Nicholas should be forthcoming with explanations, at least

In December 2003, Duke’s then-Chair of the Board of Trustees Peter Nicholas made a $72 million donation pledge to the University, to be paid in full by the end of 2008. As many now know, the pledge has, as of today, yet to be completed, though Nicholas himself claims that a “significant portion” has been paid. On the other hand, William Schlesinger, former dean of the Nicholas School, contests that when he left the University in June of 2007, Nicholas had failed to pay anything at all.

A situation such as this is undoubtedly a messy one, and for a number of reasons. First of all, it should be noted that the vast majority of Nicholas’ pledge ($70 million) was to go to the Nicholas School of the Environment, an institution that bears his name as the result of a previous $20 million donation. Certainly, Duke has already enjoyed a wealth of generosity from Nicholas, whose wife’s family has also donated large sums to the University. And, if Nicholas is being truthful and has begun payments on his pledge, then the University profits further, albeit at the inconvenience of tardiness. Nicholas has also stated that his family still intends to pay the full $72 million to the University. All of this just goes to say that Nicholas demonstrated intent to go above and beyond what is expected of most donors, and that, verbally at least, he seems to be committed to honoring his pledge. Although past generosity is no excuse for current defaults, it should at least be noted with the respect it deserves.

However, the issue is not so much what Nicholas intends to do in the future, but what he has failed to do in the past, and that is to meet his deadline. Of course, an unexpected downturn in his business, Boston Scientific, that brought shares from around $48 down to about $6 is a likely excuse for the unpaid donation and should be given consideration. After all, such a drop is likely to have had severe implications for Nicholas’ net worth, which would in turn have made a pledge of $72 million increasingly problematic for him. The truth remains, though, that Nicholas is still at least a multimillionaire, and although that may not be enough to make the man give up a now appreciable portion of his earnings, it creates a dissonance in the eyes of the Duke community that cannot be resolved by speculation alone, thereby necessitating some sort of explanation.

The University itself cannot be expected to deliver such an elucidation, for the same reasons that it cannot take Nicholas to court on the basis of the late funding. After all, airing the dirty laundry of the biggest donor in school history for everyone to see might yet succeed in tying down this pledge, but it would indubitably scare away all other large donors in the future. Furthermore, an explanation such as that is assuming the most straightforward of situations, which is that Nicholas, for one reason or another, has not paid. The affair may in fact be more complex than that, but there is so little information available right now that it is difficult to say what else could be going on.

What the Duke community needs now is for Nicholas to step forward and to shine some light on the circumstances. If a significant portion of the pledge actually has been paid, and if he actually does intend to complete it at some point in the future, then there should be no reason, apart from perhaps misplaced personal pride, for him to keep so much hidden. In fact, despite the tendency of some to criticize men like Nicholas at any chance they get, such a showing of renewed promise to the University in the face of relative personal downturn would perhaps be met with large returns in the public relations department.

In the end, it is not the foregone funding of a massive donation pledge during hard times that has raised so many questions, but a continued silence on the part of Nicholas himself, a silence that has been delivered as well by the University’s administrative officials in the know. Until more information is made available, the community should continue to raise questions, even though many of its members are so skeptical as to not hold their breath with regards to the answers. Like Schlesinger said, it’s time that somebody told us the truth about some of this stuff.

Chris Bassil is a Trinity junior. His column runs every Friday.