Controversial Peretz Fund To Be Allocated

Juniors will find out next week whether they will receive a portion of the $19,000 planned to be disbursed for senior thesis research through the Peretz fund, which faced controversy in the fall due to statements made by its namesake.

The Peretz fund was established by former students of Martin “Marty” H. Peretz, who was a head tutor in Social Studies. The fund’s donor list includes current University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann ’71 and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore ’69. It reached a final total of $650,000, after a week of intense media scrutiny in late September brought in about $150,000 for the fund.

The fund faced opposition in the wake of statements made by Peretz in a blog post in which he wrote that “Muslim life is cheap.”

In an email to Harvard College Research Program applicants, Director of Studies Anya Bernstein said that the names of the recipients would remain anonymous and students would be able to write that they won Harvard College Research Program awards instead of explicitly stating they did research under the Peretz fund.

This arrangement did not surprise Social Studies concentrators.

“I think the unusualness of the rules reflect the unusualness of the history of the fund,” Social Studies concentrator Fahim Zaman ’12 said.

After his statements in the blog, Peretz faced widespread condemnation. Originally slated to be the keynote speaker for Harvard’s 50th Anniversary

Celebration for Social Studies last September, Peretz was removed from the speaker’s list, giving a short address at the main luncheon.

At the luncheon, first Head Tutor of Social Studies Robert P. Wolff ’54 derided the committee for accepting the donation.

“I had always hoped that Social Studies would hold itself to a higher standard ... but, here, the money stinks,” he said at the time of the donation.

Protesters followed Peretz around throughout the anniversary celebration, holding up signs that quoted Peretz’s controversial comments. During question-and-answer sessions, several audience members criticized the ethics of the fund in questions to the panelists.

Social Studies concentrators interviewed for this article expressed hesitation toward applying for the grant, saying that they could understand the confidentiality terms.

“I don’t object to the anonymity in this circumstance,” Social Studies concentrator Eleanor E. Martin ’12 said. “Obviously, the Peretz fund has caused a lot of controversy, but they’re going to give it to all things that Marty opposed.”

Zaman personally took greater issue with the fund.

“I am a Muslim, and I am sympathetic to the Palestinian cause,” he said. “And I personally think that a lot of people would look down on whomever did get money from that fund and whatever research they did.”

—Staff writer Gautam S. Kumar can be reached at gkumar@college.harvard.edu.