Back to Classics

I have decided to read again Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy.

Dolphins in air

Testing Blogger's new picture posting. The picture was taken while at SeaWorld. It took a number of tries to catch these guys in mid-air.

When giving is just as good as receiving

Florida A&M recently dropped from its payroll a law professor occupying an endowed chair. The really interesting part of the story is the said law professor was the same person who gave money to fund the endowed chair. When he donated $1 million to the University his main condition was for the university the appoint him to the very same endowed chair he financed (he is a lawyer from Kentucky). There's more, by law a $1 million donation apparently gets matched by the state with a $750,000 funding. According to news accounts, the donor having occupied the same chair he created draws a salary of $100,000/ year. Students and faculty were quoted as saying they have never seen the "professor" teach a class, attend faculty meetings, or other department functions.

I'm not too concerned about the amount of money the "professor" earned, the $1.75 million that his pledge brought in more than covers for it (say at 10% return on the trust). The disturbing issue here is the university went along with the scheme, I think they wanted the state's $750,000 too. The university came out ahead.

If universities can name departments, programs, and buildings after people who give money to the university why not an honorary "Professorship?" If the value of a label is important, you would also see graduate students funding their own named appointments: "2005 John Smith PhD student in Economics."

Summer Holiday

It appears that when summer rolls along there is an unwritten rule around here at the University that workers can leave early. I needed a couple of stuff done through the office bureaucracy and it was a surprise to discover that by 3:30pm not a lot of people are around. The hope is with the cut in working hours the per hour output in the remaining hours they put in makes up for the lost hour.

Academic Cycles

A saw a giant banner today at the student center welcoming the new students for their orientation. In a few more weeks they join the ranks of college students here. In the meantime, while operating below capacity the university is indulging in its other cottage industry that is summer camps, there are camps for almost everything there's a lady soccer camp, a baseball camp, a football camp, even get this: an economics camp for serious high school students!

After eating lunch yesterday a group of high school students who are probably attending a camp was trying to get my picture taken, apparently they wanted to take a picture of somebody who attends the university. Heck, I'm probably the least representative of this university's student body :)