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Last Updated on: 10th February 2022, 11:52 am
With the news of Jefferey Epstein and his systematic attempts to buy credibility by becoming associated with academic institutions and charities, we need to pause to look at the insatiable need for money at colleges and universities.
I was an undergraduate student in the 70s and a graduate student in the 90s and never thought of the fact that the institutions that I attended had endowments. Today the size of a school’s endowment is something that is bragged about in recruiting literature for both students and faculty. It seems that in academia, size does matter.
In my career in academia, I have known a number of people who have left administrative roles because of money. Not their compensation, but the shift in job requirements to become fundraisers. People who would be very good department chairs, deans, etc. do not pursue these jobs, or leave them, because the jobs are becoming more and more fundraising specific.
With job descriptions requiring more fundraising and institutions getting increasingly desperate for funds, there is an opportunity for those who want to influence education or be seen as a benefactor and associate of prestigious institutions to pay for that privilege.
Most of the people who donate to schools do so for altruistic reasons. But with opportunity comes those who can find ways to take advantage of those opportunities. In addition, large amounts of money can be tempting to those under pressure to raise funds.
I know of a university that had an endowed professorship (extra money to support faculty with a higher salary and/or research support) that did not have a record of who the donor was. The school took the money but did not have adequate records to attribute the donation to the correct person.
Perhaps an even more interesting story is that of the football field at Northwestern University. When the stadium was opened in 1926 it was named Dyche Stadium after a graduate and the board indicated the name should be permanent. Yet, in 1997, the name was changed to reflect recent donations and the Dyche heirs were not notified. Recently, the University of Oregon has been dubbed Nike University because of all of the money donated by Phil Knight (alum and Nike founder).
Today there are classrooms named after corporations and foundations that give money to schools with stipulations that certain topics may not be discussed. The quest for money has made colleges less of an unfettered place where ideas can be exchanged and more of a place where an individual, corporation, or foundation can make themselves look better. Association with a college seems to clear one’s name.
Do schools think of themselves in this way? No. They are doing the good work and trying to find money to support that work in a changing and dwindling economic support market. Are some donations turned away? Most certainly. But over time, the standards have been lowered.
While it is hard to get total agreement on anything from academics, most would agree that the purpose of a university is to disseminate information. Fundraising may be seen as a means to support this purpose–but we have to continually question whether this is in fact the case.
If schools allow a donor to make a big announcement that millions of dollars will be donated to a school, they are lending their credibility to the donor. Universities must be more careful who they allow to play on their good name. Not doing due diligence about donors can hurt both a school’s reputation and long term fundraising.
