Nagel Hall: $39.8 million.
Soccer stadium: $6.3 million.
DU hiring freeze: priceless.
If you picked up a copy of last week’s paper, you may have noticed an item about a $6.3 million soccer facility that will shortly be built on the west side of the Ritchie Center.
What on Earth is wrong with you folks who decided to spend money on this? This is an absolutely colossal waste of funds.
Spending at this university is out of control. More new buildings, more copper-plated parking garages, more students… I’ve got to wonder if anyone’s done any sort of analysis.
Why do we need a multimillion dollar stadium now? Why, especially when there’s a hiring freeze on campus?
Why, especially when students are saying that they cannot afford to pay for DU’s ever-escalating tuition, even with assistance by the financial aid department?
We can’t expand anymore. We can’t afford any more of this excessive spending.
As tuition and fees go up every year, many students are wondering just how much more can be squeezed out out them.
I’m honestly at the point where I am glad I’m going to graduate and leave these hallowed halls because I don’t think I could afford next year’s rate, whatever it turns out to be.
Now, if I listen carefully I can hear the rebuttals of an angry yet moronic mob, so let me try to quell those in advance.
Yes, I know that most of the funding for the soccer stadium is provided through private gifts, but that still leaves about $1.5 million of university funds for DU to pay for, and that’s quite a lot.
Besides, if donors are writing to offer huge sums of money to make DU better, why not focus on something that actually matters, like academics?
Or how about renovating some of the older buildings like John Greene Hall or Aspen and Hilltop Apartments?
It’s not as if it’s that hard. All you need to do is say to the donor, “Why not put that money into something of actual use and value?”
The article last week also made it clear that this decision was made in early September, before the hiring freeze went into effect, and before the extent of the economic crisis was understood.
I don’t even have to come up with a witty retort here because in response to AIG taking an expensive executive retreat after being bailed out by the federal government, Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live said it best. “You defended the retreat saying it had been planned before the bailout. That’s like going ahead with Grandma’s birthday party even though Grandma died three days ago,” Poehler said. The same applies here, DU administrators.
The bottom line, then. This is not the time for this kind of expenditure.
If you ask me, there would be no appropriate time at all but apparently hosting NCAA tournaments is of crucial importance to someone.
I will say this: as I move forward into becoming an alumnus of the university, you all will not get a cent out of me if this is the kind of crap you spend your money on.
To modify a phrase from Poehler once more, “It’s like you gave your junkie cousin $100 for rent, and then you ran into him at the dog track, and you gave him another $6.3 million! I mean, are you serious?!”
