Posted on October 29, 2007

Princeton Faces Trial Over Use of Robertson Gift

In a legal battle that universities around the country are watching, Judge Neil H. Shuster of the New Jersey Superior Court has sent to trial a long-standing dispute between Princeton University and the heirs of a supermarket fortune, leaving open the possibility that Princeton could lose a donation now worth $880 million, the New York Times reports.

The dispute, which has already cost Princeton and the descendants of the late Charles and Marie Robertson more than $20 million each, centers on whether the university has adhered to the couple's wishes. Marie Robertson, an heir to the A&P supermarket fortune, gave Princeton $35 million in 1961 for its Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Her children claim the donation was shaped by their father, a Princeton graduate, and was intended to prepare students for work in federal government, especially in international affairs. However, they maintain that few graduates have taken such jobs and that Princeton has used the money for many other needs.

Princeton asserts that the family has narrowly interpreted the terms of the gift, which university officials say was designed to support the Wilson school in providing a broad education for graduate students. According to Princeton attorney Douglas S. Eakely, under the university's stewardship, the Robertson Foundation has achieved "extraordinary success," and the Wilson school today is "one the pre-eminent schools of public and international affairs [where] students may, and do, prepare for positions of leadership in government and related fields."

Both sides claimed victories in Shuster's decision. He supported the university in ruling out a jury trial, but he left open the possibility that Princeton could lose the entire gift — though only under the most egregious and nefarious of circumstances. He also allowed the family to reach back many years in its questioning to determine whether the university's spending was appropriate; Princeton had hoped to limit questioning to just a few years.

The case, which could go to trial early next year, has already affected how colleges and graduates approach fundraising, prompting donors to be more vigilant and colleges to be more careful about gift restrictions. Joseph Nye, a former dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government who was a witness for Princeton, said, "If the heirs of donors are allowed to micromanage an academic institution a generation after a gift has been given, it will seriously curtail the creativity and initiative that has marked the recent administration of the Wilson school and set a bad precedent for other academic institutions."