Fund for Gay Studies at Columbia

A private donor has established an endowment to provide $200,000 in scholarship money for needy students pursuing gay studies at Columbia College.

Donor Andrew Lanyi created the George R. Lanyi Memorial Foundation Endowment last month in memory of his son George, who died of AIDS.

The award, expected to be in place for the 1993-94 academic year, will be awarded on a rotating basis.

Cornell Cutbacks

In an effort to meet the largest budget cuts in a decade, the Cornell Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Engineering announced plans Wednesday to reduce faculty size and eliminate a number of courses.

The move is intended to meet a $450,000 deficit from this year's budget and to create a projected $3 million in savings over the next two years.

University officials cite lower enrollment, high indirect research costs, and government funding cuts as the causes of the monetary gap. No current faculty members will lose their jobs, but those who leave will not be replaced, in the effort to shrink expenditures.

Big Gift at the Big D

Dartmouth College announced yesterday it has received a $30 million gift, the largest in the Ivy League school's 223-year history.

Dartmouth plans to spend the money on a new library and to renovate the existing Baker Library.

The principal donor is John W. Berry, 70, of Dayton, Ohio. Berry, a 1944 Dartmouth graduate, has committed to giving $25 million, the largest individual donation in Dartmouth's history.

Additional $1 million gifts will come from his son, George Berry, a 1966 Dartmouth graduate, and the Loren Berry Foundation, established by John Berry's father. The Berry family founded The Yellow Pages telephone directory advertising business, the L.M. Berry Co., in 1910, according to Dartmouth. The company was sold in 1986.

MIT Professor Acquitted

A MIT management professor was acquitted yesterday in Middlesex County Court of Sexual harassment charges brought by an administrative assistant.