That New Weight Room
Only two specially selected sickly old people "hung up" when Oklahoma State University's athletics recently phoned them to ask if they'd give the school their life insurance policies.
"The department hopes to net about $250 million from the proceeds by the time the last donor dies," reports the LA Times.
Not everyone among these "carefully selected donors" is flattered to be a "newly discovered asset," and not everyone observing the scheme is happy:
'Oklahoma State's donors were selected because their age, gender and health "best matched the university's needs," said John Lee, chairman of Dallas-based Management Compensation Group, which is managing the insurance program.
To put it less delicately, the donors selected are expected to die in a timely manner to generate the $250-million payout....
... The [T. Boone] Pickens insurance plan passed muster with Oklahoma state regulators, but Oklahoma State's Gift of a Lifetime Program is generating controversy.
U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R- Iowa), who has been investigating the tax-exempt status of major college athletics programs, last week told Congressional Quarterly that he had questions about the Pickens program.
So do many college professors in Stillwater who are frustrated by the athletic department's spending spree when faculty salaries and benefits are at or near the bottom among universities in the Big 12 conference.
"The comments I've heard range from morally bankrupt to outrageous," said longtime chemistry professor Lionel Raff. "It's totally inappropriate for any organization to be betting on how long its alumni will live." ..."I'm not going to say that the response has been all positive," [one of its undertakers] said. "But we believe that athletics is the front porch of the university. That's how you advertise nationally. Right, wrong or indifferent, you don't see the science bowl on ABC. You see the Cotton Bowl and the Final Four."'
If ever UD were tempted to think of bluesters like herself out here on the coast as weird, and redsters out there in places like Stillwater as normal, let it be said here, officially, that that particular thought is ... dead as a soon-to-be dead OSU man.
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UPDATE:
More Commentary:
From Tim Dahlberg,
Associated Press:
'OSU fans will now need to change their reading habits. Instead of turning to the sports pages to see how things are going, they'll read the obits first to see if any of the gang of 25 have croaked.
Could make for some good conversation over morning coffee.
"Hey honey, I see here that old Jim Jones died yesterday. He sure was a great guy, wasn't he?"
"Yes, he was dear. Now if Hank Evans goes too, we'll have just enough for that new weight room."'
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