Personally I differentiate between “giving money to millionaires” and “not taking money from millionaires” but maybe that’s just me.
One of the problems Harvard has (and all the Ivys and probably all the expensive private schools) is getting more people from poor and poorer households to apply, often because they don’t realize the great aid they could get.
Currently only 4% of Harvard grads come from the bottom quintile of incomes, and less than 20% from the bottom 60% of incomes.
I think free tuition would go a long way towards rectifying this.
Imagine if Harvard were free, and all of the publicity that would go with a school like Harvard eliminating tuition. You don’t think that would be a great use of their money?
I wouldn’t be surprised if alumni contributions increased enough in response to this that Harvard might even come out ahead!