifty-eight per cent of Dartmonth alumni gave in 1969-70, along with 56.1 per cent of Princeton graduates and 45 per cent of Yale graduates who gave to their respective institutions.