“To be for is to be human. It’s an act of radical optimism.” So says the keynote video on the website of ‘For Humanity,’ Yale’s ongoing fundraising campaign. Despite possessing an endowment of 40.7 billion dollars — greater than the GDP of 88 countries — our university has decided it needs 7 billion more. Yale’s plan to raise that money seems to involve taking advantage of the idealism of its students and alumni. As images of campus’s beautiful libraries, dining halls and theaters flash by, the ad reverberates with hope and optimism. Sometimes being for something “seems to be against our better judgment,” it admits — but that is no excuse for inaction. “To be for is to believe in the possibility of a more perfect world. In our power to build it.”
May 21, 2024
