1/30/2011: In a NY Times story on the UConn donor who pulled his sports donations when the AD didn’t ask him who to hire as coach. Professor Earl from English Lit, on Oregon.
“The world thinks of us as a sports franchise,” he added. “They don’t care what we do on the other side of campus. The team is owned by an institution that is flat broke, and a football game isn’t helping that at all.”
If you want to get boosters out of the picture, eliminate tax breaks for contributions to intercollegiate athletics.
“Maybe then they’d think of giving the university money that might have gone to a better cause,” Earl said. “Universities are starving. They are in terrible condition, while athletics departments are booming with millionaires giving millions of dollars.”
True enough, look at our classrooms:
Enrollment is up 6000 students since I came here, we have one new classroom building (from the Lillis donations).
President Lariviere replies to the Times:
Lariviere defended the university’s relationship with Knight, pointing to the library that Knight and his wife, Penny, have renovated, the numerous academic chairs they have endowed and an estimated $230 million they have invested in the university, most of it for sports facilities. (emphasis added).
“They want what is in the best interests of the university,” Lariviere said. “People confuse entertainment and education. I really wish the American public would pay as much attention to Shakespeare and classic Indian literature, but they do not. They want football. Football is entertainment, and they want it.”
Phil Knight has not given a dime to the academic side since the WRC fiasco in 2000. At the time President Frohnmayer told Knight that was stirred up by a bunch of pinko professors. (Which was partly true, Frohnmayer’s fear of the students didn’t help.) Knight’s athletics only donations since then have cost taxpayers $150 million or so, from the deductions.
IRS rules requires UO to certify that the donations to the athletic side help our academic mission. Otherwise, no deductions. Lariviere needs to deal with Knight’s love of UO’s jocks and his palpable hatred of UO’s professors. Tough job. But he’s hardly as unarmed as he is pretending.
Read this UO Foundation document:
POLICY: The Foundation will accept gifts for the benefit of the University, provided that such gifts are (i) acknowledged by the University to be consistent with the mission of the University and (ii) do not obligate the University or the Foundation to violate any applicable law or regulation.
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