Posted on 06/26/2010 10:40:09 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
TURLOCK, Calif. - Sarah Palin spent only a few hours in Turlock. But the repercussions of her visit will last a long time, from the big money she drew to the debate over her appearance to a legal investigation into the nonprofit foundation that signed her.
University officials said they couldn't be happier with her appearance at the 50th anniversary gala, bringing in more money than any other single event in the campus' history.
"I am really very pleased," university President Hamid Shirvani said Saturday. "It was an extraordinary event, unprecedented in the past five years I've been associated with the university, and according to many, unprecedented as long as they have been with the university."
Stanislaus County Supervisor Vito Chiesa, who attended the gala, said the university achieved its goal.
"I think they hit a home run for raising money," he said. Officials estimated net income at $200,000. "I didn't know what all the rancor was about before; she's there for a school and she turned it into an educational speech."
But there remains plenty of rancor.
The finances of the university's foundation remain under investigation by Attorney General Jerry Brown. And a lawsuit by the watchdog group CalAware, claiming the public university employees had more involvement in the event than officials claimed, continues.
So does the effort of Sen. Leland Yee. The Democrat, who has championed laws requiring university foundation records be made public, targeted Stanislaus State over the secrecy of Palin's speaking fee in her contract for Friday's fundraiser.
CalAware attorney Terry Francke said the fight isn't over, even though the event is.
"We were not that interested in the honorarium but interested in how involved university officers were in the planning and execution of this event," Francke told the Los Angeles Times. "It's that point that goes to the question of whether the foundation should be as transparent as the university."
Shirvani said the university will emerge unscathed.
"We have nothing to worry about with any investigation or anything at all about the foundation," he said. "We didn't do anything that was wrong or illegal."
At the same time, some alumni and donors were upset over Palin's appearance on campus. Some current faculty and students also complained, contending Palin didn't belong at the university's anniversary gala.
Shirvani said the university hopes to reach out to some of those people by inviting a wide range of political viewpoints to the school.
"The concept of the university is to be exposed to social ideas," he said. "If you want to take bold steps, you invite people who have strong opinions and are controversial."
Shirvani and foundation President Matt Swanson said the gala was just a start. The university will continue celebrating its anniversary with events through September, and the foundation will plan more fundraisers.
"I think the foundation is going to relax for a little bit and then regroup in the fall," Shirvani, the foundation's chairman, said. "And then they'll think about the next gala and whom they should invite."
One thing the foundation likely won't do is sign a confidentiality clause like it did with Palin.
"At least I as the university president would certainly do everything possible in my power to stay away from that," he said. "But I wouldn't be shy of bringing in another controversial person from the right or the left."
I hope whatever tenured professor’s job is saved with this money turns it down, on whatever liberal principal he/she may have.
the leftist nutters are just going ape sh*t over this. The just can not get over this woman.
IT truly was one of her better speeches. :)
You were there? Were there protesters? Why all the hooplah? Lib speakers are invited all the time...is there more to this? I remember when O’Reilly had a girl on who was angry over this and she really couldn’t explain why.
It had to be better than Michelle and Obama’s “Abandon every hope, ye who enter the workplace!” dirges.
controversial? don’t they mean constitutional?
Liberals are enraged over this speech because they were told to be enraged.
That’s all they need. It’s not about understanding, or reason, or issues. It about the collective, and the decision by those running the collective that the collective members should be enraged.
In response, the collective members dredge up all of their life’s anger, all of their primal pain, and deliver it in impassioned hatred towards the focus they have been instructed to hate.
If they are told tommorrow to stop, or focus on another target, they will.
They are programmed. This is their lives. This is what being a liberal is about. Asking them “why” they are angry just irritates them - they are angry because they are supposed to be angry. To them, you literally don’t get it.
Hive mind - it’s not just a river in Egypt.
Odd, Yee would have been silent on Bill Ayers at Fresno State...he was.
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