Spend Money on Harvard

I support wholeheartedly the student effort to raise money to buy relief supplies for the victims of the war in Bosnia.

But the staff's call for the University to "pitch in" and match the amount of donations raised by students is arbitrary and naive.

Harvard should not selectively choose to bankroll charity or humanitarian efforts, regardless of how worthy or in vogue they may be.

The fact that the University has already raised nearly a billion dollars as part of its capital campaign is irrelevant to the staff's plea for money. The billion dollars in donations to Harvard are dollars earmarked for specific programs to benefit Harvard and its community and are the product of a specific fund raising drive. This money is wholly separate from the University's operating budget and should not be taken into consideration in the allocation of any other University dollars.

Finally, the University's resources are just too many areas for education dollars to be spent in this way.