Yale agrees to return $20 million

Yale University has agreed to return $20 million donated in 1991 to establish a Western Civilization program because the donor wanted to be able to approve faculty appointments. The donor, Lee Bass, said he wanted to have the right to approve the hiring of professors in order to maintain "the original spirit and intent of the program." Bass, a Texas billionaire and 1979 Yale graduate, originally donated the money to fund a multicultural program focusing on prominent figures in European history and culture. "Although Yale had informed Mr. Bass that it was prepared to implement the program as envisioned in the original agreement, we could not honor the donor's new request to approve faculty appointments," Yale President Richard Levin said this week in a statement. Exactly how funding has been allocated for the Western Civilization program has recently come under scrutiny. In December, an article printed in Light and Truth, a Yale student journal, claimed that University President Judith Rodin, Yale's provost at the time the donation was made, and later Levin, misled Bass and did not follow the grant's conditions. But Rodin responded last semester that due to "financial reasons," she had to deny the proposal to hire four new assistant professors to teach Western Civilization classes. Rodin was unavailable for comment on the return of the grant last night. Other potential donors have begun reconsidering giving money to Yale because of the problems that have followed the Bass donation. Yale alumnus Robert Eskridge, was reported to have met with a university official to redirect the $500,000 he was donating. But others, including U.S. Circuit Court Judge Jose Cabranes, a Yale trustee, have supported Levin in his decision. "Yale would not be Yale if it had ever yielded to any such request," Cabranes said in a statement. The Associated Press and The Philadelphia Inquirer contributed to this article.

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