Charitable gifts to colleges by alumni

Re “Don’t waste your gift,” Opinion, Nov. 25

When I first read Martin Kimel’s Op-Ed article arguing that wealthy alumni of wealthy colleges should not waste their charitable donations by giving to schools that are already rich, my first thought was to cheer.

Better to give money to my alma mater, UC Hastings College of the Law, than to Kimel’s fabulously wealthy Stanford Law School, I thought. After all, Hastings needs to transform its campus into a garden of academia in the heart of San Francisco’s Tenderloin skid row, while Stanford is already such a garden.

But then Kimel started questioning whether such schools should be giving scholarships to students who will go on to well-paying careers as lawyers and stockbrokers.

Kimel is wrong. Those are the scholarships that the schools need to be giving out. They allow poor people the opportunity to step up to the world of wealth, where they can repay their schools by donating large sums for new scholarships and allow other poor students an opportunity for education.

Kimel says he doesn’t object to scholarships for people like himself (and me), who have gone on to be government and public interest lawyers, but those lawyers don’t make the kind of money needed to fund scholarships and recruit the best professors.

RANDALL H. STONER

Victorville

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In many respects, I can understand and appreciate Kimel’s perspective criticizing the endowment races.

However, he cites the top 25 endowments and exploits the sheer volume of those select few institutions to illustrate his point. He dismisses the nearly 3,500 other institutions in the United States that do not enjoy such extravagant endowments. These institutions rely heavily on the private contributions of alumni, corporations and friends.

To dismiss charitable giving to higher education because of the inflated endowments of a select number of institutions is an irresponsible and rash proposition. When evaluating charitable giving decisions, individuals need to consider how their dollars will be used and make informed decisions about how those contributions can help to make a difference.

KIM FIELD

Tallahassee, Fla.