When I was an undergraduate student at Purdue University, West Lafayette, the one outstanding symbol of the University's attitude was its mile-high smoke stack. This smoke stack built of bricks seemed to rise to the heavens and represented the swashbuckling attitude of the University and its Boilermaker students. It was affectionately known by all as Purdue's "finger-to-the-world."
The smoke stack was a vestige of the decades in which the coal fired heating plant was in the center of campus with the world's shortest train line to carry the coal to the plant. Our attitude, which the smoke stack represented, is that not only were we engineers and scientists and other type of brain heads we could still party with the best of them, our men were the most handsome and our women were smarter and prettier. Even though our courses and degrees were the toughest in the Big-Ten, our teams, football under Coach Jack Mollenkopf and Basketball under Coach George King, would beat any of them.
The smoke-stack was Purdue's finger to the world because in spite of what everyone thought, we Boilermakers were a great contribution to the State of Indiana. Most of the people associated with the University were committed to the Hoosier State and believed in it; not the carpetbaggers we have today.
The smoke-stack was such a point of pride for decades of alumni, that when it was torn down for the more politically correct clock tower, the bricks were sold to alumni and friends to raise money for scholarships.
Now the carpetbaggers have given a new meaning to Purdue's finger-to-the-world. Purdue has flipped the proverbial finger at the very Hoosier taxpayers who support it and for whose benefit Purdue exists. It accomplished this by throwing a lavish over one million dollar party on itself in the middle of the worst tax crisis that Hoosier taxpayers and public officials are going through.
The party, reminiscent of French royalty just before the French revolution, was held in Mollenkopf indoor football arena to celebrate the completion of the $1.7 Billion fund-raising campaign. The party was first reported by the Lafayette Journal and Courier Newspaper (click on the link to see the original story), and it outlines what other items of educational value this money could have been spent on.
The newspaper article only reports $576,778 being spent. But this is very misleading. This amount is only the direct contracts that are known to be signed. This did not include indirect costs and direct State taxpayer funded costs that were included in the festivities but are lumped with other regular payments from State tax money. For example, once a contract is signed a group of people have to administer and manage them. Purdue knows that because it has many contracts with the Federal Government and it knows that there is about a 20% internal administrative cost added to these contracts for "running" them. This would right away add an additional $115,000. We are now up to $700,000.
Who paid for the electricity, water, telephones etc.? The money for these all comes from the University utility bill paid by you and I as Hoosier Tax Payers. Who paid to resurface the arena and the parking lots? Who paid to direct traffic and handle the traffic jams? The parking costs, and most of all the thousands of dollars of tax payer funded people time that was utilized, like those people needed to direct traffic, can not be separated from non-direct State funds. As a matter of fact the whole thing was paid by public money.
The University said that half the money came from the Purdue Research Foundation and half from the money raised in the fund raiser. All of the money is public money and belongs to Hoosier Tax Payers. Purdue University Carpetbaggers are somehow renaming monies raised in the name of Purdue University as private money because it was written to the Purdue Foundation. Most of the donors did not know of this scam. When they write their check to the Foundation it is a slush fund for the elite of the University; not to be confused with monies used for the good of the State of Indiana or even Purdue University. This in spite of the fact that the funds were raised solely under the name of Purdue University and under the banner of supporting a great Hoosier institution and consequently the people of that great State.
But no, the Foundation money is for the benefit of the Foundation. It is one of those trick organizations, such as they have in East Chicago, that the Indiana Attorney General is trying to get control over information and mis-spending in these quasi-private entities. Essentially they receive all of their money under the guise of being a public institution with public fiduciary responsibility; but, they spend their monies like a private for profit organization and insist on privacy and lack of transparency in their dealing because they claim they are "private". The major activity of the Purdue Foundation is owning land and property in the State and remember they do not pay property taxes. Guess who is stuck with the bill? Me and you, the Hoosier Tax Payers!!!
The party that was thrown was for only 600 people. You can do your own math at how elitist these people are for what they cost us Hoosier Tax Payers for each person. The most common "rationale" for why the party was needed is that the people who gave the money expected it. Nonsense. People who give money in the millions do not expect a party; they get their names on buildings and endowed professorships. In reality, the party was for the University higher-ups. Why? Because they could. Just like the French Royalty before the revolution.
By the way do not be mistaken, not only was this party an embarrassment to Purdue and Indiana, it was an international embarrassment as it was even covered in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Party Tab for Purdue.
The money that was raised is doing nothing for the Hoosier Tax Payer because not a penny is going to reduce the burden placed on us. For example, over $160 million was raised to pay for endowed professorships. Did any of that reduce the demand Purdue made on the Hoosier Tax Payer at the legislature? NO. Purdue's endowment, the money it has to invest and use the interest for anything it wants, was over $1.5 billion in 2006. Why has Purdue's burden on the Hoosier tax payer not been reduced, ever?
The reason is that the Purdue Foundation, like its sister the IU Foundation, are there to serve the "private" interests of the people in power in the Universities. There is no accountability either in the Foundations nor for that matter on the Board of Trustees of Purdue or IU. What have they done for you, Mr. Hoosier Tax Payer, lately? Nothing, except have fun themselves at your expense.
The numbers show that Purdue and IU have done nothing to stem the brain-drain out of the State. They have done nothing to stem the employment exit out of the State. To be realistic, the amount of tax dollars they consume, West Lafayette and Bloomington may very well be an overall drain on the State's economy. The first quarter of 2007, Indiana was number two in the country in states loosing jobs. Where were the big Universities? Oh, I forgot, planning their million dollar party.
The number one state in job loss was Ohio. They realized that this was occurring to a great extent because the universities were out of control and contributed to themselves and not to the state they were a part of. As a consequence the Ohio Governor and legislature revamped the whole State of Ohio's higher education system of 36+ campuses into a more coordinated, responsive, and transparent system responsive to the people of Ohio. This is their new web site: The University System of Ohio. Indiana now has a chance to become number one in the Country in job loss while our universities party away.
Whether you think the universities are thumbing their noses at us Hoosier Tax Payers or "just" giving us the finger, it is time to take control back and make them accountable in totality; for every penny spent and how it benefits the Great State of Indiana, period.
