A video scoreboard for the football stadium
A guy works at the University of New Hampshire library for 50 years, saves all his money, and leaves the University $4 million in his will. Great story, no? Yes, except for what the university elected to do with it.
The university dedicated $2.5 million to an expanded, centrally located career center, it said when it announced the gift two weeks ago. It put $100,000 toward the Dimond Library, where Morin worked, fulfilling the only specific spending request he attached to his donation. And with much of the remaining gift, the university wrote a controversial check.
It put $1 million toward a video scoreboard for its new $25 million football stadium.
Sigh.
Ok the university points out that only 100k was earmarked. Yes, I get that, but I think they should have spent his money in a less revolting way anyway. Like, for instance, to honor his generosity and the discipline that made it possible, they could have put it toward scholarships for poor students. All of it, apart from the library’s 100k. Or they could have given it all to the library, to spend as they chose.
One particularly blistering blog post by New Hampshire graduate Claire Cortese — illustrated by dollars being tossed into a toilet — says the scoreboard spending shows the university needs to check its priorities. Cortese details what she sees as high student debt among alumni and questionable university spending in recent years on amenities such as a light-up table for a dining hall and a new logo. She goes on to argue that the $1 million for the scoreboard could have been spent on research grants, student meal plans or scholarships for students — she points out the sum is enough to pay for four-year full-ride scholarships for 14 in-state students at New Hampshire’s quoted tuition and fee level of more than $17,000 per year.
“Ultimately, the school’s administrative decision to spend a quarter of Morin’s generous donation on a inconsequential trinket for the athletic department is a complete disgrace to the spirit and memory of Robert Morin,” Cortese wrote. “As a Wildcat, I feel deeply saddened and honestly completely ashamed of my alma mater for this.”
Claire Cortese has more sense than the University of New Hampshire does.
Lesson to be learned from this: earmark any donation you make because people are assholes.
The university replies to the outrage by emphasizing that he earmarked only a small portion. But I think the university should have exercised better taste and judgment anyway.
As it is I simply wish he’d spent that ONE MILLION DOLLARS on a lot of excellent trips to Europe.
The only possible way I can see for them to justify it is if he was a huge sports fan and went to university games whenever possible. Then maybe they could infer that he’d be pleased by that.
My thoughts exactly. I won’t be leaving any school $4 million (unless my status changes soon), but I have been in the process of revising my will, and this tells me that I need to earmark all my school legacies. I do not want a cent of my money going to any sporting function at all. Schools are for education – or at least they should be.
I remember in the 90s in Oklahoma. OU got a new president. This was at a time when the football team was lousy. All I heard from people around me was how awful the new president was because he was focused on improving education, while the football team was losing. Didn’t he realize what was important? The faculty, on the other hand, was thrilled that he had his priorities straight. Of course, OU now has one of the highest paid coaches in college football, and the same president, so I guess he figured out the real function of a college – make the football fans happy.