Harvard’s Big Donors Dropping Like Flies

The schiesse has hit the fan. Or to put it more politely, the fallout from Lawrence H. Summers's resignation as president of Harvard University has now hit the school's pocketbook, impairing the biggest fund-raising operation in higher education.

At least four major donations to Harvard, totaling $390 million, have been scrapped or put on hold since Mr. Summers announced his resignation in February, according to people familiar with the matter.

Three of the withheld gifts would have been the largest in Harvard's history. They included $100 million from media mogul Mortimer Zuckerman to fund a neuroscience institute that has generated intense interest among Harvard researchers, and $100 million from Richard A. Smith, a former member of Harvard's governing board, to fund a 500,000-square-foot science complex planned for a new campus in Boston's Allston neighborhood.

At least one of the contributions was to be announced this spring: $75 million from David Rockefeller, the banker and philanthropist, to fund study-abroad trips for every Harvard undergraduate in need of financial assistance, a key element in Mr. Summers's plan to expand Harvard's global scope. Instead, Mr. Rockefeller downgraded his gift to $10 million, announced in May, for Harvard's existing Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

The donors, who were supportive of Mr. Summers and elements of his vision for Harvard, have separately indicated that they won't contribute while the university is without a permanent leader.

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