Students Vow Not to Donate to Harvard Law School

About 130 Harvard Law School students have signed a pledge vowing never to donate to the school after graduation because of their dissatisfaction over how it is run.

Gene Garfield, a third-year law student and one of the petition organizers, said the petition did not mention specific grievances. Students had different reasons for signing it, he said, adding that he was disturbed by the school’s “unresponsive” faculty, 12% annual tuition increases over the last two years and the condition of several of the school’s dormitories and the school’s gymnasium, which he said “harkens back to the 1920s.”

Scott G. Nichols, director of alumni affairs and dean of development, said the students who signed the petition constituted a small minority of the 1,800 at the school.