“We’ve agreed with Harvard that we’re not going to play this out in the press,” Glen said.

As a result, officials at Harvard and Stanford were both reluctant to discuss proposals for the institute.

For his part, Ellison has released no further details of his philanthropic intentions, according to an Oracle spokesperson.

Glen described interest at Stanford as stemming from their school for humanities and sciences, business school, and graduate school for engineering among others.

Mackey said that it was too early to reveal who at Harvard would be coordinating the proposals, or what schools would be involved. Reports cited the Kennedy School of Government as one possible host of the institute.

But due to the cross-disciplinary nature of the focus, any discussions would certainly involve a broad spectrum of Harvard departments. In addition to the Kennedy school, the existing joint Ph.D. program in technology offered by the business school and the graduate school of arts and sciences could be interested in the Ellison institute. The Provost’s office for interfaculty initiatives could also play a role.

For both schools the focus has already shifted from managing the fallout of Ellison’s surprise comments to touting the benefits that their institution brings to the table.

Glen explained that in addition to Stanford’s proximity to Silicon Valley and Oracle’s headquarters, a major asset lies in the strength of its interdisciplinary studies programs. Stanford broke ground.