The top donor for the University of Connecticut’s football program is apparently displeased with the hiring of their new football coach and wants their $3M donation back.
The rich individual previously decided to “donate” a large sum of money to this program, and because of that, he feels he has the right to influence what decisions the program makes. Look at these quotes from the donor:
- Burton called the situation “a slap in the face and embarrassment to my family,” and said he planned “to let the correct people know that you did not listen to your number one football donor.”
- “We want our money and respect back.”
- Although he was not seeking veto power in the hiring, he “earned my voice on this subject” as the program’s top donor.
- “You are not qualified to be a Division I AD and I would have fired you a long time ago. You do not have the skills to manage and cultivate new donors.”
This person does not work for the university or the athletic program in any capacity, yet because he wrote the biggest check, he feels that he has the power to impact school decisions. In this case, he’s angry that his opinion was ignored, but I’m sure that other schools in similar situations would actually let the donor’s opinion impact their decision. The scary thing is that I don’t know which is worse.
My first experience working in sports was with a college athletics department, working under the Assistant Athletic Director for Marketing and Revenue Generation. I was very fortunate that this school had a progressive marketing department where I was able to manage a CRM system, oversee digital and email marketing efforts, and dive in to some very interesting analytical projects and decision making. To this day, I am very thankful for that experience.
However, once I had finished up my year-long fellowship, I decided that college athletics wasn’t for me, and that was for one primary reason – development (the arm of the athletic department that handles alumni donations). I had the feeling that to really succeed within a major Division I athletic program, you needed to be involved in getting those rich alumni to donate more and more money. Budgets were always tight, and getting that donor money directly into the hands of the athletics program was crucial. This aspect of the job did not appeal to me, so I focused my efforts on professional sports opportunities.
This situation doesn’t exist with professional sports teams, If a company is paying that type of money, it’s for something very specific (suites, sponsorships, media, etc.) and that purchase does not include the ability to influence team operational decisions. In this particular case, the donor ended up ultimately retracting his statements, but the threat for the school was very real.
This will always be a unique aspect of college athletics, and I know that a lot of people in alumni development enjoy the challenge. It is a complicated blend of marketing, customer service, public relations and fundraising. But when I see a story like this, it reminds me about why I decided college athletics wasn’t the right spot for me.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Leland Stanford Junior Universotu v. Roche, a case that will clarify a 1980 law that governs the ownership of patents held by universities that rely on federal research funds.
The case refers back to 1988, when Mark Holodniy, then a Stanford-employed researcher, developed technology that would ultimately lead to one of the first AIDS tests. It's used to monitor the effectiveness of AIDS treatments, using polymerase chain reaction assays to measure the level of hormones in the body. However, while Holodniy was employed by Stanford, he also signed a research contract with a private pharmaceutical company to work on a similar projects. While the patents were originally granted to Stanford, Roche has been selling the technology to hospitals since 1996.
In 2005, Stanford took Roche to a federal district court in San Francisco, arguing that Roche had infringed on the school's patents. Stanford won the case, but an appeals court reversed the decision. On Monday, the case was presented in Washington to the Supreme Court. Lawyers for Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. argued that Roche's contract with the private company trumps any existing agreement with Stanford. In a broader view, the Supreme Court will decide which interests to protect: those of the government (in this case the university), or those of private businesses.
While Stanford has maintained that it seeks the intellectual property for the patent—and not the cash it creates—it's clear that lucrative patents can be a huge money-maker for universities. "Not all university inventions make a lot of money," University of California-Davis law professor Peter Lee told KQED Radio's The California Report, "but some do. So there's potentially millions of dollars at stake in the outcome of this case."
According to Bloomberg, the "case may pit universities and the federal government against companies." The article also notes that the Obama adminstration, MIT, and the Association of American Universities are backing Stanford.
Roche, based in Switzerland, argued that universities were making "hyperbolic" claims about the impact of the ruling. Bloomberg quotes the company as arguing that: "Stanford's desire for private monetary gain has nothing to do with clarity of title or bringing valuable scientific discoveries to the public...On the contrary, Stanford's effort to exclude Roche from practicing the patented invention would reduce opportunities for the public to benefit from the invention."
More than 25 organizations, private companies, and individuals have offered amici curiae, or legal opinions, to the court. In one, jointly filed by the Intel Corporation, Eli Lilly and Company, and Johnson and Johnson, among others, the private companies asserted that if Stanford was granted patent rights, it could reduce opportunities for the public to benefit from the invention.
"Stanford's novel interpretation of the Act would discourage collaboration by allowing universities and other contractors to engage in predatory behavior," they wrote in the brief. "Under Stanford's view, for example, a university could attempt to escape its contractual obligations and terminate a commercial collaborator's rights in an invention simply by sprinkling the research project with a modest amount of federal funds."
But, the Obama administration, as well as a number of high profile academic organizations have urged the court to reverse the 2009 decision. They argue that federally funded research projects are "used to advance the public interest," as opposed to corporate projects, which are used in the pursuit of maximum profit. U.S. Solicitor General Neal Katyal said that siding with Roche would frustrate "the government's ability to protect the taxpayers' multibillion-dollar investments in research and development."
A decision is expected in June.
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