What a waste!

[pegkerr]

There was an article in the Star Tribune today, a nice little feel good piece about grateful alum gives the University of Minnesota a huge gift. It's the largest gift in the University's 152 year history. $35 million dollars. He's so grateful because the University "turned his life around." Everyone at the U is gushing with gratitude.

And what is that $35 million going to be spent on?

A football stadium.

That's right. With state budget cuts hacking and slashing the University's budget, with the skyrocketing cost of tuition making the dream of going to college increasingly impossible to achieve for more and more families, this unbelievably generous gift is going to be devoted to building a temple of concrete so that people can sit on their duffs and watch a bunch of grown men kick an inflated bladder of pig skin around.

Comments

[ambtiondata.livejournal.com]

That's so depressingly typical. My high school in my freshmen year got a bonus for scoring well on tests and let the students vote to use it on buying new wrestling mats and lockers, both of which were a bit worn but in otherwise perfectly useable condition. This the same year they almost fired all of their emergency credentialed teachers due to lack of funds. They also spent more money painting in that district than I would ever have thought possible. I guess it's all in what they think will get the public's attention, and what will look like progress with the least amount of effort.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

A bumper sticker I saw once and crave with a mad passion:

A good university needs a football team like a fish needs a bicycle.

[peacockharpy.livejournal.com]

Argh argh argh! So frustrating!

I went to a "football school" -- two of them, actually (FSU and UF) -- so I know how absolutely maddening it is to see academics sidelined for entertainment.

If I ever have the funds to donate a hefty chunk of moolah to a university, you can be good and sure *I* will spell out how they'll use it. Grrr.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Things like this make me feel like we're living in The Year of the Jackpot, an old Heinlein short story.

A simple question

[bohemianspirit.livejournal.com]

What the hell is happening to this state?

That is all.

Signed,
A Frustrated Minnesotan

[misia.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's too late to do any good, but perhaps a letter-writing campaign, explaining that a football stadium is *not* the income-generating machine some people apparently think it is, and that there are many other ways to invest and spend that kind of cash for the betterment of the things that universities are supposed to do as universities (as opposed to the kinds of things that universities end up doing as --ahem-- professional-in-all-but-name sports teams)??? Might help, I dunno. Maybe it would at least make you and other people feel better that you'd spoken your piece about it to the people who make the decisions? After all, it's a state university. Theoretically, it's a public institution.

Gah, that sort of thing SO burns me.

[silme.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I remember when members of the state legislature were complaining that the University of Colorado spent too much money on useless periodicals, as they called them. Um, if you're going to have a good research library, you, uh, need lots of periodicals.

But there was always money for the football team, even if they had to gouge the students for it.

I remember receiving an alumni survey on which I very clearly stated I would love to donate money (didn't tell them it wouldn't be much :) to the university as long as it did NOT go to athletics, particularly football.

[eal.livejournal.com]

Did the donor designate the funds were to be used this way or did the university decide?

If the university decided this, then a letter writing campaign -- as suggested by someone else might be incredibly effective. It works particularly well if you can get the alums to write in.

If the donor decided, then you'd need to write to him to ask him to change his mind. The university cannot do anything else if the donor has placed conditions on his donation.

Oh and you might point out that 35 million won't buy you a parking deck let alone an entire stadium, so that money will have to be supplemented by money from somewhere.

[ceilidh]

*fumes*

I despise the way that sports are valued above ALL ELSE in this country! It's ridiculous!

My college (Winthrop University, in SC) didn't even have a football team, but it had a fairly good basketball and baseball program. At the time I went there the sports programs were no more important than the rest of the school, but they are apparently gaining ground - they've remodeled the coliseum, added a new tennis complex and soccer fields and a whole mess of other things. And yet, the symphonic band can't go on the tours they used to go on around the state (for recruitment!) because there 'isn't enough money'.

And it never fails, when I have a concert at school (I teach music), fully a quarter of the kids won't attend because they have sports practice of some kind, or their brothers/sisters have sports practice. Because, you know, sports are more important than the arts, always.

[minervacat.livejournal.com]

This is an outrage. I have several friends who were impacted by Pawlenty cutting the U's budget - one was fired, several have seen no pay raises in years - and the notion that this huge gift, which could be used in so many ways to help so many people, is being spent on a football stadium outrages me.

It should be noted that I do work for a collegiate recruiting service; we help high school athletes find college scholarships. I've witnessed kids with no other chances be able to go to school because they play football, and it is a lovely thing, it really is. I have seen that the money schools pour into athletics be used in good ways. But this is not one of them. This is not for scholarships, chances for kids to go to school. This is for the University to make money off those kids. And even I can't agree with that.

[(Anonymous)]

Back when I was in college (at a small liberal arts school) we used to play the "what would YOU endow?" game. Pretend you're one of those fabulously rich alumni who can give ridiculously generous gifts to the college. Would you give a building? A faculty chair? Would you impose any absurd restrictions like the swimming requirement? (The swimming requirement was not actually the result of a generous endowment offered by the grieving parents of a drowned recent graduate, but the story circulated anyway.)

I thought about it and concluded that I would endow a position for a visiting professor in the Studio Art department. I didn't major in art (I majored in Religion, actually) but I really loved the art classes I took, they really enriched my college experience. The purpose of the endowment would be to allow them to offer some oddball art classes, stuff that they'd never hire a full-time professor to teach (it's more critical to have your basic drawing and sculpture) but that would be cool to have available: textile arts, say.

So, if I am ever fabulously wealthy and in the mood to be generous with my alma mater, that's what I'll give them.

They'd prefer an unrestricted gift, admittedly :-D And they WOULDN'T spend it on a football stadium. They did recently build a really nice sports building, but it's a Rec Center -- sort of a really nice health club for student use, and I actually think it's a good thing. It's a building that encourages wellness and participation and lifelong fitness -- not genuflection at the Alter of the Pigskin.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

It's a waste, but it's a waste that the university would have spent money on one way or another. At least the donation will free up other money for other things. Or so goes the theory....

B

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

Lovely. And there's about a 65% chance that I'll be at the University of Minnesota next year for grad school . . .

To use my old high school as an example (my college hasn't done anything stupid recently), it received a lot of money from the state which is going to build a new gym. The ceilings are falling down; the music department has to do fund-raisers just to pay for the music it's required to buy for state contests; they're teaching AP Government out of textbooks from Reagan's first term (I kid you not); and yet they applied to the state so they could build a new gym, almost exclusively for the use of the athletes. (I went to a baseball high school -- we were ranked #2 in the country my senior year.)

My theory of the week is that we should have schools for athletics on the competitive level and schools for academics on the competitive level and rarely the twain should meet. I know full well that there are scholar-athletes out there, but at some point I guess you have to choose. Oh well.