Some students said gift totals may be

Some students said gift totals may be tied tohow heavily gift chairs in each house solicitedmoney.

Brian T. DeVries '98, a graduate from CabotHouse, said the main reason he did not give wasthat the Cabot senior gift chairs did not heavilysolicit.

"The main factor...was that is wasn't pushed inthe house," DeVries said.

However, Jay M. Dickerson '98 said every seniorin Quincy House received a phone call about thegift and that the chairs were professional, notpushy.

Students contacted in Quincy House said theywere glad to give.

"I got a lot out of Harvard and I thought itwould be great, even if it was a small amount, ifsomeone could benefit like I did," Dickerson said.

Another reason may have been that the seniorgift does not give students many options aboutwhere their money will be spent.

Presently, seniors may choose to donate theirmoney specifically to a scholarship fund butcannot give to individual departments or programs.

Ponda said he would have been more likely togive if he could have specified the destination ofhis donation. Harvard does not allocate itsresources in a way that benefits undergraduates,he said.

During his junior year, he said he was ateaching fellow in a physics class and that thelaboratory lacked basic equipment such asbatteries.

Whatever their reasons for giving or notgiving, this year the official senior gift was theonly show in town.

Last year, an "alternative" senior gift wasestablished by Megan L. Peimer '97 and Ezra W.Reese '97 to protest what they saw as a low tenurerate of women faculty.

They solicited contributions to be kept in aprivate bank account until a more acceptable rateis achieved.

The effort was not particularlysuccessful--Hsai said it raised several thousanddollars--and no seniors continued their campaignthis year