Queen's Board of Trustees has decided to return all monies received in relation to a gift pledge from David Radler and remove the Radler name from a wing of its School of Busi- ness and from Queen's Benefactor Wall. "This was not an easy decision. However, we were guided by the simple principle of what is the right thing to do in this particular situation," says Vice-Principal (Advancement) George Hood. Mr. Radler entered a plea of guilty to fraud in a U.S. federal court last Tuesday. The following day, the board made its decision, which was communicated in a public statement by the university on Thursday. The gift pledge of $1 million (of which $915,180 has been received by the university) was to Goodes Hall building fund. It involved donations from Mr. Radler and from a number of corporate newspaper organizations with which he has been associated. The university plans to take immediate steps to return all monies to these donors. "This gift was given and received in good faith by the uni- versity and in accordance with approved parameters of its Gift Acceptance Policy and used according to the intended philanthropic purpose," the statement says. "The quality of Queen's Canadian precedent, the Washington-based Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) cites a number of U.S. schools which have encountered similar issues, including the universities of Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Cornell, Michigan, and North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

There don't appear, however, to be any consistent guidelines or policies within the higher education phil- anthropic sector for dealing with such donor matters. Responses in these U.S. cases have ranged broadly from no action or maintaining status quo to the removal of named recognition only or removal of naming coupled with return of funds. "It appears that each situation has been handled through case-by-case review and relied ultimately upon the judgement of the university's administrators, staff, trustees, and faculty in examining their particular circumstance," says Mr. Hood. The two main university policies that informed the board's decision are the Queen's University Naming Policy and the Gift Acceptance Policy.

The naming policy notes that "ultimate authority to discontinue the designated name of a building, room, or area, or to transfer the name to another building room or area" at Queen's rests with the Board of Trustees. It goes on to say that "no naming will be approved or (once approved) continued that will call into serious question the public respect of the university."

A recent Globe and Mail editorial suggested that charities should not return donations. "Clearly, there will be many different opinions on this," says George Hood. "Queen's thoroughly discussed all the ramifications of this matter and decided what it felt was the best course of action."

 

Which goals seem to be most important?and why?