Sinquefield Donation Under Scrutiny

[Spoon-Balls]

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/gift-with-strings-slu-professors-question-rex-sinquefield-s-million/article_1fd8473a-c905-531f-8884-2b0164127df7.html

Apparently $15 million went towards an endowed professorship for an associate of Sinquefield. Violated University policy for accepting gifts so admin officials decided, “let’s call this a ‘staff’ position instead.’”

[RiseAndGrind]

18 minutes ago, Spoon-Balls said:

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/gift-with-strings-slu-professors-question-rex-sinquefield-s-million/article_1fd8473a-c905-531f-8884-2b0164127df7.html

Apparently $15 million went towards an endowed professorship for an associate of Sinquefield. Violated University policy for accepting gifts so admin officials decided, “let’s call this a ‘staff’ position instead.’”

So the cost of a $50 million donation is one hand picked professor? I'll.... take it?

[NextYearBill]

sounds like somebody thought they were earmarked for a promotion, then found out how the real world works. money talks and BS takes the bus.... stick to academics 

[billikenfan05]

Why do I get the feeling this has nothing to do with the violation and all about who is donating 

[brianstl]

20 minutes ago, RiseAndGrind said:

So the cost of a $50 million donation is one hand picked professor? I'll.... take it?

This is a a insane move by the faculty.  Putting the donation at risk threatens all their futures far more than how this endowed professorship is filled.  It shows a complete lack of understanding of the financial challenges facing private universities going forward into the future.

[brianstl]

Just now, billikenfan05 said:

Why do I get the feeling this has nothing to do with the violation and all about who is donating 

Trust me, how the position is being filled is a bigger issue with the faculty than Rex being the donor.  The donation coming from Rex adds fuel  to it, but these kind of battles go back to the Biondi days.  

What it shows is a complete lack of understanding of where they and their university currently stand in a rapidly changing higher education environment.

[JMM28]

23 minutes ago, brianstl said:

This is a a insane move by the faculty.  Putting the donation at risk threatens all their futures far more than how this endowed professorship is filled.  It shows a complete lack of understanding of the financial challenges facing private universities going forward into the future.

You'd think that the business school would have faculty that would understand a business move. 

You would think Rapach would understand that schools have always had price tags. John Cook, the namesake of Rapach's school at the time, used the price he paid to help railroad two kids out of the University in 2010. Where was the faculty on that? 

[Old guy]

This is one of the most stupid articles I have read, do the PD reporters bother to look into any subject before they write about it? 

It works this way: If you are buying a house most PS contracts have a clause requiring that defects found during inspection are fixed. The owner will do his best to fix them or to provide money for the new owner to do so. If seller refuses or cannot, for any reason, do it the deal is off. The buyer keeps his/her money, the seller keeps his house in the market waiting for the next buyer. Universities seek donations, large donations come with terms and requirements attached, if the terms are not met, the donor is free to pull out of the agreement and place his/her donation elsewhere. In general terms the institution receiving the  donation will do whatever it needs to do to get the money, including changing policies. Oftentimes the amount of money donated justifies doing things that appear or sound peculiar, like the name of Harvard's Pusey Library which remains the Pusey Library to this day. You must agree that the name of the library is not a major thing compared to the amount of money required to endow it.

There are all kinds of really major examples of donors terminating an offer to gift very large amounts to Universities and marching away. For example at the end of the 19th century some owner of a tobacco fortune wanted to donate his money, or most of it, to Yale University, all Yale had to do was to change its name and adopt the donor's name instead. Yale said no. The donor then founded and endowed Duke University in NC. Was Yale's administration stupid? did they do the right thing? Who knows? In any case they lost a vast amount of money for their endowment. What would it be like now if Duke University was in New Haven CT and not in NC?

 

[Old guy]

1 minute ago, JMM28 said:

You'd think that the business school would have faculty that would understand a business move. 

You would think Rapach would understand that schools have always had price tags. John Cook, the namesake of Rapach's school at the time, used the price he paid to help railroad two kids out of the University in 2010. Where was the faculty on that? 

JMM all that this shows really is that Biondi is a very different person than Pestello.

[rgbilliken]

15 mil for an endowment is a little excessive. How long is he expecting the dude to be a professor? 100 years? That being said, it's his money. SLU can accept it or not... Seems like a no-brainer. Usually endowed professorships are a good thing - they cost the school nothing and improve the facutly:student ratio which plays into rankings. 

[Cowboy]

-are "the ethical standards" of the U being threatened by this donation? I don't know, interesting the article doesn't quote or even mention DrP

[RiseAndGrind]

2 minutes ago, rgbilliken said:

15 mil for an endowment is a little excessive. How long is he expecting the dude to be a professor? 100 years? That being said, it's his money. SLU can accept it or not... Seems like a no-brainer. Usually endowed professorships are a good thing - they cost the school nothing and improve the facutly:student ratio which plays into rankings. 

I am assuming the $15 million will go to fund research and what not. No matter what, whatever research comes out of the "Rex endowed professorship" will be attacked as partisan, biased, etc... It's the nature of Rex. 

Might as well cut the pretenses and just deal with it. 

[disgruntledbilliken]

I think this is the crux of the article and the whole "controversy" if you will:

“These are difficult times for schools financially,” Rapach said. “If institutions of higher education are willing to compromise ethical standards for example with respect to donor involvement and hiring because of the size of the gift, that doesn’t bode well for society,” Rapach said. 

I am thankful for Mr. Sinquefield's donation, regardless of whether I agree with his political affinities or not (I don't). I don't think he necessarily did anything wrong. He wanted to give money and he had a clear vision of what he wanted to do with it. It is silly for us to act as if business, economics, or any academic discipline are immune for ideological values. However, I do think the university should have been a little sterner in saying we exist fundamentally as an educational institution and we will have to leave the hiring of academic positions to the faculty. Does this mean that the faculty don't have their won biases? Of course not, but they know the academic literature and standards of academic excellence better than non-academics. 

[Old guy]

40 minutes ago, rgbilliken said:

15 mil for an endowment is a little excessive. How long is he expecting the dude to be a professor? 100 years? That being said, it's his money. SLU can accept it or not... Seems like a no-brainer. Usually endowed professorships are a good thing - they cost the school nothing and improve the facutly:student ratio which plays into rankings. 

The endowment of a professorship chair is expected to fund the needs to keep a professor in it in perpetuity. Therefore the money spent in funding the salaries, etc... does not come out of the principal donated to endow the chair but out of the yearly yield produced by this money. Taking account of inflation the principal must grow with time to cover future needs. No, this is not an excessive amount of money. Assume a risk free 2.0% yearly yield for 10 year treasuries. This produces $300,000 in yearly funds to pay the needs of the chair and grow the chair's endowment. Disclosure: the numbers used for the yield example are not exact and will vary with time.

 

[rgbilliken]

2 minutes ago, Old guy said:

The endowment of a professorship chair is expected to fund the needs to keep a professor in it in perpetuity. Therefore the money spent in funding the salaries, etc... is not the principal donated to endow the chair but the yield produced by this money. Taking account of inflation the principal must grow with time to cover future needs. No, this is not an excessive amount of money. Assume a risk free 2.0% yearly yield for 10 year treasuries. This produces $300,000 in yearly funds to pay the needs of the chair and grow the chair's endowment. Disclosure: the numbers used for the yield example are not exact and will vary with time.

 

Makes sense! My assumption, without thinking about it much, was that they'd just use the 15 mil til it ran out. But obviously they're not just sticking the funds under a mattress, so.. duh. My bad. 

[brianstl]

28 minutes ago, disgruntledbilliken said:

I think this is the crux of the article and the whole "controversy" if you will:

“These are difficult times for schools financially,” Rapach said. “If institutions of higher education are willing to compromise ethical standards for example with respect to donor involvement and hiring because of the size of the gift, that doesn’t bode well for society,” Rapach said. 

I am thankful for Mr. Sinquefield's donation, regardless of whether I agree with his political affinities or not (I don't). I don't think he necessarily did anything wrong. He wanted to give money and he had a clear vision of what he wanted to do with it. It is silly for us to act as if business, economics, or any academic discipline are immune for ideological values. However, I do think the university should have been a little sterner in saying we exist fundamentally as an educational institution and we will have to leave the hiring of academic positions to the faculty. Does this mean that the faculty don't have their won biases? Of course not, but they know the academic literature and standards of academic excellence better than non-academics. 

I think the ability to exist as an educational institution is fundamentally more important to the future of SLU than how this position is filled.  This donation will help  SLU  keep the doors open going forward.  I don't think the vast majority of the faculty at most private institutes of higher learning have a clue when it comes to the pressures that their employers will be facing over the next couple of decades just to keep to keep the doors open. 

Smaller Catholic colleges and universities across the Midwest have already been forced to close their doors.   SLU will probably be able to survive because of SLU's size and the size of school's endowment, but it will face real stresses and will probably emerge very different than it is today.  

[cheeseman]

Politics have a part in most things.  Rex has funded the Show Me Institute at UMSL - I wonder if the professor selected is from UMSL and that group.  The problem with the group is that they were formulated to push Rex's agenda that may or may not be what the people in Missouri want.  Rex is even getting raised eyebrows even from other conservative groups given that he uses his money like a sledge hammer.  I get that money talks and he should have some influence in who is hired but it should have been a more transparent process.  If the school is going to follow this approach then they better be ready to give all the big donors what they want because they will ask for it now.  I am sure there was way to accept this money and still figure out how to keep a certain amount of integrity in the hiring process.  If the person Rex wants is a good selection he/she would surface to the top or at least be in the top 3 and then give the dean the option to consult with Rex on the top 3.  This smells a bit of him trying to guide the work that this role is to fill.  That is not good in the long run.

Every time you try to sneak something through problems arise - see the issues popping up with the current Supreme Court hearings.  The faster you push the more likely you will surprised.

 

 

[Old guy]

I really do not know what is or will be good in the future or not, what I know is that institutions that grew large and prominent usually had endowments that grew with them. Without  money you may be pure as the driven snow but you will remain a small institution fighting for survival. This is basically what brianstl said with which I agree fully.

[cheeseman]

3 minutes ago, Old guy said:

I really do not know what is or will be good in the future or not, what I know is that institutions that grew large and prominent usually had endowments that grew with them. Without  money you may be pure as the driven snow but you will remain a small institution fighting for survival. This is basically what brianstl said with which I agree fully.

The problem is that if you sell your soul for money then how can you teach integrity and moral/ethics to your students.  There is a way to still get money and still protect the School.

[Glorydays2013]

Slu made a few articles for buying a lot of amazon echos (no one asked for) the year after teacher layoffs 

[billikenfan05]

5 minutes ago, Glorydays2013 said:

Slu made a few articles for buying a lot of amazon echos (no one asked for) the year after teacher layoffs 

THE ECHOS WERE FREE. Let me say that again: THE ECHOS WERE FREE. You might be too young to remember when Apple put all of those multi colored computers in a million classrooms, same fuoking thing. There weren't articles written. It was a few nerds commenting on facebook.

[brianstl]

9 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

THE ECHOS WERE FREE. Let me say that again: THE ECHOS WERE FREE. You might be too young to remember when Apple put all of those multi colored computers in a million classrooms, same fuoking thing. There weren't articles written. It was a few nerds commenting on facebook.

I am sure there is, also, some kind of financial benefit for SLU in the Amazon deal.

[NextYearBill]

 

35 minutes ago, Glorydays2013 said:

Slu made a few articles for buying a lot of amazon echos (no one asked for) the year after teacher layoffs 

the teachers that were let go didnt have AAU rankings in HS 

[Box and Won]

nm

[RiseOfTheBillikens]

59 minutes ago, NextYearBill said:

 

the teachers that were let go didnt have AAU rankings in HS 

My vote for post of the year