N.C. State recently built an updated home for its chancellor. The home, with 5,000sf of entertaining space and a cost of $3.5 million, immediately drew the ire of local conservatives who held it up as an example of the misplaced priorities of academia. Or a waste of taxpayer dollars, or … something. The protests are a little unclear.
I know many of these conservatives simply can’t live without having something to be angry about but before they go blowing a gasket they should note that their ire is misguided. Private donations paid for the home in its entirety.
Let me say that again: private donations paid for the home in its entirety. The cost to taxpayers (and students)? Nothing. Zip. Zilch.
In these days when the miscreants in charge of the state legislature are ignoring the state constitution’s commitment to providing our citizens an affordable education, our universities need to find other sources of revenue. This means chasing private donations, which this home is designed to facilitate. You’d think that conservatives would welcome private investment in our universities as it helps take the burden off the public, but no! Some people just gotta have something to bitch about, I guess.
I hate having to defend higher education because I’m convinced that its value is diminishing in the job market where it might not always be a good investment. I also can’t stand how higher education is focused more on raising money rather than educating kids. I’m a State alum and love it when my Wolfpack teams win, but I still can’t help getting nervous when athletic director Debbie Yow vows to take the school’s sports teams to the big time. Sure, championships are nice, but at what cost?
All that said, private donations paying for a new chancellor’s home sounds great to me. The only thing I don’t like about the deal is the design: it’s uninspiring from an architectural point of view. Doesn’t the school have a College of Design?