Mac Arthur Grants

A Chicago foundation awarded grants of $1.2 million each to Harvard and eight other research universities this week to endow academic chairs in memory of the late billionaire John D. MacArthur.

Although the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded the money for the institutions' "excellence in the natural sciences," the chair can be endowed in any academic field, at the president of the university's discretion, James M. Furman, executive vice president of the foundation, said last week.

President Bok declined to comment last week on which Harvard department will receive the chair.

"We chose Harvard because we were selecting preeminent institutions, and Harvard qualifies on anybody's list," Furman said, adding that the foundation also tried to select institutions that have received relatively small grants from the Mellon Foundation, the major source of private funding for universities. Harvard is the only Ivy League school that received a MacArthur grant.

MacArthur, who died three years ago, left most of his estate to the foundation, which awards grants to a variety of non-profit and governmental agencies, and to educators and educational institutions.

Last spring, the foundation awarded unrestricted five-year grants, ranging from $40,000-$60,000 a year, to three Harvard scholars--Robert Coles '50, professor of Psychiatry and Medical Humanities, Stephen J. Gould, professor of Geology and Ian Graham, assistant curator of the Maya hieroglyphics in the Peabody Museum--in recognition of their achievements and future promise. The new grant is intended to recognize the needs of institutions, as well as individuals, Furman said.

"Bringing new blood into faculty is vital to maintaining excellence, and we know institutions are having problems attracting young professors due to lack of tenure openings," Fulman said.

The grant does not set a precedent on the part of the foundation to support educational institutions, he said, adding, "Each of our grants stands on its own--we have no commitments."