Eliot House to Keep Donation; Bok Wants New Rule on Gifts

President Bok said yesterday that Eliot House will be permitted to keep the $20,000 alumni arts donation it received last week, but said that a "clear policy" must be developed to govern large donations made to individual Houses.

Bok said, "The money has been given to Eliot House and even if we desired, it would not legally be possible to divert it." Bok said that no attempt would be made to divide up the alumni gift or to impound it.

Corporation Rule

Zeph Stewart, master of Lowell House, said yesterday that he believed a Corporation rule had long existed that did not allow houses to accept or solicit large sums of money.

He also said that it was "quite understandable if someone did not know about this policy."

Bok said he had no knowledge of the rule and added that the problems caused by the Eliot House donation indicated the need for a statement of policy.

He said that the formation of a policy should be handled carefully. He said, "The danger of imbalancing the Houses must be taken into consideration, but we can't be negative about gifts."

Alan E. Heimert '49, master of Eliot House, said last night that he "never knew of any ruling of accepting unsolicited gifts" when the donation was made. He added that he had known of a policy which stated that "large or small sums should not be solicited."

Heimert said he had never checked for a ruling when the large donation was made but assumed that Bok would have known.

Eliot House "intends to go ahead with the art program," Heimert said. He said he thought a clarification of the rule is necessary.