4 ms·
What surprises me isn't that Universities need money, it's how cheap they're willing to sell themselves. $20 million allows one guy to push around a university
by mathattack 11y ago
What surprises me isn't that Universities need money, it's how cheap they're willing to sell themselves. $20 million allows one guy to push around a university with an endowment and budget both more than 50x that. [1]
Generally naming rights involve doubling the endowment of a school. And of course you get some added influence, but $20 million in Oklahoma seems like it wouldn't even pay for 5 years of the football coach's [2] (coach's, not coaches!) salary.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universiti...
[1] http://www.ou.edu/publicaffairs/oufacts.html http://www.ou.edu/publicaffairs/oufacts.html
[2] http://www.coacheshotseat.com/SalariesContracts.htm http://www.coacheshotseat.com/SalariesContracts.htm
- ceejayoz 11y ago> What surprises me isn't that Universities need money, it's how cheap they're willing to sell themselves. $20 million allows one guy to push around a university with an endowment and budget both more than 50x that. That's not cheap when you compare it to politics. $5-10M a year for Lockheed Martin helps it win trillion dollar projects like the F-35. https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000000104 https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D00000010...
- mathattack 11y agoNo wonder they say that lobbying is more efficient than R&D!
- greenpresident 11y agoHere is a description of the phenomenon, recently linked on daringfireball: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullock_paradox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullock_paradox
- mathattack 11y agoInteresting. I've also viewed it that the folks paying the economic rents are not coordinated enough to fight back.
- juliangregorian 11y agoI was surprised when I found out about the Countrywide Loans guy[0], he was buying congresspeople for low 5 figures! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countrywide_financial_political_loan_scandal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countrywide_financial_political...