Another BG
Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Money, Philanthropy

Mr. B. has reluctant but great admiration for Bill Gates. Probably because he is about to put his money where his mouth is, unlike a lot of other people, including a number of very wealthy people, the majority of politicians, and even some university administrators. A very amusing and insightful article about the amazing Mr. Gates has appeared in Time online.

Thursday, Jun. 07, 2007
Bill Gates Goes Back to School
By Lev Grossman

He is transitioning out of Microsoft to become a full-time philanthropist-at-large, directing his formidable intelligence and ridiculous wealth at improving global education and global health.

"The only computer-science course that I ever signed up for was the one that had the most prerequisites in the whole catalog — and I signed up for the second half of the year," Gates says. "So my freshman year I show up, and it's all graduate students, and two days into the course I tell the professor, Hey, you know, this thing is wrong ... My social skills weren't that great."

When Gates and Allen sold the Altair folks a version of basic — which they wrote without ever having seen an Altair — the school brought him up on disciplinary charges for running a business out of his dorm room. So Gates turned on, booted up and dropped out.

Long before the dotcom boom, long before it was hip to be square, Gates crossed over to the dork side.

Gates' social skills still aren't all that great. He may omit to shake your hand when you meet him. His voice has one setting: high and loud. He still has that much remarked-upon habit of rocking back and forth while he's thinking, and he sometimes jumps up, rather startlingly, to pace while he's talking.

But there's a warmth to him and a weird but genuine charm

It's just how his mind works — he can't help answering your questions seriously and literally. There are tales, probably true, of his brutally breaking down employees in meetings. He likes the truth, and he likes things to be clear. I sit in on a meeting in which he works through the kinks in his Harvard speech. He stumbles on a superfluous phrase: more fully. "That's the kind of stuff I hate," he says, pausing for a minute to riff. "I delete stuff like that all the time. The word truly — whenever I see it, I tend to delete it. Why say 'truly X'? Is 'X' not enough?"

That's typical of Gates: he takes an engineer's approach — a literal, analytical, hacker's approach — to everything, whether it's an engineering problem or not. This isn't always the best approach. On the one hand, it's worked out pretty well for making software. On the other hand, look at Gates' haircut.

For all his drive and intelligence, Gates doesn't see things with an artist's eye for those human intangibles. In May, Gates made a rare and instructive public appearance with his longtime frenemy Steve Jobs. An audience member asked each of them what he had learned from the other. "Well, I'd give a lot to have Steve's taste," Gates said. "You know, we sat in Mac product reviews where there were questions about software choices, how things would be done, that I viewed as an engineering question. That's just how my mind works. And I'd see Steve make the decision based on a sense of people and product that is even hard for me to explain. The way he does things is just different, and you know, I think it's magical." The audience cracked up. But Gates wasn't joking.

So it'll be interesting to watch Gates try his Vulcan approach on challenges like curing AIDS and fixing America's public schools. In July 2008, his primary focus will become the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which he and his wife founded to address health and education issues. It has an endowment of more than $33 billion, making it by far the largest charitable foundation in the world. Last year his close friend Warren Buffett committed to transferring to the foundation much of his wealth too, which will eventually add about $30 billion more. Gates' foundation makes him one of the most powerful nonelected actors on the global stage.

The worst grade Gates ever got at Harvard, a C+, was in organic chemistry. Now he has to study it all the time. He monitors clinical research, talks to doctors, sits in classrooms, flies to infectious hot zones. As a foe of disease and ignorance, he is fearsome.

Gates is probably getting out of technology at the right time. Funnily enough, it's not really a business for nerds anymore. Gates was at the center of the personal-computer revolution and the Internet revolution, but now the big innovations are about exactly the things he's bad at. The iPod was an aesthetic revolution. MySpace was a social revolution. YouTube was an entertainment revolution. This is not what Gates does. Technology doesn't need him anymore.

Now education and health care — those are areas in which the bedrock problems, the bits and bytes, have yet to be solved. All that pretty, fluffy stuff, that can come later. That's for the cool kids to figure out. Sickness, death, ignorance, illiteracy — those are the problems that need nerds. That's where Gates 3.0 needs to be, and that's where he's going.

Based on the performance so far of Gates supported research, Mr. B. is very impressed. You can't lose them all.

Ciao, Bonzo

New Regents Selected

Mr. B. has previously reported on the power struggle at the state legislature over the appointment of new members of the Board of Regents (BOR).

The committee that vetted the candidates to the BOR sent them up to the full body without any recommendations, even though Governor Pawlenty had picked four. The legislature did not rubber stamp the governor's recommendations. To no one's surprise Dean Johnson, a former Democratic Senate Majority Leader, was one of the new Regents. A pretty good regent - with whom Mr. B. does not agree on most things - Peter Bell, was not renewed. Mr. Bell has Republican ties which were probably the kiss of death.

Link to article in the Daily, Link to article in the Pioneer Press:

Johnson named U regent as 2 sitting members ousted
BY RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER

Pioneer Press

The Legislature on Thursday elected four new regents to lead the University of Minnesota for the next six years. Lawmakers cast aside two incumbent regents — whom Gov. Tim Pawlenty had recommended — and promoted former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson.

In a joint evening session of the House and Senate, lawmakers elected:

• Johnson, a Willmar Democrat, who lost his role as majority leader when he was defeated by a Republican in his re-election bid last fall.

• Venora Hung, recommended by Pawlenty, a former investment administrator at Cargill and current U law student.

• University of Minnesota master's degree student Maureen Cisneros, a former U admissions counselor, as the student at-large regent.

• Linda Cohen, also recommended by Pawlenty, a psychologist and Wayzata school board chairwoman.

Johnson made a fuss about keeping the tuition increases down at BigU during his campaign for the regent's seat. Although the BOR is supposed to be non-political, the way it usually goes is that when the dems are in control (they are now) the table gets tilted their way, when the repubs are in control they get the advantage. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.


The U has also thrown in the towel on the tuition reciprocity fight and things will stay as they are for another year. Obviously, this was a problem for the administration. First the state of Wisconsin does make up the delta to the state of Minnesota. The problem lies in the U trying to extract the money from the state once it crosses the border. Also, the obvious question is starting to be asked: "Why does the U cost so much more than Madison, when Madison is higher on the academic totem pole?"


Mr. B. is going on a Spring break trip courtesy of Mrs. B. who has managed to extract money from the mad publisher for her book. We are going some place moderately warm and sunny (an island) with basically zero student spring breakers. Sun and sand and lots of good books.

Ciao,

Bonzo

Dustup at the ColdState Legislature Over Regent Appointments

There is an odd power struggle going on over at the the legislature over appointments to the Board of Regents at BigU. The situation is described in today's Daily:

Eleven candidates chosen by the Regent Candidate Advisory Council in January were interviewed by the committee in hopes of securing one of the open positions.

Among these candidates were the four chosen by Governor Pawlenty in the new route to appointing regents. Prior to this year, the RCAC's recommendations went straight to the Legislature.

But now, many members of both the House and Senate are uncomfortable with the Governor's new influence.

"I never supported the change," said Tom Rukavina, DFL Virginia, "Why give authority to the governor that's not explicit in the constitution?"

There are also signs that tuition is finally going to be a front-burner issue this year.

"Tuition is the number one issue," said former Sentate DFL Majority Leader Dean Johnson. "It must be both competitive and accessible."

"Being a regent is one of the highest honors a citizen has," said Peter Bell who is seeking re-appointment to the board.

Bell said his goals include, increasing the number of federal research grants, community outreach, improving graduate rates [sic] and managing tuition hikes.

Mr B. looks forward to continuing conversations, to use currently popular administrative crapspeak, at the legislature. But he does not look forward to another predicted huge snowfall in ColdState.

It's the Output Function, Stupid...

From today’s Star-Tribune:

Editorial: Pay attention to college grad rate
New report shows middling Minnesota performance.

Published: February 26, 2007

Four years after enrollment, fewer than one in four students at Minnesota's four-year state colleges and universities have a B.A. in hand. That's well behind the national average. (Minnesota's private colleges, by comparison, produce impressive graduation numbers.)

Those are among the sobering facts about Minnesota higher education tabulated and released last week by the state Office of Higher Education. Entitled "Minnesota Measures" and available at www.ohe.state.mn.us, it's intended to be the first of a regularly issued compendium of indicators of higher education performance.

Higher education's rising cost is clearly related to the enrollment trends. "Minnesota Measures" documents that even among families eligible for state financial aid, this decade has produced a sharp increase in the share of family income consumed by college costs.

Before BigU embarks on a march toward greatness, Mr. Bonzo suggests that two things need to be done. First, do a better job of educating students, this will be reflected by much improved graduation rates. Second, get tuition costs under better control. These two things are related.

Mr. Bonzo, perhaps stupidly, believes that these things might happen with appropriate input from the ColdState legislature.

B.

Wherein OurLeader Shows the First Hint of Feeling the Student's Pain

Mr Bonzo generally approves of Lori Sturdevant who is thoughtful and does her homework vis-a-vis ColdState politics. She seems a little too trusting of BigU's administration, but it is a very difficult situation to interpret and she has Mr. B.'s sympathy in trying to figure out who is on first. Mr. B. was pleasantly surprised that OurLeader is starting to realize that students should not be the ones paying for the transformation of BigU into GreatBigU.

Last update: February 11, 2007 – 12:22 AM

Columnist: The courage to do what needs to be done?

House DFLers are learning that without higher taxes, public services will stay pinched.

By Lori Sturdevant, Star Tribune

At 85 members strong (out of a possible 134), the new Minnesota House DFL majority is big. It remains to be seen whether it's brave.

"Fiscal prudence" (read no tax increase) has been the new majority's official watchword, so far. But plenty of nudges in a bolder direction have been coming at them in the three weeks since Gov. Tim Pawlenty released his skinny "no-new-taxes" budget proposal for 2008-09.

State Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, asked a good question. If the university needs more than the Republican governor proposes to allocate, "Where would you like us to get the money?"

[Ms. Hortman appears to be a sharp cookie and has previously appeared in the Periodic Table.]

Bruininks cleared his throat, carefully allowed that he was about to venture his own opinion rather than an officially sanctioned view, and said: "If it means, long term, that we have to put more and more of the cost of higher education on the backs of students, if it means long term that we've got to experience this kind of [financial] roller-coaster ride we've had for the past four years, you can raise my taxes."

There! He said it! And this is a very difficult thing for someone to say in the current political environment and in this state. Remember what happened to Walter Mondale when he proposed new taxes? Immediately such a statement conjures up all the old sound bites: "No new taxes!" "Tax and spend liberals !" etc., etc. ad nauseum.

It should also be noted that Mr. Pawlenty is jockeying for a vice-presidential [sic] slot on the Republican ticket and would make the perfect second banana. Young (relatively), attractive and a good family man complete with a "no new taxes" escutcheon that he hopes to keep unblemished.

You can't lose them all - Mr. B.

Burn Down North ?
(Or We've All Got a Lot of Work to Do)

Don Samuels, a Minneapolis city council member, in a fit of eminently justifiable pique, said that he thought North High should be burned down because of the terrible job of education being done there. North High is a predominantly black school. Don had a counterpoint article in the Strib this morning.

Don Samuels: Minneapolis schools can do much better

We should start by borrowing methods that worked well elsewhere.

Don Samuels

Much has been written about my metaphorical reference to burning down North High School. I again apologize for my error of passion. I meant no offense to the proud students, staff, alumni and community members. Having visited many Minneapolis schools, I have met many dedicated staff. We owe it to our children to work together to make our system effective.

The reality is, year after frightening year, more than 70 of every 100 black boys entering our public high schools fail to graduate. Many of these young men make up the more than 44 percent of African-American men in the Hennepin County criminal justice system. By age 32, offenders are six times more likely to become parents than ordinary citizens. Their children are much more likely to become offenders themselves. The math is frightening.

The math is also confusing. We need more accurate reporting. For example, although the Minnesota Department of Education reports that 82 percent of black students graduated from North in 2005 (based on federally established guidelines), that doesn't tell the whole story. For example, while 229 black students entered the ninth grade in 2001, only 69 black students actually graduated in 2005 (this number of graduates includes some of the original 229 students who entered North in the ninth grade and others who transferred in). This is a far cry from 82 percent.

In addition, far too many students of all races are entering college underprepared. When they enter our public universities they lack the basics. In the 2002-03 school year, the following percentages of students from these seven schools took remedial courses in reading, writing or math when they entered public college: South, 37%; Southwest, 41%; Henry, 48%; Washburn, 53%; Edison, 57%, North, 59%, and Roosevelt, 70%.

The future of our children, our public safety and our region's economic development are all on the line. I propose the following:

• Bring directors of our nation's most effective public and charter schools to Minneapolis to share their lessons.

• Ask foundations and the Legislature to help Minneapolis schools -- district and charter -- replicate them.

• Establish an independent, multiracial, nonpartisan group to assess and monitor progress.

In the last few days, groups as diverse as Black Women in Higher Education, Urban League, Latino Communications Network, Somali Action Alliance, Black Alliance for Educational Options, PEACE Foundation, African American Men Project, Sub Zero Collective, and Center for School Change at the Humphrey Institute have agreed to help bring outstanding educators to Minneapolis this spring. We invite the Minneapolis school board, the city, the teachers union, the Star Tribune, charters, churches and other community groups to join this effort.

The compassionate part of me apologizes to everyone who felt wounded by my words. And there is an irrational part of me that shouts the question, "Why aren't more people pushed beyond the boundaries of politeness and rational discourse -- shouldn't this make us all crazy?"

Don Samuels is a member of the Minneapolis City Council.

Right on, Don.

We have a stake at BigU as well as in our role of taxpayers and citizens in this situation. Complaining about the graduation rates of minority students at BigU is not going to cure the fundamental problems that exist at a lower level in our public education system. Yes, Don, it should make us all crazy...

Mr. B.

The Game of Chicken Continues at the State Capitol

University of Minnesota President Bruininks says tuitions likely to creep upward
Thursday, 08 February 2007

by T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter

Sticking to Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposed University of Minnesota budget means student tuitions could creep up even higher than currently proposed, U of M President Robert Bruininks told lawmakers this week.

Indeed, it’s “near certain” tuitions would need to be hiked above the 4.5 percent annual increase — about $350 — currently proposed by the University, he explained.

“I’m not prepared to say today what that number would be,” said Bruininks, speaking after Wednesday’s (Feb. 7) hearing of the House Higher Education and Work Force Development Policy and Finance Committee.

Over the past four years tuitions have jumped more than 50 percent for the 65,000 students in the five-campus U of M system.

For the University to freeze tuitions, argues Bruininks, would translate into budget cuts, culling the student population — draconian steps. “It’s impossible,” he said.

Still, Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, higher education committee member, is backing legislation to freeze higher education tuitions.

“Hopefully none,” she says of tuition increases coming out of the legislative session.

Meanwhile, back at Stadium Village...

U of M plans east-campus expansion

Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - 2:37 PM CST Thursday, February 8, 2007
by John Vomhof Jr.
Staff Writer

University of Minnesota officials on Thursday proposed plans for an $18.2 million campus expansion project around TCF Bank Stadium, the new Gophers football stadium slated to open in fall 2009.

That part of campus, referred to as the East Gateway District, would be comparable in size to the university's West Bank campus and eventually could house eight to 10 new academic buildings.

University officials, in a funding request presented to the Board of Regents on Thursday, said the East Gateway District "is no longer the edge of campus, but rather a rapidly developing node of campus activity." Planned developments in the area include TCF Bank Stadium, light-right transit and the proposed Biomedical Research Facilities Authority.

The $18.2 million project would be funded by debt, which would be paid off at $1.2 million per year for 25 years.

University officials hope to have the project completed by fall or winter 2009, when TCF Bank Stadium and the Biomedical Research Facilities Authority building also are scheduled for completion. Most of the work on the project would be done by contractors working on the stadium and biomedical projects.

Mr. Bonzo is puzzled over the disconnect between OurLeader's insistence on getting what he wants or tuition will go up and his comment on the impossibility of a tuition freeze. But of course some additional building projects can be piggybacked on the $250+ million dollar stadium project, that's not impossible. Sort of reminds Mr. B. of the old Perry Como song, or:

Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."

"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

Alice in Wonderland.

OurLeader has actually had lots of practice believing impossible things, e.g. BigU will be one of the Top Three Public Research Universities [in the world] within ten years.

A cold Mr. Bonzo bids you adieu. He thanks a colleague for pointing out the article about plans for Stadium Village.

Indiana shows students the money

An approach to dealing with the state brain drain AND making college/university more affordable.

Indiana aims to keep students home for college, beyond

POSTED: 3:14 p.m. EST, February 6, 2007

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AP) -- Indiana wants its best students to stick around for college and afterward -- and Governor Mitch Daniels proposes paying them to do so.

Daniels wants to offer $20,000 scholarships over four years. But there's a catch -- recipients who leave the state less than three years after graduation will be required to repay the money.

At least 17 states offer general merit-based scholarships, according to the Education Commission of the States. But none have post-graduation strings like those Indiana proposes.

Daniels' plan would give bright Indiana students $5,000 each year for four years to attend private or public schools in state. That sounds good to James Totton, a junior at Purdue University, where tuition, fees and room and board top $13,000 a year.

Mr. Bonzo notes that this price is already a heckuva deal. From the BigU website: room, board, and tuition will set you back $16,234.

However do those Hoosiers do it?

Small Schools in ColdState and CheeseState Caught in Crossfire

From the St. Paul Pioneer Press - 4 February 2004

Tuition dispute not just about U
Smaller schools on both sides of border rely on reciprocity

“Reciprocity has tied this geographic region together. Most of us don't see the border, and it would be a real disservice to sort of untangle that," said Alan Tuchtenhagen, admissions director at UW-River Falls. There, the $6,000 a Minnesota undergrad pays annually would leap to nearly $13,000 if the Minnesotan were treated like any other out-of-state student.

The 40-year-old reciprocity deal basically allows Wisconsinites attending Minnesota public colleges to pay the cost of a comparable Wisconsin school. The same applies to Minnesotans studying in Wisconsin.

It chugged along mostly fine for decades. Then six years of steep in-state tuition hikes at the U, including four double-digit percentage increases, threw the deal out of whack. Insulated from those hikes, Wisconsin students now pay $1,200 a year less in tuition than Minnesotans on the U's Twin Cities campus, $1,700 less at Duluth and $2,700 less for the U Morris campus.

The states compensate each other for the costs of reciprocity. Wisconsin paid Minnesota $20 million the past three years. But that money goes to the state's general fund, not to the U directly.

Some lawmakers say the state should simply turn over to the schools the money Wisconsin pays to Minnesota. But U leaders argue that wouldn't fix the basic problem — a Wisconsin student paying less than a Minnesotan for a U education.

[Mr Bonzo doesn't really understand this argument. If ColdState legislature gave BigU the dough from CheeseState, what is the BigU's beef? That CheeseState is "subsidizing" their students? How is this a problem if CheeseState has decided that their student citizens should not have to personally pay BigU's tution, but kicks in the extra. BigU is not being short-changed as far as Mr. B. can see.]

The smaller schools and their students seem stuck in the middle of the sparring between the U, which wants Wisconsinites to pay more, and Wisconsin, which says its students shouldn't be punished for Minnesota jacking up tuition on Minnesotans.

Hopefully the relevant issues concerning this tuition reciprocity mess are surfacing and will be rationally discussed. Right now, at least, it appears that BigU is being a BigBully about this and the collateral damage is being shared by the little guys....

"While we would prefer to have this change made within the existing state-to-state agreement, the University has the legal authority to make this change on its own." (Update on Wisconsin Reciprocity - Blanket email to BigU faculty and staff, I-31-07).

Could this be a threat by OurBenevolentLeaders?

Writing to you from very ColdState where it is currently -14 F. SmallHouse has its original windows and as I write looks like something out of Dr. Zhivago.

I remain your humble, but frozen, servant,

Mr. Bonzo

ps. to prove that we are not wimps Mr. and Mrs. Bonzo went to a live broadcast of Prairie Home Companion last night in St. Paul, where we first froze on the walk to the Fitz and then listened to a lot of jokes. The music, as always, was outstanding.

A Modest Proposal

Letters to the Editor - StarTribune 4 Feb '07

RECIPROCITY BATTLE

Drop tuition, football

Regarding "U threatens to quit reciprocity deal" (Jan. 26): Has nobody in the press or at the University of Minnesota considered the simplest solution to the problem? Lower the resident tuition to match Wisconsin. The money would be available easily by dropping the football program as suggested by Jay Weiner (Jan. 14) and several readers. Many elite academic institutions manage to provide a first-class education to students without a football program.

GARY TOFTELY, PELICAN RAPIDS, MINN.

Dream along with me....

Mr. B.

The College/University Affordability Issue in ColdState

Pharyngula
reports on Pete Wyckoff's testimony at the ColdState legislature.
(Pete is a faculty member at the University of Minnesota Morris)

At the University of Minnesota, Morris, we provide a great undergraduate education. Classes are small, and every class is taught by a professor; we don't have teaching assistants. My primary job is to teach undergraduates, and I love it. I know my students by name. I know their stories. I give them heck if they slack off. If you listen to public radio, I'm sure you have heard our sponsored clip bragging that Morris is one of the top five public liberal arts schools in the nation. The bragging is warranted.

Over the past five years, tuition at the University of Minnesota rose 57%. This rise was not set by our campus, but was a system-wide decision.

Our students at U of M Morris accumulate debt at a greater pace than at the U of M Twin Cities, but graduate with lower average indebtedness because we tend to get them done in 4 years. 2006 graduates left Morris with an average of $22,000 in debts, and ¾ of the students had debt. That last number is higher than the other U of M campuses because our students come from lower income families. Another way to look at the same numbers: for our students who take on debt, the average debt accumulation is almost $30,000.

As much as I worry about the debt incurred by the students who attend Morris, I am more worried about the students who don't even show up. As I mentioned, we serve a lot of first generation college students, and for many in that group, the sticker price keeps them from even applying. We don't even get a chance to try to make it work for them.

I don't feel that Minnesota can afford to let the price of its University slip out of reach for talented students of modest means.

Mr. Bonzo hopes that the drip, drip, drip of arguments by people like Pete will eventually cause some fundamental changes in the public higher education system in ColdState.

Ciao.

Does ColdState Really Need Another U?

Problem: College/university tuition at public universities in ColdState is out of control.

Solution: Spend more money on yet another educational institution.

[This does not compute, Bonzo circuits overloaded, going down, down, down…]

As pointed out yesterday in the Winona Daily News

Now, we are left to trust the Legislature again and, even more scary, trust the University of Minnesota to do the right thing. We hope that the University of Minnesota isn’t just shedding big crocodile tears when it talks about the lack of funding from the Legislature and then, at the same time, creating redundancies in Rochester.

Our legislative delegation has done an admirable job of raising this issue and keeping it in the public light. We hope they keep the spotlight focused on the University of Minnesota, which should soon be telling us exactly what it plans on doing in Rochester. Still, questions about the legitimate need for a university in Rochester have never been answered satisfactorily, especially when one considers the community is already being served by four (count ‘em) higher education facilities.

When Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced his plan for Rochester two years ago, it was political pandering to an eroding Republican base in Rochester. Today, it’s simply bad policy in the midst of much hand-wringing about the rising cost of higher education.

Hopefully, the ColdState legislature as well as the ColdState taxpayers will start thinking about the disconnect between limited resources, leading to higher tuition, and the highly questionable use of ColdState resources for a redundant ColdStateU.

Ciao!

Mr. B.

Tuition Reciprocity - The Badger View

(from the Badger Herald:)

by Badger Herald Editorial Board

Monday, January 29, 2007

Over the borderline

As of late, however, U of M has been losing revenue thanks to its Sconnie students: Minnesota outpaced Wisconsin in resident tuition six years ago, and the difference between flagship universities amounts to about $1,200 per student per year. Of course, a means of compensation is built into the reciprocity agreement, and last year, Wisconsin paid $6.5 million back to Minnesota due to the growing tuition gap.

Unfortunately, the state of Minnesota didn’t give the payment to its public universities in full. And though we sympathize with the situation, it seems the issue lies within the state of Minnesota, not within the reciprocity agreement itself.

Furthermore, we can’t help but recognize that Minnesota takes quite a bit away from the deal as it stands: More Minnesota students attend Wisconsin schools than the opposite, and the University of Wisconsin System is one of the best educational systems in the country. Minnesotans also have access to UW-Madison, which lands more than 30 spots north of U of M in the most recent U.S. News and World Report rankings.

Dutifully reported by your humble servant, Bonzo.

This matter was also mentioned earlier under Show Me the Money.

On the Road to BigU Greatness...

UD cites an opinion piece in the Minnesota Daily by a BigU undergrad, Nicholas Maxwell: "Stadium Does Not Serve Core Mission." Mr. Maxwell should be proud as UD cites this as "a nicely written opinion piece" in a precis headed "Humongous Dessert Plate for Minnesota Students" [January 21, 2007]. As someone who works at the medical school at BigU, I will only quote two paragraphs of embarrassment from the article:

he University has announced a $40 million increase in the budget for the new on-campus stadium. This represents a 16 percent increase in the project's total cost and the explanation of the source of these additional funds was also curious, "money management decisions" and "the issuance of … new debt."

Just like that, the University is willing to pony up the $40 million necessary to ensure "the stadium is not built on the cheap." Yet, back in October, when the Community University Health Clinic (a facility that actually contributes to the University's core mission of outreach by providing health care to low income families) eliminated 17 positions due to budget cuts, the University's administration was nowhere to be found with any magical "money management decisions" to save that outreach.

Meanwhile the Nobel prize winning chemist Peter Agre writes in the letters to the editor section of the Strib today from Durham, NC, where he currently works at Duke. Agre went to Augsburg, where his father was a chem prof. Augsburg is within easy walking distance of the Bonzo's residence, SmallHouse in Seward. Peter Agre's father, Courtland Agre, had earlier taught at St. Olaf and Peter was born in Northfield. I knew Courtland Agre slightly as he was still in action when Mr. Bonzo was a rookie chemist. Dr. Agre sometimes taught summer school organic chemistry (OChem as the youngsters now call it) at BigU.

ELITE COLLEGE ADVANTAGES: Early Life Lessons Endure

"I attended Augsburg College, where my father taught. Augsburg was not exclusive, and my classmates were often from working-class families. Many of my friends from RHS [Roosevelt High School] attended the University of Minnesota which was also not considered exclusive at the time."

"One dramatic difference, however, between Augsburg and University of Minnesota and those at Johns Hopkins [from which he got an MD and spent most of his academic life] and Duke [where he now is] is the privileged backgrounds of the latter. A disproportionate number of Duke students come from prep schools, and exceedingly few are from the working class. Moreover, there is often huge family push behind students at the latter institutions and not infrequently a lot of insider pull to gain admission."

"...the hard work and personal responsibility that we learned from our parents, while attending public schools and working at after-school jobs, still carry us forward. I am reminded of the words of the late Kirby Puckett: 'It doesn't matter where you come from. It only matters how you play the game.'"

To which Mr. Bonzo can only say: "Bravo !"

The people reengineering, ah, transforming BigU might want to think a little bit harder about whether the goal of becoming an elite institution is a good idea for ColdState taxpayers.

OUCH! It just gets worse and worse...

From the Pioneer Planet - Gemini Cities other paper:

"Two-thirds of the minority athletes who came to the U between 1999 and 2002 were considered academically "at-risk" based on their weak high-school class rank and poor college entrance exam scores."

"Data collected for the report paint a generally frustrating portrait of a university opening the door to some athletes — often from racial and ethnic minority groups — whose academic histories make them likely candidates for academic failure."

"The report also urges the U to reach out more to student-athletes who've left the school without graduating to get them to return and complete their degrees."

"However, it contains no recommendations for minimum academic qualifications for athletes entering the U, nor for standards that would align the U's increasingly rigorous overall academic profile with athletics. [emphasis added bg] Officials said they focused instead on how to help students once they'd been accepted."

As Mr. Bonzo is fond of saying: "It is time to get real at BigU."

Med School Dean on Pepsi Board

Aurum de stercore (gold from dung) is an interesting concept explored by Primo Levi in the Periodic Table. The story describes a consulting gig that dealt with the making of lipstick from chicken shit.

There are many other ignoble ways of making money, arguably involving less admirable means. Recently the Dean of the Medical School at Minnesota signed onto the board of directors of Pepsi-Cola.

The news surfaced locally around Christmas. Old hands at the University will know that the best time for such news to surface is either during the Christmas break or in August, because then no one is around to notice.

Once a minor hue and cry began, the Dean announced that she had thought long and hard about the distinction between tobacco money and money from a company whose product is capable of rotting children’s teeth. Turns out that she plans to be an apostle of change at Pepsi. "I really thought about that a lot," Powell told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "I thought it was an opportunity for me as a health professional to have my voice heard by the leadership of a major beverage distributor with a global reach."

Others are not so sanguine.

"PepsiAmericas, a contributor to America's obesity problem, clearly wants to affiliate with a physician to enhance its own image," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "What -- other than money -- Dr. Powell expects to gain from such an association is unclear."

“Like all outside directors, Powell will be paid in cash and company stock for her board service. That includes a $30,000 annual retainer, $2,000 for each board meeting she attends and $60,000 in stock.”

There is a further dilemma for medical school faculty interested in consuming the politically correct tooth-rotting drink. Coke or Pepsi? Along with the new Twin City Federal Stadium, the University of Minnesota has a financial arrangement with the Coca Cola company for product placement. See the U’s website on the University of Minnesota Coca-Cola beverage partnership.

What’s a poor upwardly mobile medical school faculty member to do?

Concerning ethical issues raised, Dr. Powell indicated that she would resign if she could not make a difference in the activities of Pepsi. It will be interesting to see whether Dr. Powell “walks the talk,” as the late Paul Wellstone would have said.

"This could be a good opportunity for Dr. Powell to help focus on the health of children and providing more healthy beverages," said Mary Story, co-director of the U's Obesity Prevention Center.