Tufts' connection to Osama bin Laden's family goes beyond the $300,000 given to Fletcher professor Andrew Hess in the mid '90s. Since at least 1996, the Office of Development has maintained files on two separate families within the sprawling Binladin clan.
In 1996, then-freshman Salman Binladin and his mother, Prohaksa, met with Senior Director of Development Gary Lowe during a Parents' Weekend luncheon. Lowe asked for a $1 million donation to the music department, according to a report Lowe filed after the meeting.
A source familiar with the file said that Binladin and his mother specified interest in funding a music complex.
Director of Development Tom Murnane referred questions to a University spokesman, Pete Sanborn, who said development officials did not speak with the Binladins about paying for a music building. Tufts is planning on constructing a new facility on Professors Row, and it is being partially funded by an anonymous $4 million donation. The projected cost is $11.4 million.
Abdullah Binladin, Salman's uncle, donated money to Hess to finance lectures, language study, and internships, as part of Fletcher's Program for Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization.
After proposing the $1 million gift, Tufts officials maintained contact with Prohaksa, Salman's legal guardian, who remarried after her husband's death in the late 1980s and now lives in Paris.
In 1998, Salman's sister, Sarah, applied to transfer to Tufts from Simmons College, hoping to start in September of that year, according to a source familiar with her file. She was denied admission.
The file contains two letters sent to Prohaksa - one from Dean of Admissions David Cuttino and the other from Murnane. The letter from Cuttino, rejecting Sarah's bid for admission, mentions her family's ties to the University. In Murnane's letter, the high-ranking Tufts official said he was disappointed to learn of the admission decision.
Osama bin Laden's immediate family, which consists of over 50 children, owns a prominent construction firm in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Binladin Group. The company owns many of the contracts to build military support facilities for US forces in the region. In the 1990s, the family disowned Osama bin Laden.
The most recent entry in either of the two files is reportedly a research update from Sept. 2001, confirming Abdullah's gift to Hess. The only mention of suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden in the files is an update on the entire family dating from December 2000. The report describes Osama as having being disowned by the family and unconnected with other Binladin gifts to the University.
