“Those raising ethical questions about the gift to the Yale School of Music should first put the dollar amount in perspective. Private and corporate donors in America have to compensate for the government’s negligible support of the fine arts. In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts gave out grants totaling just over $100 million. In France, in recent years, the state subsidy for the Paris Opera alone has averaged roughly the same amount. That the Yale School of Music must contend at all with the charge of elitism is doubly discouraging, since it has long been committed to fostering music as part of an education in the humanities.”