Giving Compass' Take:

• Ethicist Deni Elliot recommends avenues for universities assessing whether to accept donations and what to do with funds given by disgraced donors.

• How can increasing transparency in the donation acceptance process increase accountability? 

•  Read about bad money and philanthropy.

Revelations that Yale, Columbia, Cornell and other prestigious schools in the U.S. and elsewhere accepted millions over the past five years from members of the Sackler family have raised questions from students and alumni. The schools kept accepting donations even as the Sacklers were being sued over their drug company’s role in bringing on the U.S. opioid crisis.

In my view, schools need a method for dealing with donors who become dubious after a gift has been accepted. Even better, they need to create fundraising policies that set limits on what donations the school accepts and put procedures in place that protect schools and donors regardless of whether donors pass the smell test from the start.

I believe that institutions of higher education should let students, faculty, staff and alumni help review or create new gift acceptance policies, rather than wait for their next donor-induced public relations crisis. And I feel strongly that each school should turn to their own messaging for guidance. Two of the best ways that colleges and universities can show students the practical side of ethics is by being transparent about their leaders’ decisions and by engaging students to think through the tough questions with them. Some schools already include a student representative on their gift acceptance committees.

Campus communities that receive major gifts from donors who become disgraced later on have several options.They may decide to give back money from donors who have engaged in behavior deemed inconsistent with the school’s values. At the other extreme, schools may keep the names of donors on their walls or associated with department chairs – even if those benefactors become a source of embarrassment.

A more creative solution that I support as an ethicist is redirecting funds to research relevant to the donor’s crime or misbehavior once misdeeds are discovered.

Read the full article about how higher education can deal with ethical questions over its disgraced donors by Deni Elliott at The Conversation.