In the spirit of the day, a little college humor. This week the Wall Street Jounal brought us up to date on the heartwarming story of Boone Pickens' huge ($165 million) donation to Oklahoma State University to expand OSU's athletic village into a formerly residential area of Stillwater. The story is behind WSJ's subscriber-only walls (hence the name), but there are other, more entertaining sources.
You might even find the WSJ article here.
Earlier, WMS reported on the special tax treatment of Mr. Pickens' original gift due to legislation designed to promote charity giving in the wake of hurricane Katrina. The extra twist was that the donation was immediately given back to a hedge fund controlled by Mr. Pickens. As we have seen since, these hedge funds earn big returns for colleges with big bucks to invest, but the hedge fund managers also make out handsomely by taking 20% of the profits they earn by rolling around these the huge blocks of cash (a la Katamari Damacy). Though Mr. Pickens waives the fee on his gift, having the money at his discretion keeps him in the game.
New details emerge about the relationship between Mr. Pickens, OSU athletic director Mike Holder, OSU president David Schmidly, and football coach Mike Gundy. The college newspaper O'Collegian reported that Mr. Holder's friendship with Mr. Pickens (they hunt quail together) was key to the gift, and the WSJ implies that Mr. Holder's continued tenure as AD may have been a condition of the deal. Of course, Holder is the one who decided to place the donation with the hedge fund.
Then, the story turned to the plans to use the gift to expand the athletic facilities north of the current stadium into a residential area of Stillwater. Again, the O'Collegian provides some glimpse of the process, with president Schmidly explaining the master plan to the student government, especially why the plan entails removing a neighborhood that currently houses 580 students (among other residents). The university master plan map (10 Mb file) shows an extensive area of new buildings and parking facilities.
The WSJ provides additional details of neighborhood residents being offered buy outs of 70% of the assessed valuation of their homes, with the threat behind it of the university exercising its power of eminent domain. But to the students, the president says, “That’s Boone Pickens’ money, not Dave Schmidly’s money" driving the decision to expand north, rather than find an out of town location. (In Stillwater, out of town is a short drive.)
All of these goings on were lampooned in a comic strip, Boone State, assembled in the clip art style by Chris Stellman (whose house is in line for demolition) and Garrett Hellman. Stellman and Hellman received a lot of hate mail for their efforts.
Mr Pickens we are Building a Veterans Memorial Wall Project in Mangum Oklahoma , and Have Done Very well But Have Reached Apoint
that We Need Some Help To Finish It , We Are an Older American Legion Post Here In Mangum Oklahoma , We Have a $25,000 Loan On The Wall It Is Very Impressive
We Would like For You To see It when You Can Butch White Commander Of Post 121
Posted by: Chesley A.White (Butch) | April 11, 2006 at 10:19 AM