Elena Kagan Ups the Ante
Posted on March 27th, 2007 in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan just landed a $25 million donation from the Wasserstein family, whose best-known member is probably financier Bruce Wasserstein.
The timing of this announcement is interesting: Kagan recently lost the presidency to a woman whose ability to raise large sums is uncertain.
That $25 million gift, by the way, is about 50% larger than the entire endowment of the Radcliffe Institute.*
It’s possible to consider this gift as another show of support for Kagan. (The first, a week or so after Faust was named, came in the form of a party thrown by law students in her honor.)
Faust is said to have terrific relationships with Radcliffe alums, but one of the question marks about her announcement is how the mega-rich finance guys like Wasserstein will respond to her.
Rumor has it that the development folks are worried….
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* Mea culpa: A poster points out an egregious mistake on my part. The Radcliffe Institute endowment is more like $400 million; it’s the annual budget that’s about $15 million.
3 Responses
3/27/2007 9:36 am
Deans at Harvard are expected to be the main fundraisers for their schools.
Clearly this gift shows that Elena Kagan is doing her job well. The questions should not be about her doing this and what it means. The real questions are about the fundraising effectiveness of other Deans at Harvard’s Professional Schools.
I don’t know about the rumors you mention in the development office. Faust’s main job is to replace the Deans who cannot raise sufficient funds to meet their schools’ priorities, not to raise those funds herself.
Yes, perhaps, she should be taking a look at the fundraising record of some of the Deans appointed by Summers.
3/27/2007 11:03 am
Contrary to what Richard wrote, the Radcliffe Institute endowment is upwards of $400 million. It’s the annual budget that’s about $16 million.
3/27/2007 11:08 am
That makes much more sense. Thanks, WarrenâI’ll correct that.