IT WAS A SATURDAY afternoon. I was about to go outside to sit in the sun when the phone rang.

"Hello," I said.

"Hi, this is Bitsy. (I have changed her name to protect her reputation.) I'm calling about the Senior Class Gift..."

There was a pregnant pause which I quickly filled by explaining that I had planned to give money directly to my department and extracurricular activities instead of the class gift.

"Well," she said, "You can give $25, $50 or $100. And because we know graduating seniors don't have much money, of course you can give a smaller amount."

Maybe she hadn't heard me. "I am not going to give to the senior class gift," I repeated.

"A lot of people actually just give $5 or $10," came her quick repartee. The sun was fading and I was getting a little annoyed. I went into great detail about my plans for the small amount of money I might have--plans wich included not giving it to the senior class gift.

"Why don't you think about it some more," she said. "You really might want to give some, just for the numbers. You know there is a House competition and I am sure you want Dudley House to win."

"Thank you," I said, surrendering the argument. "Goodbye." If I had ever been uncertain about my decision not to give to the Senior Class Gift, Bitsy made up my mind once and for all.

THERE are many reasons for my decision to abstain from this fine Harvard tradition. The most obvious is that I have already given enough to Harvard, at least for now. This school has gotten more than $80,000 from my family over the past four years, and I know they didn't spend it all on me. And while I have gotten a lot from my college experience, there were some things notably missing.

The Senior Gift Committee might, for example, use some of Harvard's money that wasn't used for a good escort service. Or the money Harvard didn't set aside to hire Women's Studies faculty members. Or the funds Harvard has saved by not having a a student center.

But beyond this obvious reason, and even beyond the fact that I--like many of my classmates--am about to go out into the world with no money and significant debt and can hardly afford to start making donations yet, I am not giving to the Senior Class Gift because I don't like its tactics.

The Senior Gift campaign is one of the most coercive fundraising efforts I have ever seen. The entire campaign is designed to play on peer pressure and our sense of obligation to our friends in the last months of college.

Each House has a senior gift committee. The members of these committees divide up the house residents according to who knows whom, so that students are usually solicited by their friends.

The Committee members head out to launch their attack armed with the knowledge that this--like other intramural sports--is something every house wants to win. In fact, the winning house--Kirkland this year--gets an ice cream bash and a congratulatory advertisement in The Crimson.