… is that many American universities routinely give millions of dollars every year to totally anti-intellectual coaches and athletic directors.
The university foundation of California State University, Stanislaus, is under fire for hiring Sarah Palin to speak at a $500 per ticket, gala black-tie fundraising event in June, to celebrate the university’s 50th anniversary. The foundation is refusing to disclose Palin’s fee. And students, professors and even a state lawmaker, point to the former half-term governor of Alaska’s vitriol, divisiveness and her hefty speaking fees of at least $100,000, as not appropriate for a University celebration. Her lack of intellectual curiosity is cited by Zoology Professor Patrick Kelly, who started an anti-Palin Facebook page, pointing out her distinct lack of academic accomplishments. In other woods, the academic community of CSU is outraged and embarrassed to have their school’s 50th anniversary celebration represented by a know-nothing, polarizing woman, whose major contribution to the public discourse has been inflammatory rhetoric…
Most coaches don’t give a shit about academics — they pressure their universities to admit students bound to fail and drop out; they have the highest salaries on campus (sometimes the highest salaries in the state) because they don’t see why they shouldn’t drain resources from students.
Palin’s populist tirades against professors and universities differ in no way from the contempt lots of coaches routinely express for these things. When you reward the coach with four million dollars a year, and then get upset when a university gives Palin – What? She’s probably getting a paltry $100,000 – you’re being a mite hypocritical.
March 30th, 2010 at 1:31PM
Apples & oranges, UD.
The coaches at least work for the university. Or the university works for them…whichever you prefer.
Palin has absolutely no affiliation with the university, in any sense of the word.
She has not produced a single iota of anything noteworthy for any university to consider remarkable, except possibly in classes exploring how a former sportscaster can parlay a failed political career into becoming a media celebutante. Well, that, and how to incite violence among the ignorant masses.
One would hope the U in question would spend that money to bring back successful alums to speak on behalf of supporting the U instead. Something else is at work here.
March 30th, 2010 at 3:26PM
But hiring Palin to appear at the 50th anniversary CSU fundraiser is a Whiskey-Tango-Fuck on its own merits– One can expect self-promotion from Palin rather than much support or regard for CSU’s future.
March 30th, 2010 at 4:39PM
Particularly apples and oranges when it’s happening at Cal State Stanislaus, which has no football team and only competes in 14 Division II sports total (men’s and women’s) and pays their head basketball coach less than $40,000 a year.
March 30th, 2010 at 5:53PM
Cassandra…”how to incite violence among the ignorant masses”
This kind of statement is precisely the kind of thing that explains why so many people tend to consider academics as arrogant jerks.
More generally: How many academics seriously deserve to be considered intellectuals?
March 30th, 2010 at 7:27PM
Palin is not an uplifting or eloquent speaker; however, she is entitled to criticize professors. After all, if she is a mental lightweight we should be answer her criticisms. Most of what I see on my campus are ad hominen attacks on her. I think the problem with academics is that most of us are not intellectuals, but merely parrot PC groupthink.
March 30th, 2010 at 8:14PM
Fair is fair, we shouldn’t exclusively pick on coaches and administrators.
If being intellectually coherent were a requirement to appear on campus, there would more than few faculty rightfully excluded as well.
March 30th, 2010 at 8:17PM
edit missing word: …would be more than a few
March 30th, 2010 at 9:11PM
True, Mike.
March 30th, 2010 at 10:46PM
I don’t have any problem with Palin speaking, or anyone else for that matter, at a university. I am not worried about the corruption of youth – at least at a decent university.
But the money is the problem here. There should be some reasonable limit to what a public university will pay and it is quite a bit less than the numbers cited above for Palin.
Although I’m not a fan of Kenn Starr, I think he would qualify as an intellectual. And he spoke here at Minnesota for peanuts as a favor to someone at the U.
And yes it is true. The sad fact is that most of us are not intellectuals at universities. Despite the horrible beating we get about being pointy headed intellectuals… And of course there’s always Joe – the Library – Paterno to think about.
March 31st, 2010 at 6:27AM
Bill nails it. The problem here is the money. My university is rich, but even a couple of years ago, when we were richer, our public lecture committee decided we couldn’t bring Malcolm Gladwell: not because we didn’t admire him and enjoy his writing, but because his fee was disproportionate to what we pay our normal distinguished speakers. Scholar never rhymed with dollar, and universities shouldn’t be gravy trains.
March 31st, 2010 at 9:26AM
I agree about the money, but it seems a point is being missed. Palin is being hired to speak at a $500 a head dinner. Assuming 100,000 is her fee, if more than 200 people turn up (OK, 205, must cover overheads) then the University makes money. If less, they lose. It’s a business decision. And, alas, Sarah does sell.
I don’t much like Palin, or her politics, but I’m always amused by the contempt she generates. No good degree! Former sportscaster! ‘Not a single scintilla of anything noteworthy for any university to consider’! I would have thought her career would be of at least some legitimate interest. Certainly many of her countrymen think so.