Three Cheers For Gates Donation

There's an old saying that you always get back to basics. This wisdom couldn't be truer for Bill Gates, who has come home to mother Harvard roughly 20 years after he dropped out to found Microsoft corporation. Well, come home in spirit, if not in flesh. For along with Microsoft executive vice president Steven A. Ballmer '77 (who is a Crimson Editor), Gates has donated a healthy $25 million to the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences (DEAS).

While the gift is of obvious importance to the capital campaign, the Harvard community may not be completely aware of all that it means for DEAS. According to Dean of the College (and Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science) Harry R. Lewis '68, the gift is a crucial boost to an area of the College that has all but outgrown its current lodgings.

DEAS, which comprises the undergraduate majors of Engineering, Computer Science and Applied Math, is currently housed in the Cruft-Pierce-Aiken complex of buildings located on the edge of the law school quad. Although many Harvard undergraduates never venture past the Science Center and hence have no idea what we're talking about, suffice it to say that these buildings are pretty near full.

Already, the attics of Pierce and Cruft have been converted to offices, and lab and classroom space in these buildings are often inadequate. Twenty million dollars of the donation will go to fund a new computer science/engineering building. Named Maxwell Dworkin after the donators' mothers, this new building will cost a total of $26 million and will be about 80,000 square feet. It is tentatively scheduled to replace the present Aiken building.

Additionally, DEAS' main source of funding, the Gordon McKay endowment, is stretched to the limit and can support no more professors; by endowing a faculty chair, the Gates/Ballmer donation will help to ensure that DEAS continues the expansion it has been undergoing in recent years.

Finally, by allowing DEAS to consolidate the vast majority of its faculty in one spot, the donation will hopefully foster a synergistic environment that will further the vitality of DEAS more than any physical addition could.

So, we'd like to extend a hearty thanks to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer for helping to ensure the future of a vital and often-overlooked aspect of Harvard University.