<p>Gibby, I am not a student but someone who has worked for years in the greater Harvard University system, with senior administration, and I am intimate familiar with how the system works at all levels, not just from chatting with Harvard College parents. In addition, anyone who has worked in a complex organization knows how things work in such institutions. Are you going to sue a school because the department/professor will get extra research funding from accounts that belong to the discretion of the director/administration and will be used to pay for a student’s research. conference travel, etc? Is not this an indirect merit? I offered the example of staff hiring because that’s what people are more familiar with. Do employers advertise that if a targeted group is hired by the department, the salary for the first x years will come out from a special school fund and not the department? No. Only people present in the policy meetings are aware of that. If someone wants to offer funding, they can do it in many legal ways.</p>