Billionaire bites dog

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 24, 1995 | by Carol Innerest

Yale's botched handling of a $20 million donation is having a financial impact on the institution, according to the Yale Free Press, a conservative monthly campus newspaper. Texas oil billionaire Lee Bass, who gave the money to create a program in Western civilization, asked to have it back because the university never implemented the program. Yale returned the gift in March.

Yale, $12 minion in the red with a $900 million annual budget, is in the midst of a fundraising campaign. According Press, the university office had prospective donors withholding funds while awaiting the outcome of the Bass situation.

Faculty hostility to Western studies sabotaged the program Bass sought to create with his donation. Yale apparently failed to inform Bass that a committee was exploring other uses for his gift. The university, however, pleaded academic freedom, explaining that it returned the money because Bass insisted on oversight of the faculty appointments he was funding.

"When they are wining to throw away $20 million, they have a lot of nerve to ask for hundreds or thousands from people like me," wrote Greg Hyatt, Class of '76, in the Free Press. But not all alumni are concerned. Biff Folberth, Class of '66, told the Free Press: "I still support the school. It hurts to give back $20 million, but I'm sure [President Richard Levin] went as far as he could."