The Nov. 25 letter to Summers noted that the $100 million paid to top HMC managers in 2001 and 2002 is the equivalent of “a gift of $70,000 from every member of the Class of 1969.”

Jeffrey Alexander ’69, who also signed the note to Summers, said he has received many letters from concerned alums who heard about the compensation numbers.

“We get letters from people who say, ‘I’m a doctor, I’m a lawyer but donating $500 a year is a big decision for me.’ When this guy is making $30 million a year, it makes [Harvard’s] request for money comical,” he said.

Alexander said he doesn’t think that Meyer’s defense of the system is valid.

“The way that [Meyer] presents his argument is that Harvard is paying less for [the fund managers] than the open market,” Alexander said. “But they don’t have to be rewarded at the same level because they’re not taking the same risk as they would in the real world.”

“It’s like state socialism. We have a huge company that is making huge profits and there’s no danger that it would be fired,” he added.

Meyer attributes the negative reactions to HMC’s pay scale to the company’s reporting policy.

“The reason our compensation package receives so much publicity is because we manage in-house and have to report our compensation numbers,” he said. “Other universities pay more [to their external fund managers]. We know what the pay scale is.”

The alumni said they didn’t receive a response to their letter until yesterday, a wait they say was unacceptable.

“They don’t want to dignify our letter with a response but they want us to give money,” Alexander said. “It’s kind of like a company that doesn’t talk to its shareholders.”

Summers said in an interview in December that he would be “surprised” if the alums didn’t receive a reply before the end of December.

Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs Alan J. Stone, who responded to the letter, said, “We normally respond to alumni more quickly but there were a lot of factors that lead to the slight delay.”

He declined to comment further.

Strauss, who is planning to send Summers another letter in response to yesterday’s compensation numbers release, said he was not satisfied with the University’s reply.

“It wasn’t from President Summers. It didn’t respond to our requests,” he said. “We requested a public forum to discuss whether these payments reflect the values of the Harvard community and whether it’s acceptable to Harvard.”