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At a time of year when most students' parents must scurry to pay tuition,
Harvard received a check of a very different order. On September 9, the University
announced that Thomas H. Lee '65 had given Harvard $22 million. Of particular
note: although Lee designated $3 million for specific programs at the School
of Education, the American Repertory Theatre, the Fogg Art Museum, and two
Harvard-affiliated medical institutions, he specified that the
remaining $19 million would be unrestricted funding, half for use by the
president's office, half by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).
Lee's previous gifts have supported teaching in the College and financial
aid, but in an interview, he said he wanted to focus this time on the "very
powerful" academic work that crosses school and departmental boundaries.
"I'm very keen on the idea of University-wide initiatives," he
said, citing in particular efforts to coordinate research at Harvard's various
graduate and professional schools in biological and medical sciences, international
studies, and other disciplines.
Dean Jeremy R. Knowles has already earmarked $4 million of the $9.5 million
FAS gift for a scholarship fund that Lee created in 1985. The remainder
will support a chair in biology and genetics and efforts to recruit faculty
members in this field. No use has yet been specified for the presidential
portion of the funds, but Lee's gift represents a significant stimulus
to efforts to raise $235 million in central administration funds as part of
the $2.1 billion University Campaign. Those funds are meant to support President
Neil L. Rudenstine's interfaculty initiatives and new multidisciplinary
academic programs, and to assure adequate financial support for needy
parts of the University--underendowed schools, for example, or the libraries--as
the president sees fit. At midyear, when the campaign as a whole had
met 60 percent of its goal, just over one-third of the gifts sought for
the central fund had been received.
Lee founded the investment firm that bears his name in 1974, and
as president has steered it through several dozen leveraged buyouts-the
most famous, perhaps, that of Snapple Beverage Company, on which investors
realized a reported $1-billion-plus return. (That's a lot of iced tea.)
According to the University, his new gift to Harvard appears to be the largest
ever from a Boston-area resident to a nonprofit institution in Massachusetts.
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