Word: gifts
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...ticket may also have benefited from an announcement by Dean of College Benedict H. Gross ’71 earlier this week that the administration would reimburse student groups for losses due to the gift tax. Petersen actively lobbied for the measure and has said he would continue to lobby until the tax is repealed...
...debate over the gift tax, however, is about more than a mere $15,000 per year (the total cost of a 15 percent tax at last year’s withdrawal levels). It is also a symbolic fight against the rapidly eroding interest in student life within University Hall...
...Knowles’ excuse is tremendously weak. Given the unique position of student groups (relative to other gift account holders in FAS) and the small relative size of these groups, Knowles could have easily lifted the tax for the small number of gift accounts held by student groups. At the very least, he could have suspended it for a year to allow student groups to take appropriate actions in response to the tax. Such an action would not have been warrantless micromanagement; it would have demonstrated a prioritizing of student life...
...Since Knowles has taken over, however, the student-friendly attitude seems to have disappeared. O’Brien’s firing this summer was the first indication, and the gift tax is the first concrete issue on which Knowles’ apparent indifference toward student interests is nakedly apparent. He is treating students as just another FAS constituency rather than as a central element of FAS’ mission that deserves extra attention. This de-prioritization of undergraduates has, in the past, led to horrifying misuses of University resources. To give one stark example, the University built a library...
...director at the Kennedy School, echoed the sentiment of this year’s winners. “Whatever one might think of Cecil Rhodes himself, he did leave money for the Rhodes scholarships, and there are enough Rhodes scholars at Harvard to demonstrate that it was a good gift...