Just how costly? Try $275 million.

Following Summers' departure from Harvard, three potential donors have declined to make significant gifts until a new (permanent) president is named. Assuming these donors approve of the new appointee, perhaps the gifts will be forthcoming after all. But you never know.

Read this from the Boston Globe:

Negotiations over three major donations to Harvard University, totaling $275 million, have stalled following Lawrence H. Summers's resignation as president, a new sign of how difficult it will be for Harvard to encourage large gifts without a permanent leader.

In late June, another large donor canceled plans to give Harvard at least $100 million for a global health initiative. Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison said he was doing so because of Summers's departure.

The three other potential gifts that are now in limbo were to come from media and publishing mogul Mortimer Zuckerman, who discussed giving Harvard a $100 million gift for a neuroscience institute; entrepreneur Richard A. Smith, who has considered giving $100 million for a science complex; and David Rockefeller, former head of Chase Manhattan Bank, who has discussed donating $75 million to fund study abroad for students, according to two sources familiar with the gifts.

The potential gifts were first reported yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, which suggested they may have been scrapped because of Summers's departure two weeks ago. The university's interim president, Derek Bok, is expected to serve for one year.

Meanwhile, Harvard continues to make due with its trifling $26 billion.