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Harvard Corporation’s Newest Member Donates $20 Million to Arts and Humanities and Financial Aid | News
Billionaire Joseph Y. Bae ’94 and author Janice Y. K. Lee ’94, his wife, gave $20 million to the Harvard College of Arts and Sciences to endow the Dean of Arts and Humanities and bolster financial aid for undergraduates , the University announced on Thursday.
The announcement comes just over a month after FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra announced that philosophy professor Sean D. Kelly would serve as the next Dean of Arts and Humanitieseffective July 1st.
Bae, co-CEO of global investment firm KKR, and Lee are longtime Harvard donors – having previously invested in various roles and supported an effort to hire more Asian American studies scholars. The donation arrives just over a month before Bae joins the Harvard Corporationthe main governing board of the University.
Both Bae and Lee are extremely active among Harvard’s various advisory committees. Both are members of the FAS Dean’s Council, the FAS Financial Aid Committee, and the Harvard Global Advisory Board.
The donation comes as FAS has suffered a particularly severe drop in donations, with donations year after year 16 percent drop starting in December, according to a person familiar with the situation.
Several of Harvard’s biggest donors — including billionaire hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin ’89who announced a Gift of US$300 million to FAS last year — declared they would suspend donations due to concerns about how Harvard has handled anti-Semitism on campus and student protests.
Bae and Lee’s contribution represents a morale boost to Harvard’s fundraising efforts — and a chance to generate positive headlines as alumni return to Cambridge for Harvard’s historically time-honored reunion weekend busy for donations.
The university’s interim president, Alan M. Garber ’76, told the Harvard Gazette, a publication run by the university, that Bae and Lee were “eloquent advocates of higher education and devoted citizens of the university.”
Hoekstra told the Gazette that the gift ensures that the new dean of Arts and Humanities “will have the resources to advance a bold and affirming vision for the disciplines at the heart of the College of Arts and Sciences.”
“Their support could not come at a better time for the Division of Arts and Humanities,” she said.
—Staff writer Tilly R. Robinson can be reached at tilly.robinson@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @tillyrobin.
—Staff writer Neil H. Shah can be reached at neil.shah@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @neilhshah15.