Harvard University has seen donations slump following a series of scandals that rocked the prestigious Ivy League.
The university had seen several big-name donors announce they would stop giving to the school over its handling of antisemitism on campus, with several criticizing then-President Claudine Gay for allowing pro-Palestine protests to continue who claimed it was a matter of free speech.
Amid the backlash, Gay resigned as president in January, as she also faced mounting allegations that she plagiarized her scholarly work.
But her resignation apparently failed to stem the criticism and win back donors, with donations falling nearly 15 percent over last year, according to the university’s latest financial report.
It showed that the Ivy League received $1.17billion in gifts in the fiscal year that ended on June 30 – down $1.38billion from the year before.
Harvard University (pictured) has seen its donations slump following a series of scandals that rocked the Ivy League institution
Gifts to the university’s multibillion-dollar endowment – the university’s investment fund – also fell 34 percent to $368.1million, though the endowment itself gained 9.6 percent during the fiscal year.
Distributions from that endowment made up 37 percent of Harvard’s revenue for the year.
Meanwhile, a separate form of donations and gifts that the university can spend now rose 8.6 percent to $527.7million.
That is the second-highest amount received in Harvard’s history.
Still, the university’s new president, Alan Garber, expressed his dismay at the numbers in an interview with the Harvard Crimson, the school’s newspaper.
‘Some of the new commitments have been disappointing compared to past years,’ he admitted.
Several big-name donors denounced the school and said they would stop giving to the university over its handling of antisemitism on campus
Several criticized then-President Claudine Gay for allowing pro-Palestine protests to continue, claiming it was a matter of free speech
He has spent the past six months meeting privately with donors, and has traveled around the world to meet with alumni in an effort to win them back, the Crimson reported.
The university is also planning to ramp up its recruiting efforts in the spring.
Garber said he hopes new university policies and his own messages will encourage donors to once again support the Ivy League institution.
He noted in the financial report that task forces at the school are working on ‘rebuilding not only a sense of belonging, but also genuine acceptance among members of our community’ after the task forces found hat Jewish, Muslim and Arab students were all harassed, bullied and discriminated against amid the war in Gaza.
‘Despite the superlatives they invite, our resources are not our greatest strength. Our community is what matters most,’ Garber wrote in a letter at the beginning of the financial report.
‘That is why its renewal and care are paramount, and why we have launched efforts to understand where and how we can improve.’
New university president Alan Garber said he hopes new university policies and his own messages will encourage donors to once again support the Ivy League institution
Garber has also said he is already seeing improvements over the last school year, and suggested donors may be taking notice.
‘I believe that they are reassured by the direction that the university is taking,’ he told the Crimson. ‘They are relieved, at least that so far, this academic year has been somewhat quieter.
‘There is more attention being paid to the mission of the university – to the research and to the teaching and to the learning that occurs here.’
He even concluded his letter by striking a positive tone.
‘Our university will emerge stronger from this time – not in spite of being tested, but because of it,’ Garber vowed,
