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."