Yale officials were overjoyed last week to announce that Lei Zhang GRD ’02 SOM ’02 had donated $8,888,888 to the School of Management to help fund the school’s new campus. But now Zhang is drawing criticism on Chinese blogs and online forums for not donating to Chinese universities instead.

Zhang has also donated to Chinese institutions in the past, Vice President for Development Inge Reichenbach noted Monday. “What many people don’t realize is just how generous Yale is to our international students,” she added. Meanwhile, Zhang’s “Alumni Spotlight” profile on the SOM Web site disappeared with no explanation, leaving only an error message.

Though Yale has delayed most major construction projects, Gateway Community College will break ground on its downtown New Haven campus Jan. 26, the college announced Monday.

Poor Harvard. As part of an Internal Revenue Service initiative to review the tax-exempt status of some non-profits, Harvard University is among 40 colleges that will be audited this year.

Driving under the influence. A male driving a U-Haul truck drove into the Yale Pediatrics parking lot Sunday and hit the hospital’s front revolving door, according to the New Haven police. As he was running into the hospital, the driver yelled to security guards that he had been poisoned by smoking the hallucinogenic drug PCP and didn’t want to die. He was taken to the emergency room without delay.

A dissertation on wealth distribution has garnered $20,000 for Marnix Amand GRD ’11, who won one of 15 Kauffman Foundation fellowships. The foundation, which aims to promote entrepreneurship, selected Amand for his thesis, “The Macroeconomic Implications of the Wealth Distribution.”

Yalies planning on renewing their memberships with the Film Studies Center at the Whitney Humanities Center will be in for a pleasant surprise: starting this semester, undergraduates no longer have to pay a $20 membership fee to rent DVDs from the film library. But beware: the late fee is a hefty $5 per day.

THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY

1981 Yale’s facilities office announced that at least 37 buildings had been damaged over the winter break by flooding after the coldest Christmas in 100 years burst pipes across campus. Payne Whitney Gymnasium was hit particularly hard, and officials said the pipes were continuing to freeze in January because of windows left open late at night.