Opinion
The potential $75,000 disaster
Story by Sean Breslin | March 5, 2008
Montana Kaimin
On Monday, the University of Montana released a Memorandum of Understanding between the Adams Center and Howard Rose, Elton John’s agent. The memo — little more than a handshake agreement on paper — outlined an agreement to give the Elton John AIDS Foundation $75,000 in return for the Rocket Man’s second Missoula concert. Though its end result is charitable, executing the memo’s provisions is potentially disastrous.
Currently, the memo is still unsigned. That’s a good thing, because there are a lot of questions Howard Rose should be asking before finalizing the deal. Who’s going to be in charge of raising the money? Where is it going to be collected? How is it going to be secure? What happens if UM can’t raise that amount? Basically, Rose should be wondering who specifically is responsible for holding up UM’s end of the deal.
The overall lack of accountability regarding this whole agreement is palpable. Adams Center director Mary Muse said she wasn’t working on this alone, adding that the agreement had campus-wide support. UM President George Dennison backed away from the deal Monday, telling the Kaimin that he wasn’t part of the negotiations that committed UM to this donation, and that he hadn’t seen the specific provisions of this agreement.
But here’s the deal: George Dennison is the president of the University of Montana. Certainly we don’t expect him to micromanage each department, but a $75,000 commitment is worthy of a little presidential oversight.
Maybe donating money to John’s Foundation is “a good business decision,” to use the words of Muse. But why not advertise the donation or have a public fundraising drive? Who knows, maybe UM could contribute more than $75,000.
Instead of being open and honest about how UM got Elton John to come back, UM has done everything in its power to keep this agreement behind closed doors. Perhaps Muse is embarrassed that UM has to grovel to get big-name acts to perform here. That the groveling has taken the form of a $75,000 donation makes it all the more pathetic.
Here’s the $75,000 question: If UM can’t get donors to cough up the cash, does Elton still play? Because if this show gets canceled, the ensuing uproar will make last September’s ticket fiasco seem like a toddler’s tantrum.
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Comments
How Dennison keeps his job amidst such incredible mismanagement of funds and basic operations is astonishing.
This is the man who essentially washed his hands clean of $1 million of overspending in Grizzly Athletics by forcing the AD to take the fall.
The man is elderly and won’t even take responsibility for major, major financial obligations and negotiations. He lost his touch years ago.
I know Montana abhors a change and that a Good Ole Boy’s job is worth saving more than anything (see Bobby Hauck), but it looks like it might be time for the Kaimin and the community to call for Dennison’s resignation.
How many mistakes with an already cash-strapped university can we tolerate? How big will the next one be?
Posted by Fred Stapleton on 03/05/2008 at 12:57 am
The Montana Kaimin reporters have been anything but respectful when dealing with the UM administration in the past. They have been misquoted, questioned into a corner, and deceptively lead into making comments that were taken out of context just like every other entity on this campus. I can perfectly understand why the UM administration would be unwilling to talk to the Kaimin about this issue- even a fundraiser for AIDS is made out in the Kaimin to be criminal. Just lay off your whiny editorials every week and stop pulling half of the paper off of the associated press.
Posted by Mary Conrad on 03/05/2008 at 10:49 am
I’d put more value behind UM’s attempt to portray this as a noble “AIDS fundraiser” if the funds were being raised regardless of whether Elton John is showing up to sing little sing-songs for cash.
But read the memo. If John doesn’t show up or the concert is cancelled—no AIDS money at all.
It’s a greedy stipulation and it’s groveling on the part of UM’s administrators. Plain and simple.
Posted by Fred Stapleton on 03/05/2008 at 11:54 am
