Last Year's Gifts to Harvard Only Second Highest in Nation

For the first time since 1965-66, Harvard failed to lead the nation's universities in total private contributions last year, according to a survey by the Council for Financial Aid to Education.

Donations to Emory University, a small, formerly Lutheran institution in Atlanta, Ga., totalled $46.9 million, compared to Harvard's $46.5 million during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1972. In the same period, Yale received $43.4 million, third highest in the country.

While it is interesting that Emory edged out Harvard last year, it is not especially significant, Rufus W. Peebles Jr. '61, associate director of the Harvard College Fund, said yesterday. He noted that Emory used $25 million, or 55 per cent of its $46 million, to expand university-owned hospital facilities, leaving Emory only $21 million to apply to strictly educational purposes.

"One big money drive will skew a school's giving position way out of line," Peebles said. "A large bequest or gift in a single year will make you look great for that year but lousy the next."

Anonymous Contribution

More than half of the $25 million used to build Emory's hospitals was donated by an anonymous private foundation. Peebles speculated that this was probably the Chandler Foundation, a spin-off of the Coca-Cola Corporation which has its corporate headquarters in Atlanta.

"Anytime you get an anonymous contribution of that size in Atlanta," he explained, "you can usually assume it's Coca-Cola money."

Harvard received more donations than any other university for six years in a row before last year, Peebles said, because its contributions are consistently very high and not dependent solely on large single donations. He said that Harvard's drop to number two was not due to a fall in its receipts, which went up, but due to Emory's specially good year.

Over $21 million of Harvard's $46.5 million were from capital gifts, which are invested to yield usable interest. More than $25 million were gifts for current use with immediately spendable principal.

The University's total operating costs for the year 1971-72 were $203.9 million, of which tuition accounted for $42.5 million and government contracts $61.2 million.