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> There is no connection between alumni donations and capital investments except decisions that university leadership chooses to make. Not (always) true. Direc
by w0m 3y ago
> There is no connection between alumni donations and capital investments except decisions that university leadership chooses to make.
Not (always) true. Direct example with Carnegie Mellon - David Tepper was upset the business school (his alma mater) was appearing to fall behind in recruiting, so he donated ~100m but tied it to the business school getting a new building/quad. Total cost to the university was well north of 200mil; and their hands were functionally tied in how it was spent.
Yes, I know this is an outlier and yes, university leadership could have said no - but you're risking pissing off a doner who's given 100m+ over the years and will likely continue giving (and you know Tepper will continue guiding further capital expenditures as he sees the need).
- LegitShady 3y agoThose are all decisions the university leadership made. David Tepper (?) doesn't run the school - the university leadership decided to make those decisions to get the money. They could have said "this isn't sustainable", and their hands weren't tied. "Your $100m gift will cost us $200m, we can't accept it as currently stipulated". All university leadership decisions that they failed on.
- tough 3y agoyeah way easier to blame the donor for his pesky asks
- pc86 3y agoWhat risk in there in pissing off the donor if the donor's gifts all cost you at least that much? If someone offers me $100 million but conditions it on me spending $101 million, it doesn't really matter how upset they get with me because I was never going to come out ahead in that deal anyway.
- Given_47 3y agoNow also called the Tepper School of Business!