Trends in Higher Education

* It’s been 16 years since Texas billionaire Lee Bass gave $10 million to Yale to start a Western Civilization program, and 12 years since he took it back.

Between 1991 and 1995, Mr. Bass repeatedly sought assurances that his money wouldn’t be dumped into multicultural education. He kept asking the university’s president, Richard Levin, when the program, which was to include a one-year mandatory course for freshman, would materialize.

When it became clear that the liberal faculty’s objections to Mr. Bass’s gift had won the day, he asked for his money back. And Yale reluctantly complied.