[jeockammece]

He donated his speaking fees, and now he owes taxes on them???

You only get a deduction for a part of charitable donations. The dipshit was likely tried to assign them an not report them at all, rather than reporting them as income and claiming a charitable deduction.
Gift tax is irrelevant here. Qualifying charitable donations are exempt from the unified estate and gift tax, so you do not even have to get to the annual exemption. Colleges usually qualify as section 501(c)3 charities.
For the tickets, only the 50% times the portion of them and their cost used to advance an income producing business could be a deduction, not any part of them used for personal use.