Soccer Dad

Harvard, Geogetown and the Prince's $20 Million Gifts

An upcoming editorial in the NY Times?

No self-respecting educational institution can allow an outsider -- no matter how well-meaning or generous -- to dictate its education priorities. So Harvard University and Georgetown University have no choice but to return $20 million to Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud after he insisted on dictating the nature of the academic endeavors he wishes these institutions to pursue.

Donors can learn from Prince Alaweed's experience that it is probably a bad idea, especially in dealing with an institution as venerable as Harvard, to try to use a gift to influence a school's educational direction.

Prince Alaweed had apparently concluded that both schools lacked commitment to promoting his own extremist Wahhabi faith. His gift was designed to fill that perceived gap.

Universities must also resist the temptation to solicit and accept gifts from donors with a strong political and religious agendas. No doubt this is a particularly difficult thing to ask of places like Harvard and Georgetown, which are big, expensive to run and sorely in need of funds. But the Alaweed case proves that it does not pay to pander to a donor's political quirks in the hope of finding a way around his intent.

Beyond that, it proves that the best philanthropy happens when a donor has faith in an institution and can wholeheartedly back its aims.

Nope. It's An adaptation of "Yale and Mr. Bass's $20 Million Gift" (NY Times, March 18, 1995) the likes of which we are unlikely ever to see in the NY Times.

Technorati Tags: Prince Alaweed, Harvard University.

UPDATE: some corrections made.
Crossing the Rubicon2 has included a possible course catalogue for Georgetown:

From the Fall 2006 Georgetown Schedule of classes: Dreaming of Virgins 101; The Chemistry of Suicide Bomb Explosives; Comparative Physiology: Characteristics shared by Jews, Rats, Apes and Pigs; Geography: How the German Black Forest will be perfect for the relocation of Israel; Law and Political Theory: What the World Will Be Like Under Sharia; Physics and Chronology: Learning to Travel Back to 7th Century Arabia; Physical Education: How to Jog While Wearing a Burqa.

Priceless.

Boker Tov Boulder calls the schools Dhimmi Witted and notes the gift that Prince Alwaleed tried to give to NY was rejected by then Mayor Giuliani.

The Counterterrorism Blog.Daveed Gartenstein-Ross gives context to this purchase of American academic institutions:

This donation occurs in the context of what is clearly an effort to expand the Saudi PR machine in the United States. . . . There are other signs of the Saudi PR machine gearing up. Qorvis Communications has expanded and made some significant personnel additions in recent months. There are slick ads for Saudi Arabia in such glossy magazines as The New Republic. Interestingly, the December 12 cover story by Spencer Ackerman explaining why Islam in the United States is moderate is sandwiched around a 6-page special advertising section paid for by the Saudi Arabian embassy. And the donation to Georgetown will serve more of a PR function than most people probably realize at first glance. John Esposito, CMCU's director, has for years been one of the U.S.'s foremost apologists for radical Islam, and he's already stated that a large part of Prince Alwaleed's donation "will be used to beef up the think tank part of what the center does."

Does that mean that the New Republic has been bought?