Academic license - dispute over Lee Bass's Yale University donation - Column

National Review, April 17, 1995 by William F. Buckley, Jr.

What just now happened at Yale raises problems which one really ought to develop the wit to solve. Lots of problems (the homeless, AIDS, the New York Times) we can't do anything about, but there ought to be a way to reconcile the principles of autonomy with purposive philanthropy.

What happened is that a wealthy young alumnus of Yale University, having heard a cri de coeur from Yale's provost about the neglect of Western Civilization courses, came forward with a gift of $20 million. The idea was to hire three or four professors well equipped to teach various aspects of Western Civilization and perhaps lightly to refashion the curriculum in such a way as to put a corporate imprimatur on the whole arrangement.

The faculty evidently thought the whole idea presumptuous -- an alumnus comes charging in with $20 million and asks us to showcase Western Civilization, who the hell does he think he is? And then, of course, multiculturalism raised its egocentric head, and one gathers that some members of the faculty concluded that a subsidy of such a size for Western Civilization had the effect of putting other civilizations in the back of the bus.

A Yale undergraduate got hold of the story and the result was a barrage from the Wall Street Journal and others who wondered whether Yale should maybe forget Western Civ. and set up a course on fiduciary obligations.

Mr. Lee Bass of Fort Worth does not give out information, but one gathers that he then advised Yale that he should be consulted on whom the money was going to be spent on. For instance, feeling as he did on the question, he would not want to learn that a Marxist had been hired to teach the experiences of Greece and Rome or, for that matter, those of Elizabethan England and the Continent.

A couple of hectic months went by and finally Yale announced that it was returning the gift to Mr. Bass -- on the grounds that a university can't demean itself by agreeing to consult an outsider on the qualifications of its faculty.

But of course, the donor had no intention of passing on the academic qualifications of the Bass professors. He wasn't about to suggest that Yale hire a couple of people from the National Association of Manufacturers. But he did want professors who would acknowledge the achievements of Western Civilization, which among other things include academic freedom.

Now it should here be stressed that universities are normally happy to get the judgments of others on their work. Committees of all kinds are routinely set up to pass judgment on the quality of entire departments of universities. And after all, the trustees of Yale are not PhDs, yet they ``govern'' Yale. The question before the house is, Can a university, without demeaning itself, agree to give a donor a veto right if presented with the name of a prospective professor?

What would a grateful beneficiary of Western Civilization want to know about a prospective teacher whose salary he would be paying? He'd want to know the obvious things, but then the administration would have looked after those concerns: the professor would have to be academically qualified. But beyond that, should the philanthropist be entitled to cavil if the administration nominates someone who is known for his adversarial position on Western Civilization? A lot of very prominent people declined to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America on the grounds that by introducing Western Civilization into the New World he had brought slavery, corruption, torture, and pestilence.

These things of course are matters of perspective, but it was nowhere suggested that Mr. Bass be given the right to deputize the professors who would be teaching the courses he endowed. The idea was to come up with a professor welcomed by Yale and okayed by Bass. Why is that undignified? If the philanthropist had way-out views and persisted in vetoing university choices then the benefaction would lie idle in some trust account until the sponsor -- or Yale -- sobered up.

I don't know the gentleman, but my guess is that he could, if asked, point to 25 professors active in the major universities, teaching aspects of Western Civilization in ways thoroughly agreeable to him. Yale could use the money; pride is expensive, a false pride is wickedly expensive.