Somewhere in the range of the past 10 to 15 years, as America hit the results of undisciplined spending, municipalities started a trend of selling off building names for money.  The very classy approach to donations tagged “anonymous” declined, and soon everyone wanted their name, right down to the middle initial, to be broadcast from the tops of buildings.  And, even as tuition rates have soared, so, too, colleges and universities have gotten into the money grab of selling off building names, diluting the once coveted chair naming legacies. If 2013 was a year of unprecedented political dynamic at the state level, 2014 is shaping into the year of billion-dollar, anti-gun “donations.”  In April 2014, Michael Bloomberg pledged $50 million.  In May, George Soros pledged millions of dollars.  In August 2014, Bill Gates donated $1 million.  Enter stage left, Morningstar who is donating $350 million to Harvard University’s School of Public Health, which will then rename the school after Hong Kong real estate tycoon T.H. Chan (his son, Gerald, is an alumnus).  The donation is the largest ever received by Harvard University.  And, according to the Harvard Crimson, is the first time in the history of the university to rename a school in recognition of a donation. Chan’s donation matches a $350 million donation made by Bloomberg last year to Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health (already named for Bloomberg due to his previous donations). These and other donations appear to have reached a point that we can say we’re witnessing an attempt at rebranding political efforts for “gun control” into wealth-driven public health efforts in “research.”  The language in coverage of the donation from the Boston Globe to the New York Times places “gun violence” in the same sentence of research targets as “Ebola.” As and when you start to see “research” articles hitting journals, be sure that you’re looking through the article to the institution and its donors.  Fortunately, there will be a very big clue as to the predispositions just by looking at the name etched over the entryway.