FAS Rejects Repealing Gift Tax

Top administrators cast aside a student-faculty committee’s recommendation to eliminate a new tax on donations to student groups’ accounts, Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 indicated yesterday.

The Committee on College Life (CCL) voted Tuesday to recommend the repeal of the tax on donations to the Harvard Gift Fund, which will rise to 15 percent within the next three years. Student leaders say the tax will place a severe financial strain on campus organizations.

But “there is no plan to repeal it,” according to Gross.

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles “has explained to several of its sponsors on the UC why the FAS cannot make any exceptions to the tax on gift accounts. His position was clear, and remains the same,” Gross wrote in an e-mail.

And if the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) does not repeal the student group tax, the College will not reimburse students for paying the tax, Gross wrote.

Associate Dean of College Judith H. Kidd wrote in an e-mail following the CCL meeting that because “the CCL does not make many recommendations to the Dean for further action,” the recommendation was “significant.”

But Knowles wrote in an e-mail yesterday that he will not “make any exceptions to what is FAS-wide policy (or get into the business of waiving the assessment for particular groups or purposes).”

“As Dean I should not (by making such exceptions) micro-manage the major units of the FAS,” Knowles wrote.

Earlier this month, the Undergraduate Council (UC) voted unanimously for the repeal of the tax.

UC President John S. Haddock ’07 said that even though Knowles has said that he will not repeal the tax, the UC will continue to push for the change.

“The UC and student groups have made a clear case for why student groups are an important exception [to the tax],” Haddock said.

“The idea right now is to maintain maximum pressure from a lot of places because this is an issue that will not go away for student groups,” he said.

President Emerita of the Black Students Association Nneka C. Eze ’07 wrote in an e-mail that student group presidents and treasurers should meet “to decide how to approach their membership and the administration collectively.”

Eze also suggested that student groups should contact alumni of their organziations for advice and support in repealing the student group tax.

Money donated to the tax-deductible Gift Fund often comes from alumni and is then passed on to designated student groups. The tax, which was set at five percent this year, was announced in an e-mail sent to student groups on Sept. 7 by Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II.

Knowles said the tax was necessary to cover “the inevitable associated expenses” of gifts. But UC Student Affairs Committee (SAC) Chair and presidential candidate Ryan A. Petersen ’08 said on Tuesday that FAS, which faces a projected $75 million operating deficit by 2010, “wants more money.”

The repeal of the student group tax has been featured prominently in UC presidential candidates’ campaigns.

Petersen was a sponsor of the UC bill recommending the repeal.

The UC will likely try to garner more faculty support in an attempt to pressure the administration, according to Petersen.

“I won’t be satisfied until this is discussed on the Faculty Meeting floor,” he said.

On his campaign Web site, Petersen said that if FAS doesn’t repeal the tax, he would incorporate the UC as a non-profit umbrella organization as a way to allow student groups to bypass the gift tax.

But presidential candidate Tom D. Hadfield ’08 expressed dissatisfaction with the way in which the UC has lobbied for the repeal.

“The current approach of asking administrators nicely is not working,” Hadfield said. “We need to mobilize the campus.”

Hadfield suggested holding a rally to pressure University Hall to repeal the tax.

“It may be easy for the Dean of the Faculty to ignore a few students sitting in his office, but it will prove very difficult to ignore 1,000 standing outside his window,” his campaign Web site states.

—Alexander D. Blankfein contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Evan H. Jacobs contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Brittney L. Moraski can be reached at bmoraski@fas.harvard.edu.