As a tax payer and a KU employee I am still ashamed by this unneeded little party.

Tell you what, if BGL secures a national cancer center, raises $1 billion in private donations over the next six years, and enhances KU's reputation for academic excellence -- then a little party would be appropriate.

This was a waste. $44,000 would sponsor 131 children for a year via the Save the Children program (www.savethechildren.org).

Hope the cake was especially good, Dr. McCluskey-Fawcett.

KU_cynic, give it a rest. "As a taxpayer..."?

That's rich, given how on another story you were complaining that KU lets in too many Kansans. You don't have a problem with the $44,000, you obviously just have a problem with the KU administration.

And that would be ANY administration, not just the current one. Do you have anything to offer outside of your standard routine, because until then you are the proverbial broken record.

I am not at all surprised by the crazy socialists here complaining about the use of private individuals funds. As someone who has actually donated money I can tell you that it has to be used for the purpose specified. If someone wants to donate money to be used for something like this they can and who are you to say they can't? This is America, and last I checked, Americans have the freedom to spend their money how they want.

Nevermind the fact that inaugurations are done at almost all universities and that the cost of this one was well in line with the cost of others... and that this article even said that some universities DO spend public money.

I mean really, some of you people just seem like you want to whine about everything.

The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…

"Um, no tax dollars were used. Private donors donated on their own for what they wanted."

Implicit in the Original Bobs lame apology is the assumption that the people that donated the funds had some expectation it would be wasted on a party for Chancellor Gray-Little-Accomplished. I find his assumption rather doubtful. Still a predictable and completely unsurprising waste of money that could have and should have been put to some productive use.

Why are people apologizing for something that is plainly stupid? Where is the populist mentality when we really need it (rare as that is nonetheless)?

The last Chancellor party ran $30,000. KSU put on a similar event this year for $33,000. I'm curious why this event cost half again as much as the last party - more staff, more booze, longer duration, more attendees, etc. There doesn't seem to be much point in bringing up the other events if there aren't any facts to show why there was a difference.

It seems like a huge waste of money to me, but it's their money to waste.

Better headline: Private doners put $44,000 into Lawrence Economy.

Doesn't sound quite so knee-jerk bad that way, does it?

just curious....

KU cynic....did u attend KU?

"“I think for an entire weekend of entertainment, I think we did very well,” said Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett, director of KU’s Honors Program and chairwoman of a committee overseeing the inauguration."

Besides the donated money that was wasted on this frivolous affair, what about the salary of the KU employees that spent time arranging this party. It seems like director McCluskey-Fawcett should have better and more important things to do than use the salary of herself and her underlings lining up a week end of entertainment for Gray-Little.

If she doesnt have better and more pressing matters to attend then maybe McCluskey Fawcett's salary could be converted to something useful and she could get a job in the private sector as a party hostess?

"KU used no taxpayer dollars...drawing from private donations to pay the costs."

So there's no implicit obligation to spend donated money responsibly? I guess the moral of this (and many similar stories) is to not donate to KU. Some of you seem to feel that KU is free to burn, give away, or throw away donated money with no oversight whatsoever.

Personally, I think the state should require KU (it being a state entity) to spend money donated to its general fund on maintenance - some of the classrooms are literally falling apart while the administrators throw parties for themselves.

" oneeye_wilbur (anonymous) says…

anon 1958, old wilbur has never been impressed when one cannot figure out if they are McCluskey or Fawcett or neither. "

LOL like the bartender said to Stagger Lee, I dont give a good gD what you think. Unless you sign your real name, and most of us dont, we are just sock puppets making sport of KU idiocy.

Its not even that good of a sporting event, it is just too easy to mock the fools on the hill.