I reasonable question might be what Harvard paid this “fellow” to just go away quietly? And of course, doesn’t the term “fellow” violate the individual’s gender identification?
Generally, for a ‘visiting fellow’....you get a one-year invitation with some housing (usually a cottage or apartment near the campus). You don’t get any pay, if you already have another university fronting your pay situation. In this case, they didn’t say what the deal was with Manning. My guess is that he got housing and some figure in the $50k range.
The chief problem in this situation is that a ‘visiting fellow’ typically be a scientist, a PhD situation or noted as a political figure in retirement. So you look at Manning....in the Army as an enlisted guy in intelligence for three brief years....high school diploma....no college degree....federal conviction....prison time, which was NEVER pardoned, but commuted. Beyond that, he has a three-line resume at best. At any lecture....ninety-nine percent of the attendees would have been smarter than him.
So I’m going to make a bet here....that some idiot donor thought it’d be a nice joke (he was going to give his yearly $500,000 check anyway) to request they take in young Manning (he meant it as a joke). They didn’t get the joke part and thought it was a serious request, and simply followed through. Later, they figured out....it was a joke.