Part of the pressure to keep track of this comes from student groups, officials say.
These groups "tend to keep the University a little more honest than it sometimes likes to be," one senior administration official said.
"There are a lot of people who would like to buy respectability by giving a gift to the University," the administrator adds. "Are we somehow bestowing legitimacy on a bad source by accepting it?"
Officials consider their decisions about gifts carefully, the administrator says.
"Frequently, one of the things that is considered is, can we defend this if it's on the front page of The Crimson or the [Boston] Globe or The New York Times?"
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