Giving to Harvard

Okay, I am DYING to get started on our Justice course, but I said that it would start on Saturday, so let’s just wait until Saturday.  12 am, Saturday morning.  I suppose it’s only two and a half days away.  Oi.

I saw this great blog post on the NY Times website, which I think is a great lead-in to our Justice course: Should you give to Harvard?  In the blog post, Randy Cohen argues that one should not give money to Harvard and that money serves a greater social good when it goes towards community colleges, or historically black colleges, or schools that attend to the needs of a greater number of students.  He rails against Harvard as a bastion of elites and elitist thinking.

Check out the comments–I found them funnier than the article itself.  All in all, I think that people have a right to give to whatever institution they want.  As some of the comments mention, lots of Harvard’s money goes towards high-level research, something which smaller institutions do not do.  Also, this comment mentions that people give to their universities out of affinity not altruism.  Also true.  I liked this comment, which addresses how Americans typically have both the best and the worse and (maybe) suggests that it’s part of our national character.

I bring this up because of our Justice course covers the idea of responsibility from the very first lesson.  Check it out here:

There are many poor people in the world who lack the money to buy food, clothing, shelter, and medicine. If you were to donate $100 to a charity such as Oxfam, then some of these people would get what they desperately need and you would thereby increase happiness. But if you were to donate all of your spare income each month, then even more people would get what they desperately need and you would produce even more happiness. Should you donate all of your spare income to charities such as Oxfam? Would it be wrong not to do so?

I’m totally looking forward to the class.  This topic won’t be Asian American related, but by studying the ideas, maybe we could become better people.  Feel free to discuss philanthropy!

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