To the Editor:
There are many reasons to support pressure by Oberlin College on financial aid students to acknowledge, through writing letters, the generosity of financial aid donors. Most notable among these, in my opinion, is that without such letters of acknowledgment, said donors may as individuals choose not to contribute towards the financial aid of future Oberlin College students. I do not intend with this letter to imply that this or other practical concerns are trivial. Rather, I intend to extend this debate to a world view it assumes.
Society as a whole makes choices regarding allocations of resources. Specifically, society makes choices about which colleges "deserve" financial aid and which do not. It is unclear exactly what value system society uses to determine these choices; however, it is clear what the outcome of these choices are: some colleges receive more donations and others less.
However, I am a member of this society, and have preferences about which colleges deserve financial aid and which do not. Yet I have no role in society's decision about which colleges should get financial aid students. I have no role in society's decision to give financial aid to Oberlin. Rather, it is those with wealth who make those choices, and exclusively those with wealth, by definition.
A societal system of private charity to determine financial aid in a world of unequal distribution of wealth asserts that richer people should make the decisions about which institutions receive financial aid.
The rich were not elected. That is not a democracy.
When we as individuals and as a College chastise those who would not support such a system, we are supporting that system. If we choose to support an undemocratic society because of the practical concerns of today, so be it. Let us, however, not make that choice blindly.
Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 23, May 2, 1997
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