Wait, New Hampshire has a university?
Even an Ivy, @pizzagirl although many here in CC deem it to be “lesser”. 
Ha! I meant a state university. I think it is quite literally the only time in my life when I have heard the words “University of New Hampshire.”
I can understand the outrage. I can also understand the annoyance of tax-payers when they learn that foodstamps are being used to buy “luxury food” and other unhealthy foods.
Interesting that many people don’t see the similiarities. In fact, with the foodstamps, it’s the donors (taxpayers) that are upset…but with this scoreboard it’s the people who didn’t provide the funds who are upset.
Hmmmm…
It’s totally different, because individuals purchasing chocolate or chips aren’t buying luxury items. They’re getting a “little something” - if you will, the equivalent of UNH repainting the bleachers, or giving free hotdogs to the first 100 people to get football tickets.
I bet people would be just as outraged if a needy family unexpectedly and incredibly received $10,000 in food stamps and parents used them on caviar, running out of money to buy normal food for the family. THAT is closer to what UNH did - spend money on an un-necessary luxury item when they don’t have money for instructional purpose or scholarships (and a nearly non competitive football team).
How would getting more people to UNH football games help the university?
Hey, he obviously knew how to restrict a donations and chose not to do so with the bulk of the money. All the people complaining, New Hampshire alum or not, can choose to give restricted donations or no donation at all to UNH when they donate $4M.
Any restricted donation only works if the donation is higher than the budget line for that item anyway. Say the United Way is going to give $25k to the Girl Scouts in your area. You donate $100. The Girl Scouts still get $25k, not 25.1k. If you donate $50k, then the Girl Scouts will get $50k, but none of the original $25k they were scheduled to get.
Maybe the guy knew that $100k for the library was plenty, that the library didn’t need a new wing or more computers or a coffee lounge. My school is still using the ‘new’ library they built when I went to school there 40 years ago. He worked for UNH for 40+ years, and he knew how the school’s budget worked but chose to just give it in bulk to the school. He could have given a dorm or cafeteria or library or scholarship, but he didn’t.
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people would be just as outraged if a needy family unexpectedly and incredibly received $10,000 in food stamps and parents used them on caviar, running out of money to buy normal food for the family.
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There was some outrage when it was reported that a wedding cake had been purchased from (I think) Publix using food stamps. The outrage was that if the family could “afford” to use their whole supply of food stamps on a “one day use” purchase, then what were they using to actually buy food to eat for the month?
Plus, foodstamps aren’t to be “shared,” so ethically, using the foodstamps to purchase a wedding cake that would be eaten by many people who weren’t “named” for those foodstamps could be considered “wrong”. Similarly to a family having Section 8 housing and letting others (boyfriends, girlfriends, etc) with unreported incomes live there as well.
But…back to the wedding cake…The idea that someone could spend a few hundred on a wedding cake using foodstamps just suggests that there is some unreported income going on.
I would be very, very surprised if the deceased’s lawyer has come out and said “I asked him a bunch of times why only $100,000 to the library…” Sounds like a planted story or a defensive maneuver if that’s in the news.
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How would getting more people to UNH football games help the university?
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I don’t know anything about UNH’s football team.
However, I do know that having a winning team brings in more money for the school. Alums are happy, alums donate, more kids want to go to the school, the school gets to be pickier about who’s accepted, better quality of student body means better profs want to teach there, better quality of student body means future grads are more likely going to be “better earners”…and that means more donations…it’s a domino effect.
As for the purchase of the scoreboard…It may be a part of their plan to have better football facilities. When recruiting, the recruits “judge” a school by its facilities. Run-down, second-rate facilities will not attract better players. Again, I don’t know about UNH’s football team…this is just the way it goes.
If there is a reason for the scoreboard, besides vanity, it likely has something to do with alumni and the idea that if they do something like this, alumni would be more likely to donate to the school. I don’t know if a million dollar scoreboard would get better athletes to go there, I would think better facilities and coaches would do that, but maybe they figure it would make for more pride in the team and get the alumni to donate (I wonder about that, but administrators never cease to amaze me with some of the crap they come up with). While there is some truth about alumni donations, usually when it comes to sports it tends to go to the sports, not to the university.
While it is being called a football scoreboard, the stadium may also be used for other sports (soccer, lacrosse, track). The school may also be under some pressure from its conference to improve facilities. If it has nicer facilities, it may be able to rent them out to other organizations.
My kids’ first high school had a $10M swimming pool (and a $40M athletic complex, no football stadium). It was run as a separate business from the school, and it was rare that you’d drive by and not see the 4 baseball fields, the 2-3 soccer fields, the pool, the golf practice area or the track in use. All weekends, all night. The indoor facilities (basketball, etc) were also used a lot. Two or three swim clubs used the pool, and of course the high school teams. They played football games at the community college stadium down the road, as did several other local schools.
Would a scoreboard really attract alumni donations better than a winning team? Would a scoreboard really attract student athletes more than, say, sufficient scholarships and decent facilities (both athletic and academic)?
How does prioritizing a scoreboard speak well of the university?
Scoreboard could be part of the facilities that could help the cycle of recruiting better players, donations, ticket sales, etc.
This is a serious question: UNH football is ranked nowhere that I can see, and they just finished a complete renovation of their football facilities. How does a scoreboard help?
Is it really something that attracts people?
Right now, I only see negative publicity so I can’t be the only one who thinks this expense makes no sense. (Also, if you read between the lines, good luck asking the state for money toward that much-needed renovation of your science facilities.)
I don’t even see how a scoreboard can cost 1 million. Doesn’t it, well, show scores? How can that cost 1 million? Why SHOULD that cost one million? I understand you wouldn’t have a manual little thing,
http://cache.boston.com/resize/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2007/08/18/1187481493_7755/410w.jpg
but, 1 million? Can the scoreboard be wheeled and used for other purposes than the 5-6 games they play at home? Couldn’t they have found 100,000 for it just like for the library? Is that something like a $30 watch vs. a Jaeger Lecoultre? Can a public university that’s so poorly funded afford a Jaeger Lecoultre? Or will it send a positive message? What kind of message does a Jaeger Lecoultre scoreboard send students, donors, athletes, NH residents, alumni, prospective students?
Another issue I have is that 1° it disrespects the gift since it was supposed to be used “wisely” (I can’t see how a frugal librarian would define “wisely” as an expensive scoreboard) and 2° they don’t even plan to name anything after him - not the career center, not a scholarship, not the library.
(well, yeah, a bench, but, 4 million = a plaque on a bench???!! Seriously?)
Seems they essentially built a new stadium.
The Objective:
To raise $10 million in individual/corporate support with the hope of leveraging additional funding in order to reach $25 million in total funding for the west side of the stadium.
Use of the Stadium
The new stadium will provide a community-strengthening space to be shared by our campus, the town of Durham, and citizens throughout the Granite State, with a seating capacity of between 10,000 and 12,000.
The new stadium will serve as a symbol of excellence, reflecting the prestige conveyed by other University landmarks. The stadium will significantly benefit not only the football program, but other athletic teams such as lacrosse, soccer and track and field – who will train and compete here.
The last paragraph I suspect tells why they deflected 1 million towards a scoreboard…“symbol of excellence, reflecting the prestige conveyed by other University Landmarks”…ie a nice, bright, shiny stadium to show off how committed they are to the football program"
The objection I have is while the donor did not specify where the money went he donated in his will, it sounds to me like the university administration decided it was easier to take 1 million from this, rather than doing what they said they would, have a targeted campaign to rebuild the stadium. With the 25 million they are already raising, it is a targeted, known campaign, and people giving to it are doing so for that (and in that case, as sad as it is, they would give money for the football stadium but likely would not give money to build new labs, etc, so there is no opportunity cost around it, it would either be the stadium or nothing at all, sad is the state of many people’s priorities). But they diverted a million dollars that could have been used for scholarships, facilities and so forth, that while the gift had no restrictions against using it for the sports field, unlike the fund raising for the stadium project, is a loss to the academic side of the university, that is a million dollars they could have used for academics but used it on the stadium, whereas the 25 million they are raising for the stadium can only be used there. And to answer someone else’s point, since the funding for the stadium is a totally self contained campaign, the 1 million they put towards that does not free up ‘school money’ at all, since this is a capital program outside the school’s budget.
In today’s environment, scoreboards also tend to be used for advertising. $1 million may well be for what can be viewed as infrastructure for more $$ through ads sold on/around scoreboard.
good point… let us hope to see an announcement from UNH very soon, stating that till 1 million in advertising is reached, 80% proceeds will be paid back to instructional needs, academic facilities, and scholarships.
UNH doesn’t really “owe” any of us an announcement, unless perhaps we are NH taxpayers.