Harvard Donor Steers Most of $30-Million Gift to Black Studies

Private equity mogul Glenn Hutchins, who gave Harvard University $30-million last fall, is to announce Wednesday that more than half the money will be devoted to African and African-American studies, The New York Times says.

The $15-million-plus gift will establish the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research at Harvard, where the donor earned business and law degrees. The center will unite nine existing campus entities devoted to black history and culture.

The pledge grew out of Mr. Hutchins’ friendship with the prominent Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., who has markedly raised the academic and public profile of African-American studies.