R. B. TERRY Jr.: LESSON TAUGHT BY A PHILANTHROPIST

On April 29, I post a blog titled, IMPACT OF RANDALL TERRY GIFT ON TEACHING VET MED. In that blog, I questioned if the current Dean of the College understood the significance of his remarks when he said the $16 million dollar Randall gift included, “included $8 million toward scholarships, $5 million toward hiring new faculty, and $3 million as a research endowment.” To me, the Dean’s cursory overview of the distribution of these funds is highly significant for several reasons. First, it suggested the board of directors of the Randall B. Terry Foundation directed the distribution of funds under a mandate given to the foundation by the founder himself. Philanthropist Terry was a single man with a deep love for his six companion Golden Retrievers. He had previously dedicated a huge sum of money to build the largest Veterinary Medicine companion animal “teaching” hospital in the nation. The $20 million drove that project was from R. B. Terry, even though, the eventual cost was $72 million. That project clearly tied Mr. Terry to his interest in teaching and not research. Please note, 82% of the current gift went to teaching as well. Second, a judgment I base on the history of University Chancellors and College Deans, if the Chancellor and Dean had their way, the funds would have all gone to support research and not teaching. Philanthropists usually donate to the University as endowments, which mean the funds go to the general budget, which University Administrators manage. The administrators use their judgment in spending the funds. Over sixty universities and colleges control over one-billion dollars each in endowment, still tuition at those schools is sky high at those Universities. Of course, this begs the question, where do the funds go. The answer is easiest to give in the negative; they do not go to teaching. They go to research building and facilities and support for over two million a year coach salaries for two glory sports, football, and basketball. Thus, endowment money goes into the never ending cycle of university or college building, bigger and bigger, more buildings, bigger campus, bigger newer sports stadiums, etc. but very little goes to teaching. Of course, university administrators are no longer educators, but business people who understand they have to spend money to make money. As tax dollar support dry up from tax cuts for “the people” and tuition increases, they build building for research and staff these buildings with research faculty and technical staff in the hope of drawing huge amounts of overhead research funding. They attract patentable research meaning sponsors own the results and professors cannot use them for teaching. Administrators decimate teaching by cutting teaching faculty increasing class size, putting inexperienced teachers in the classroom as teaching assistants, etc. They don’t intend to hurt teaching, but it always comes in third after research and service. The tragic result is administrators of once great teaching institutions bragging, yes bragging; they have more staff than students as “proof” of their great contribution to the community. Philanthropist R. B. Terry, great man that he was, avoided all of this by simply directing his foundation to use his money for teaching with just enough for companion animal health research. I feel that the current College Dean and University Chancellor were so thrilled with receiving a $16 million dollars gift, they failed to appreciate what he did or why he did it. I admit, I had to restrain myself from writing, they did not look the gift horse in the mouth, or if they did, they did it behind closed doors. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated