How Do I Give?

It's that time of year again. At least, it soon will be. Commencement is still a good eight months away, but various groups on campus are already preparing for the annual circus that will surround Harvard this June. The year-book committee is signing up seniors to have portraits taken. Elections are under way for Harvard and Radcliffe Class Marshals. And soon, the College will start trying to coax students to give to the Senior Gift Fund.

When I learned about the Senior Gift Fund during my first year, I was greatly irritated. "My mother pays an obscene amount of money for me to come here," I squawked. "Now they want me to pay even more?" I angrily vowed that I would not donate a single dollar to the College when the time came to give. Simply attending Harvard-Radcliffe was expensive enough. Besides, my measly little contribution would never be missed next to the more generous gifts of more prosperous students.

But now, looking back at the three years I've spent here, the nostalgia and rose-colored contact lenses of time are taking over. The Harvard-Radcliffe experience will leave my mother and me in debt for years to come. But as many of us seniors are starting to realize, the benefits that will come with the degree are priceless. From (hopefully) job offers to connections, lifelong friendships to learning in and outside of classes, the College has given all of us a great deal. The least we can do, it now seems, is offer up a few dollars of our graduation gift money as a small thank you.

The question is: Who gets the goods?

The most obvious answer is the Senior Gift Fund. But I question handing over my hard-earned token of thanks to the first hand that asks for it. After all, as much as Harvard-Radcliffe has given me, I still feel like I've been short-changed in many respects: a lack of women offered tenure, overcrowded lectures, a set of Core offerings that is beyond pathetic. Considering Harvard's reputation, these grievances are not trivial. If money talks, maybe I should make mine speak as loudly and as clearly as possible.

The Alternative Senior Gift Fund (ASGF), started two years ago by Megan Peimer '97, was a cause I sincerely wanted to support. The University will not receive the money donated to the ASGF until the number of tenured female professors matches the number Harvard once claimed would be hired. The Committee for the Equality of Women at Harvard is currently responsible for the money donated to the fund by the Class of '97. No word has yet been issued as to whether the Class of '99 will be asked to donate to the fund.

But perhaps my money should instead be donated to the particular groups that have contributed to my life as an undergraduate. From the Phillips Brooks House Association to the Harvard University Marching Band to the paper you're holding in your hands, many student organizations use donations from alums to offer scholarships or reimbursements of dues to dedicated members. Then again, trying to decide which organizations deserve my money and figuring out how much each one is worth is a calculation I don't look forward to making.

I could just forget about donating anything to anyone before I get my own career off the ground. But then some suppressed page from that darn "Life's Little Instruction Book" begins to pop back to life, sweetly reminding me: "Now, if everybody thought that way, where would you be? Probably out of a lot of financial aid, young lady." And if my kindergarten teacher-esque conscience doesn't force my checkbook open, I'm sure that peer pressure will.

We each have to decide how big, how small, how loud and how low-key we want our gifts to Harvard to be. But I wouldn't break out my checkbook quite yet if I were you. The University still has almost two full semesters left to court our cash--or convince us that it would be better spent on anything but Harvard.

Sarah A. Rodriguez '99, an English and American literature and languages concentrator in Winthrop House, is The Crimson's associate arts editor.