AnnE-girl Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 Did anyone see this? http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/15/494134464/-1-million-of-frugal-librarians-bequest-to-n-h-school-goes-to-football-scoreboar It makes me so angry that this man's generosity is being squandered. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 That is profoundly disturbing. Shame on the university. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucyStoner Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 No, charitable donations are not taxed for the recipient if the recipient is a tax exempt organization. All public and private non-profit colleges are eligible for such status and wouldn't raise money without that in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 (edited) What bothers me is that the money could have been put into something more directly benefiting students. Scholarships, new science labs, etc. If this were a donor who specifically designated the funds to go towards the sports stadium I would feel differently--their money, their priorities. When the money is given to the university to use for university priorities, it is very telling when a significant portion goes to something that has nothing whatsoever to do with educating students. Edited September 16, 2016 by maize 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucyStoner Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 While I agree it's up the the university how to spend unrestricted donations, I find it a little bit sad that, almost across the board, so much money raised by universities goes to non-academically related things that many people (aka boosters) contribute to directly. I'd rather see sports spending limited to just what the program brings in specifically for sports in fees, donations and royalties. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumpyTheFrog Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 Time for separation of school and sports. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 I think the quote in the article about unrestricted gifts allowing the university to spend according to their priorities is very telling. Obviously football fans over reading that is their priority. The residents of New Hampshire should take this into consideration when looking at colleges. We all know that most tier one universities are entirely too sports driven. But when the administration says that to a journalist, it just seems like there should be some fall out come admission's season. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy in NH Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 Add to this discussion the fact that UNH continues (for more than 20 years) to have the highest in-state tuition of any four-year public university in the nation. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 It does seem odd that a university that can afford a $25 reno of its sports field, could include a score board somewhere in there from sport-generated revenue. It seems really strange that the man donating the money only allocated $100,000 towards the library - perhaps this is a telling action. Were the library acilities already great, or were they not seen as needed? I really liked one student's comment about the size of their student loans compared to the university's scoreboard spending. Another action that seems to support the fact/impression that universities are not in place for the students, but for the staff, and perhaps in the US, for sport fans. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne in CA Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 This kind of thing is why we have the lack of interest in real learning today. When even universities are more interested in spending money on football than books or students of course we have a lack of deep thinkers in our country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 Geesh that's rather nuts. Some people have argued (with me in the past) that sports brings in money. That isn't a bad thing, but I don't know if it is true, how much money it brings, and what they ultimately spend it on. So if this expenditure goes towards something that creates more money in the long run that is put to good use, it's not the worst thing ever. I'm not an optimist though so I am leaning towards this being a stupid thing to spend money on. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 The problem with the argument that sports brings in money is that universities do not use the money they say they make to better the educational opportunities on campus. It gets used to woo higher priced coaches, more sports scholarships, put private pools and lazy rivers in the sports training areas, etc. They keep feeding that beast while under feeding many departments on campus while raising tuition/fees/room/board. It doesn't infuse the general public with confidence that the school actually cares about the quality of education offered. Grrrrr...... 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 The problem with the argument that sports brings in money is that universities do not use the money they say they make to better the educational opportunities on campus. It gets used to woo higher priced coaches, more sports scholarships, put private pools and lazy rivers in the sports training areas, etc. They keep feeding that beast while under feeding many departments on campus while raising tuition/fees/room/board. It doesn't infuse the general public with confidence that the school actually cares about the quality of education offered. Grrrrr...... Yeah I suspect that is true, but then the argument goes that more students are attracted to schools that offer sports and the whole sport's scene (in general, not just athletes). So more students...more money coming in. Local place around here fairly recently updated their sports everything. I knew a grad student there who said she saw more and more tour guides wooing new students focusing on the sports this or that. This is a STEM school. So it's like who cares about the lab stuff we have...look we have this brand new football stadium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 Yeah I suspect that is true, but then the argument goes that more students are attracted to schools that offer sports and the whole sport's scene (in general, not just athletes). So more students...more money coming in. Local place around here fairly recently updated their sports everything. I knew a grad student there who said she saw more and more tour guides wooing new students focusing on the sports this or that. This is a STEM school. So it's like who cares about the lab stuff we have...look we have this brand new football stadium. I hope these students didn't fall for it. Seriously, take a look at the lab equipment and facilities students. I had a school do that with me one time. Advertised a piano performance major during my junior year, i thought I'd go take a look. They kept trying to NOT show me the music department while advertising their sports and wanted me to tour the new facilities. No show me the music department. The pianos were old and not well maintained. The building was in a state of disrepair. There was hardly a single full time music faculty member. The music library was pathetic, and the "recital hall" was pathetic. Uhm NO. Not happening. I let them know what I thought in a letter to which I received zero response. Not surprising. They didn't care about the students other than the money that students brought. It was very obvious. Just try to make it look good, raid the purse, ignore the glaring problems. Oh wait. Kind of like CONGRESS! :D 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 I hope these students didn't fall for it. Seriously, take a look at the lab equipment and facilities students. I had a school do that with me one time. Advertised a piano performance major during my junior year, i thought I'd go take a look. They kept trying to NOT show me the music department while advertising their sports and wanted me to tour the new facilities. No show me the music department. The pianos were old and not well maintained. The building was in a state of disrepair. There was hardly a single full time music faculty member. The music library was pathetic, and the "recital hall" was pathetic. Uhm NO. Not happening. I let them know what I thought in a letter to which I received zero response. Not surprising. They didn't care about the students other than the money that students brought. It was very obvious. Just try to make it look good, raid the purse, ignore the glaring problems. Oh wait. Kind of like CONGRESS! :D I always feel kinda like a grinch when I get annoyed about this stuff because full disclosure I have no interest in sports. But even the CC place down the street has sports teams. Which ok that's one thing. Sports is not HUGE there, but important enough that there is a $24 "transportation fee" added to the bill each semester (whether you take one class or full time). So I wondered what the transportation fee was. It's a fee that is used to pay for the transportation of the baseball players to games. WHAT?! Good grief why do I have to pay for that? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mimm Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 (edited) Yeah this type of thing is why I'll never give a dime to my own university. While I was in school, my major's department was using a building that probably should have been condemned. They kept promising the department better facilities, then not delivering. During the time I was there, they started work on a fancy new stadium for our losing basketball team (myschool isn't a school that gets attention in the college basketball world.) And now that I'm alumni, they call me up and have the nerve to ask for donations. I told them to put me on a do not call list. Edited September 17, 2016 by Mimm 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abcmommy Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 This kind of thing is why we have the lack of interest in real learning today. When even universities are more interested in spending money on football than books or students of course we have a lack of deep thinkers in our country. apparently these sports are lucrative for universities tho. That's reality. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 apparently these sports are lucrative for universities tho. That's reality. But not lucrative enough to play for their own scoreboards? 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momacacia Posted September 17, 2016 Share Posted September 17, 2016 And we wonder what's wrong with the country? <eye roll> This is how I feel about my high school alma mater. Sure, they have a foot all team, fancy new campus and stadium, but they can't manage to hire a Latin teacher after the previous one retired. Hmmm, wonder where their priorities are? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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