What a waste!
Sep. 6th, 2003 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegkerrThere 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.
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.
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-09-06 09:56 am (UTC)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.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-09-06 03:52 pm (UTC)football vs. learning
Date: 2003-09-06 08:34 pm (UTC)And I'll bet there are a fair number of faculty members who would like to see it spent on the one important thing a university does -- research. Perhaps to allow faculty to do more research, rather than wasting their time on students.
Re: football vs. learning
Date: 2003-09-06 11:09 pm (UTC)I'm a faculty member at a football school, though not U of Minnesota. I know there are people who teach at the college level with that attitude, but there are also a large number of people who teach at universities who are really committed to their students and their welfare.
Personally, I would love to see the next large donation to my school go toward either providing married student housing/child care, which this university doesn't happen to believe is necessary, though it is. Or, to revamp the library. It needs serious help. We had an incident a couple of years ago that lost the library a ton of books (it's called the state legislature slashing their budget and they had to sell off books to keep the doors open).