Posted on 09/30/2004 8:42:18 AM PDT by batter
Can Moore mean less?
Utah Valley State College donors - who vote with their pocketbook and are upset the Bush-bashing filmmaker is coming to the Orem campus - are saying yes.
Hal Wing, a businessman and former Springville mayor, has yanked a $1.4 million art collection and nearly that much in cash promised for the school. Others are threatening to withhold millions more due to the Michael Moore invitation. One resident refuses to attend his grandson's spring graduation from UVSC, a school spokesman says, and parents are threatening to send their kids elsewhere.
"They've kicked over a beehive," said Wing, who is now sending his art and endowment to Brigham Young University instead. "You don't spit into the wind. It just doesn't make sense."
But the brouhaha over the liberal lightning rod's Oct. 20 appearance in conservative Utah County has reverberated over the mountain into Park City, where a woman with no ties to the school is coming to its defense.
"I'm only sending $100, but to me, it's the principle of it," said Wendy Steinle, a Park City resident who cut a check to UVSC this week. "My donation is a show of support for the courage of the student government to stand up for the enduring principles of democracy."
Controversy over the "Fahrenheit 9/11" moviemaker seems to have shifted arenas - from the political to the financial.
"I've received numerous e-mails, many anonymous, saying, 'I will never donate to campus again,' " UVSC spokesman Derek Hall said Wednesday. RSVPs for an upcoming $125 black-tie dinner and golf tournament fund-raiser, he acknowledged, have been sluggish.
If enough private money dries up, it could spell disaster for the public school, which receives the lowest percentage of state tax funding out of Utah's nine public colleges and universities, according to Mark Spencer, associate commissioner for finance with the state Board of Regents.
"They grew at a time when state funding wasn't keeping up as well," Spencer said.
And state legislators, steamed about the Moore appearance, may take a whack at UVSC's funding in January. Some already have threatened the school's plan to build a $32.5 million Digital Learning Center, seen as a vital cog at Utah's fastest-growing college with 24,000 students and counting.
Either way, private donations are "extremely important to us," explained Tom Heal, director of the UVSC Foundation. "I'm hoping this was a first reaction that will pass."
Dan Garcia, a senior who hopes to teach at the college one day, doubts it. He worries the Moore invitation will wreak far-flung financial harm among the college's "staunchly conservative" donors.
"I highly doubt that this is something that will just die tomorrow or next month or next year," he said. "They tend to have strong memories."
Garcia fears UVSC's fund-raising capability could be set back 10 years, "closer to community-college status."
That's a shame, Steinle says.
"It's very alarming to me that people think that because they are conservative, everyone in their community is conservative," she said. "Any publicly funded institution has a duty to reflect well-rounded views on issues."
But Wing refuses to spend his fortune on a school he accuses of hosting an "ultra-radical" even though it scheduled conservative commentator Sean Hannity to appear Oct. 11 to balance the speaker slate.
The student government "made a statement and it backlashed in this state," he said. "I voted the only way I know how to vote."
PING!
Moore is currently roaming around Philly doing a hit piece on the health care industry. He's trying to find folks who work at pharma companies to spill the beans. I did a three-month contract at one - maybe I should set Moore up myself by saying I want to talk, have a hidden camera on me, and film the reaction of Fatboy when I instead say the tremendous amount of good the company I worked for does.
It's very alarming to me that this woman thinks people who voluntarily donate to an institution do not have the right to donate that money however they see fit.
Universities have liberal speakers all the time; they knew damn well what they were doing when they invited Moore to speak.
You reap what you sow. Perhaps they should get George Soros on the line and hit him up for some bucks.
A supposed Acedemic campus, pays to have a lying, Fraud, selective editing hack speak, bye bye donations.
I'm sure the libs can make that up by donating a few Mapplethorpe photos.
"But Wing refuses to spend his fortune on a school he accuses of hosting an "ultra-radical" even though it scheduled conservative commentator Sean Hannity to appear Oct. 11 to balance the speaker slate."
Sounds to me like they are putting Hannity in the same boat as Moore.
Makes me sick. Unbelievable.
Funny how the Liberals say that about Conservatives. But when the Liberals get a stronghold in any campus, they insist that only the Liberal view is valid and anything else is "hate speech."
The students are learning a good lesson: cause and effect. Deal with it...
Go for it!!
Really? Why don't you define "well-rounded" for me? Terrorists have views and so does the KKK. When are they gonna show up?
"Well-rounded views" are fine. Moore himself may be "well-rounded" (literally), but his views are far from that - they're basically lies.
Why don't they just ask Michael Moore to make up the difference since money means nothing to him and since he pocketed millions by lying. I'm sure he can give up lunch for one day.
"It's very alarming to me that people think that because they are conservative, everyone in their community is conservative"
It's very alarming to me that people think that because they are a school, they are entitled to other people's money.
It just shows you just what type of people they are, they didn't even appreciate the money to begin with and now their allowance is being cut off and they are mad about itl. I used to send my son to his room for that.
I expressed my sympathy for the plight of UVSC by laughing until my keyboard was soaked with drool.
Fraud is not an "enduring principle".
BWAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAA HAAAA!
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