More than two years have passed since Yale University returned $20-million to Lee M. Bass, and Yale and its alumni are still trying to soothe the hurt feelings that ensued.
The latest attempt comes from officers of the Class of 1937, who last week released a letter that they wrote in October to Perry R. Bass, who is the father of Lee and a member of their class. The letter to Mr. Bass concludes that the university was at fault “from start to finish” in the handling of his son’s donation. The letter was the result of negotiations between the class officers and Yale that began in 1995, when Perry Bass asked his classmates to “look into the situation,” said Rynn Berry, the class secretary.
The Bass saga began in 1991, when the gift was made. The $20-million was solicited by then-President Benno C. Schmidt, Jr., and was to support new courses in Western civilization, scheduled to begin in 1993, and to endow professorships bearing the Bass name. But questions emerged -- including whether the professors would be newly hired -- that Yale said had stalled the program. At about the same time, Mr. Schmidt and several other high-ranking officials left Yale.
In December 1994, Lee Bass, concerned about the delay, asked that he have the right to approve of the faculty members who would hold the Bass professorships. The Yale Corporation turned down his request, voting in March 1995 to return the gift.
The Class of 1937’s conclusion in the letter -- that Yale was to blame -- is not new. Since Yale returned the gift, it has been praised by some for standing up for academic freedom, but denounced by others for caving in to pressure from those who believed that the university was already devoting enough resources to the study of Western civilization.
What is new is that Richard C. Levin, Yale’s president, is quoted in the letter as saying that, under the circumstances, Lee Bass’s request for veto power “was completely understandable.” The letter also makes clear that President Levin agrees with the facts the officers set forth about the Bass gift, as if to distinguish those facts from their interpretation of them.
Publicly, several people who had criticized Yale’s handling of the Bass gift are applauding the administration for agreeing to the letter. In private, however, other people say that the university would have been more forthright had officials issued their own statement instead of going along with one written by others. They also wonder if Yale’s cooperation was motivated by a philosophical shift or a desire to mend fences with the wealthy Bass family.
Perry Bass and his four sons -- all of whom attended Yale -- are worth billions of dollars, according to a listing in the October 13 issue of Forbes magazine. Mr. Berry and others have hinted that much greater benefits could be in store for Yale from the Basses, who are from Fort Worth, Tex., and whose wealth is tied to the oil industry. Another member of the Class of 1937 has said that Perry Bass is considering a $500-million gift to his alma mater.
Dr. Levin did not respond to a request for an interview from The Chronicle. Tom Conroy, a Yale spokesman, would say only that the letter contained “no factual errors.”
Mr. Conroy also said that Dr. Levin stood by a letter that he sent to alumni in March 1995, in which he said that Yale had returned the gift because Lee Bass wanted “the authority to approve the appointment of faculty to teach in the program.”
“To have honored this new request would have been contrary to the tradition and practices of this and other leading universities in our nation,” Dr. Levin stated in the 1995 letter. "... We simply could not delegate authority over faculty appointments to a donor, even one as generous as Lee Bass. ...” In that letter, Dr. Levin also blamed mismanagement by Yale, caused by an “unusual time of transition” that included major changes in leadership, coupled with his concern that it would be inappropriate, at a time of fiscal pressure, to institute a new program.
Jerry L. Martin, president of the National Alumni Forum -- which says its purpose is to keep alumni apprised of incidents of political correctness on college campuses, and to encourage alumni to use their gifts in support of freedom of speech -- said he regarded the Class of 1937’s letter as a “useful but minimal step toward resolving the situation.”
“We don’t know if this letter represents a change of heart on the part of President Levin, but whether it does or not, it is a public statement authorized by the president, exonerating Lee Bass,” Dr. Martin said.