Hoya Staff Writer Friday, September 1, 2006
If Georgetown plays its cards right, a Las Vegas casino owner could soon join the list of the school’s most generous benefactors. The university is in the midst of negotiations with Sheldon Adelson, the chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, over a possible multimillion-dollar donation to the Program for Jewish Civilization. The funds would be used to upgrade the program to a fully endowed center in the School of Foreign Service. Officials would not say if a formal funding proposal had been submitted to Adelson. But SFS Dean Robert Gallucci said that a donation would be used to add at least one permanent faculty member, broaden the PJC’s academic program and possibly build new space on campus for the PJC. “We’re working on this one,” Gallucci said. “We want to get this done.” Rabbi Harold White, the university’s senior Jewish chaplain, first contacted Adelson through an associate about making a donation. White, who sits on the PJC’s executive committee, said that Adelson first mentioned the possibility of making a $20 million donation, though no gift amount has yet been finalized. Adelson, whose company operates The Venetian resort hotel and casino in Las Vegas, has a net worth of $16.1 billion, making him the 14th richest person and the fifth richest American according to Forbes Magazine’s list of the world’s wealthiest people. The discussions with Adelson come less than a year after another high-profile gift to the university. In December, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia – eighth on the Forbes list – gave $20 million to Georgetown’s Center for uslim-Christian Understanding, the second-largest gift in the university’s history. Georgetown’s decision to accept that gift came under fire from some critics, including Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), because of remarks Alwaleed made in the past that were critical of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Officials involved in the negotiations dismissed the idea that Adelson’s interest in making a donation was a response to the Alwaleed gift. “That was not the main motivation,” White said, adding that Adelson and Alwaleed are friends. Mindy Eras, a spokeswoman for Adelson at The Venetian, declined to comment on the negotiations. Gallucci said that Adelson was more interested in Georgetown as a Jesuit institution in Washington, D.C., and the unique role that it plays in international affairs. “Maybe it is competition, for all I know, but I doubt it,” Gallucci said of Adelson’s interest. Established in 2004, the PJC is an interdisciplinary program in the SFS that focuses on the contributions of Jewish people across a number of fields. It currently offers students a certificate and a minor in Jewish civilization, with 20 currently students enrolled in those programs. Robert Lieber, a government professor who chairs the PJC’s executive committee, said the donation would continue the program’s growth and enhance Georgetown’s stature in international affairs. The program’s current yearly operating budget is around $125,000, said PJC Associate Director elissa Weinberg Spence. A major donation could catapult the PJC into the ranks of most well-funded centers at Georgetown, including the CMCU – now the Prince Alwaleed Center for uslim-Christian Understanding – and the BMW Center for German and European Studies. Adelson’s donation could also make him a permanent fixture of the Hilltop if he is given naming rights to the new center, as Alwaleed and BMW were. Gallucci said that a major donation would be expected to come with naming rights, though White said Adelson had not made that a part of the negotiations. “He hasn’t requested that as yet,” White said. An announcement on the donation could come “fairly soon,” said White, though officials stressed that negotiations continued. “It would be great if it happens for Georgetown, but it’s an if,” Lieber said.
