Foreign influence on United States universities also was a subject of discussion at January 1992 congressional hearings on the subject of indirect costs for research funding Scandalous over-billing for research overhead at institutions like Stanford University drew the ire of congressional investigators, and one of the most irritating things was that some foreign governments were billed less, or weren't billed at all for the indirect costs, or overhead costs, associated with their research grants.

In other words, the U.S. government was funding high research overhead costs and benefiting foreign governments, who could then compete with American companies using technology developed in United States universities.

Clearly, there is some political mileage in this. Foreign investment has been portrayed by some as "nefarious...an insidious force," said Craig Smith, publisher of the Corporate Philanthropy Report.

Still, foreign companies and governments find it increasingly worthwhile to weather the political criticism and give generously to American higher education institutions.

Among other things, Smith says, foreign donors are looking for prestige, for a way to "buy their way into the club,"

Another factor in foreign philanthropy--an acknowledged one in the case of King Fahd's recent gift to Harvard Law School--is a desire for god public relations. Like Fahd, many donors are hoping to improve their public image.

Is the university selling out by allowing itself to be used for such crass motives? Perhaps not, says Smith, who notes that universities have along history of taking a donor's money and then spending it however they please and sometimes displeasing the donor.

Harvard will have to grapple with the issues of foreign influence more intensely than every during the upcoming $2 billion capital campaign. The size of the campaign makes large foreign donations imperative, and with the increased cash flow will likely come increased scrutiny from both Congress and the media.

Yet while the 1980's boom in the Far East and the increasing internationalization of business make international fundraising something of anew reality, it's worth remembering that, at least at Harvard, raising money overseas (from donors with questionable motives) is a time-honored task.

Notes Smith, "John Harvard himself was a British merchant whose gift to Harvard was designed to reduce criticism of how much money he made off Massachusetts Bay Colony,"