LIVING IN A DALI LANDSCAPE
A Comment from an OSU Insider About that Big Ol’ Gift from Boone At Inside Higher Education
[D]emographic data from the U.S. Census suggest that enrollment will be dropping for the next 20 years. Investment in any kind of facility is risky now, when fewer students will be around to use it. Fewer students means fewer alumni, which means fewer pockets to pick to support an athletics village — never mind academics.
Another consideration is that alienating the Stillwater community and embarrassing its faculty, graduate students, and alumni will have far-reaching consequences for OSU. If you’re a motivated student looking to be challenged academically, you’ll go elsewhere. If you’re a recent Ph.D. looking to build a career, you wouldn’t pick a place that goes into debt for academics facilities but seeks out cash for athletics.
And a final consideration lies in Dr. Schmidly’s [OSU's president] last statement, as quoted in this news article: “I can’t tell a donor, ‘Don’t give us this money for this, because we really wanted to give it over here.' I’ve got more sense than that.”
How is that sensible? I’m neither a university president nor an oil tycoon, but I think any president who CAN’T speak truth to power has big problems. Any president who CAN’T say to a donor, “Gee, thanks for your interest, and here’s how much more benefit your money will have if we invest it in academics” lacks courage and creativity.
And I think this lack of worthy leadership at OSU is going to be the biggest problem of all, if the Regents go forward with this Boone-doggle.
As a lifelong supporter of higher education, I’m living in a Dali landscape. A record-breaking gift to OSU — to any institution of higher education — should be a cause for rejoicing. We should all be thrilled. But this is sickening.
Marion Agnew
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