Learning When To Say 'No'

Imagine a coalition of dictatorships. They want to buy Harvard a brand-new Center for the Study of Dictatorships. They want to name a professorship after Saddam Hussein. And they would pay for everything. Surely Harvard could find a plot of land on its expanding campus and some eager young professors to teach the courses.

But for the University's administrators and department heads, it's not a question of if the University could--it's a question of if the University should.

It seems like everyone wants a piece of Harvard. Governments fund visiting scholars to come here and study at Harvard's area studies centers. Private citizens and governments pay for programs and professorships at various schools.

But administrators say Harvard academics aren't up for grabs. Many donors have been involved with Harvard for years or have some personal connection to the University. The presence of alumni overseas is growing. And the University monitors gift acceptance and usage closely.

"There's a very strong line there," says University President Neil L. Rudenstine. "The guidelines for accepting gifts are very clear--we determine priorities and we determine uses."

And as sources of funding diversify, Harvard must be ever more diligent. In spite of the needs of the $2.1 billion Capital Campaign, Rudenstine and deans of the University's various graduate schools say they have turned down gifts that do not match the University's intellectual aims.

So the University says it has individual gifts firmly under control. But now imagine a much more innocuous scenario than the first.

There's a country called Oz. A lot of donors are interested in Oz--it's an economically, linguistically and culturally interesting area. A number of donors all want to donate to the study of Oz. The Department of Oz Studies has an overflowing treasury and a slew of experts teaching.

But the studies of a number of other countries are underfunded. The Department of Wonderland is struggling. There is no one to teach classes in the Narnian Language Department. And there are no visiting scholars from Xanadu.

The national backgrounds or intellectual interests of Harvard's donors have the potential to distort the allocation of funds among Harvard's various academic disciplines. Even a persistent pattern of small donations could unfairly benefit one department over another.

In many ways, then, the need to remain vigilant will never disappear.

"[When considering academic gifts] one is much more cautious, because of the need for the shape of the Faculty to be determined by the Faculty and not, as it were, by the interests of others," says Jeremy R. Knowles, Dean of the Faculty.

Which Part of 'No' Didn't You Get?

In the spring of 1995, Yale University did something extraordinary--something that most people would never expect a fund-hungry Ivy League college of the 1990s to do. They turned money down. Big money.

According to the school's daily newspaper, Lee Bass, a 1979 alumnus, was prepared to grant $20 million to Yale for programs on Western civilization, but the gift was contingent on one thing--that he have a say in selecting faculty members.

At the time, Dean Richard Brodhead told the Yale Daily News that he was reluctant to set a precedent that would allow donors to influence academics. Yale faculty members supported Yale University President Richard Levin, saying that universities had to maintain the ability to direct academics.

Shortly after, the newspaper reported that Yale had refused a second offer from the class of 1937 to fund a Western civilizations program.

In recent years, Yale has been one of the most prominent universities to consistently turn down money. About two years later, the Daily News reported on gay rights activist Larry Kramer's unsuccessful bid to establish a chair in gay and lesbian studies. Kramer, a 1957 Yale alumnus, also offered to build a gay and lesbian student center. Yale's answer: no.

Yale has had long practice in saying no to large sums of money. 1897 graduate Edward S. Harkness offered Yale money to establish a House system. Guess what Yale said?

Harkness instead donated money to Harvard. Yale later backtracked, and Harkness helped establish Yale's current residential college system.

Chair of Controversy?

In recent years, many prominent American universities have drawn criticism for accepting money from Turkish sources--including business people and the Turkish government--to establish professorships in Turkish studies.

Critics of such foreign donations worry that they could come with strings attached. For example, a chair could carry certain requirements for the person appointed or discourage future donors from giving to that area.

In 1997, Harvard accepted its own chair of Turkish studies, founded by the Vehbi Koc Foundation, according to the Harvard Gazette. History Professor Cemal Kafadar was the first Vehbi Koc Professor. The foundation is named after a Turkish industrialist and philanthropist.

At the time, Koc's son told the Gazette, "Lately, Turkey has been not quite understood by the West--there is often a question in Westerners' minds about which direction Turkey will eventually take. We think it is important that Harvard--as a center of excellence--lead the way with research and teaching about the realities of Turkey today."

The Turkish government "provided additional support for the professorship," the Gazette says.

Elsewhere, professorships funded by the Turkish government have been controversial. At Princeton, the Ataturk Professorship in Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies has drawn strong reaction from alumni, according to Princeton's daily newspaper.

In a deed of gift, the Turkish government specified the conditions of its $750,000 donation, which was matched by private donors. The professor should have "a direct knowledge of Turkey and Turkish studies and whose published works are based on extensive utilizations of archives and libraries in Turkey," says the document, as quoted in the Daily Princetonian.

The current Ataturk Professor has drawn fire for controversial historical perspectives on Turkish killings of Armenians during World War I.

Princeton's Vice President and Secretary Tom Wright told the Daily Princetonian, "I have been involved in discussions with donors about the independence of academic and donations.

"Donors don't influence the academic interests of the university," he said.

Keeping to Culture

But the academic strings attached to donations do not always run at cross purposes to the University's intellectual goals.

Harvard's Weatherhead Center creates dialogues between academics from all over the world.

James A. Cooney '69, executive director of the center, says some national governments do sponsor visiting scholars and professors. He cites the Thyssen and Bosch foundations in Germany as two donors supporting the international exchanges of a postdoctoral student and a professor.

Other programs through the Weatherhead Center can bring diplomats from other nations to Harvard, Cooney says.

Margaret B. Alexiou is happy with the fact that Harvard gets money from different places. After all, she points out, as Seferis Chair of Modern Greek she holds a chair entirely funded by Greek monies, including academic foundations.

"I think it's been a very good thing," she says. "Without that outside funding this chair would not exist."

She adds that since her arrival in January 1986, Harvard has been generous in its support of the classics department's graduate programs.

"When I came there were no graduates with money for just modern Greek. Now 18 have done doctorates with a modern Greek element," she says. "That's quite an impressive number.

"Now I think a new situation exists," Alexiou says. "I think we can continue to fundraise from Greek or Greek-American sources, but we can count on Harvard support...In other words, the program can now hope to move on to a new phase."

Alexiou adds that she doesn't see why politics would play a role in what is studied. Departments don't need to compete--rather, she says, they should "foster friendly relationships."

"I do not see, in principle, why there should be any problem, provided that...the academics can handle it sensibly and be able to deal with the narrow nationalisms that can exist, including, sometimes, [with] the donors. That can be a problem when a donor says [for example], this has to go to a Greek-loving Greek or a Turk-loving Turk," Alexiou says.

Greece and Turkey have been at odds over their shared island of Cyprus for over 30 years. In 1974, the Greek military led an unsuccessful campaign to make Cyprus a full part of Greece. Over 30 percent of Cyprus' populations are ethnic Turks.

It is up to academic institutions like Harvard to ensure that political concerns do not clash with intellectual goals, Alexiou says.

"There should not be allowed to develop a conflict of interest between say, Greek and Turkish studies...I get on extremely well with my colleagues in Ottoman and Turkish studies. I don't see why it should be anything other than that way," she says.

At an annual memorial lecture, she says, an ethnomusicologist talked about eastern influences on Greek music.

"If we can keep to culture then it is much easier to defuse these politically difficult questions," she says.

For example, the fact that Greek and Turkish music have influenced each other is much more "fruitful ground" than political differences.