Harvard Gives To Fund for Victim Families

President Lawrence H. Summers announced yesterday that the University will donate $1 million to a scholarship fund for the families of victims of last week’s terrorist attacks in Washington, New York and Pennsylvania.

The need-based scholarships could be used at universities nationwide, Summers explained in a letter addressed to members of the Harvard community and posted on the University homepage last night.

“We are working with colleagues in the field of higher education,” Summers wrote, “to identify the most efffective way to organize a scholarship fund to meet educational needs.”

The decision to contribute to a scholarship fund emerged from a “collective feeling” within the administration and the University at large that there was a need to respond to last week’s tragedy, University spokesperson Joe Wrinn said.

“We believe it’s something we can and should do along with other institutions in this country,” Wrinn said. “We’re doing our part.”

Though Summers’ statement addressed the general goals of the donation, details are in the works.

“We are exploring ways to combine our contribution with those that may currently exist,”Wrinn said.

As plans for the scholarship donation develop, Wrinn said, Harvard officials intend the fund to reflect Harvard’s core mission of education and research while keeping administrative costs low.

“We want it to be administered in a way that every dollar will be used towards achieving the goal of supporting education for the vicitims of the terrorists,” he said.

The University is exploring other community giving options in addition to the scholarship donation, Summers wrote, including payroll deductions and the designation of convenient donation collection points so that Harvard affiliates can make donations.

The announcement comes in the wake of several other recent donation efforts spearheaded by members of the Harvard community.

As the specifics of donation plans are hashed out in administrative meetings, the University will keep the community posted through the Harvard homepage.

“We may well have a long road ahead,” Summers wrote, “But I have been profoundly impressed over the last week by your generosity in helping our community and others understand and respond to the terrible events of last week.”

—Staff writer Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at shoichet@fas.harvard.edu.