UH Math - $200K blunder now totals over $1.3mil!

[Carey]

UH will not let the Stevie Wonder Blunder go & keeps wasting some big money in the process!

I was surprised that in a few short months they had taken a $200K stupid mistake of hiring a company that did not represent Stevie Wonder and made it into a million dollar plus blunder...link:
http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/break...=172332141

But now, months later, do they let it go??? NO!

They have now decided to spend another $260K on an accountability study....(Forgot the link:
http://www.staradvertiser.com/s?action=login&f=y&id=193210941

As a student, and supporter of UH, DH & I are now left to wonder.... With this amount of money wasted on non-educational purposes... Does UH really NEED our support??? after all our contributions are a fraction of the money plundered in the last 6 months on this one thing.... WHY is this costing soo much?

Does UH really think this is a wise use of their "very limited" money??? They call donors often seeking our assistance, then spend sooo much on a really stupid mistake....

We are left wondering, Is it OUR money they are using??? I just wish they would drop it, like we tell our dogs when they try to bring in nasty waste...

[kalakoa]

...meanwhile there's a petititon circulating because UHH "needs" another $67M to build a shiny new Pharmacy College.

I dare suggest that UH could "find" the money if they trimmed some unnecessary expenses -- but, as we all know, it doesn't work that way; why manage your finances responsibly when you can just get another pile of cash handed to you?

[David M]

Hey, it's only taxpayer and tuition $$$ - bottomless wells.(or maybe troughs)

David

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com

[csgray]

A new building for a pharmacy school makes sense. That department does a lot more than just train new pharmacists, the only really good research on controlling little fire ants is happening there, but the entire university system should get out of the "entertainment" industry and quit spending ANY student or taxpayer money on the athletic departments.

Carol

[Carey]

It i also donor money...people who have said "yes" to the university system...

I do not see it as so cut & dried...there is an argument to have athletes programs & for not having (some like the "Monsters of the Midway" have been cut for nearly a century after horrendous scandal .... and the "Wonder Blunder" was SUPPOSED to be a way to NOT have tuition & taxpayer money pay for the athletic program....

I do feel that the original intent was not bad, and the fact that they got caught in a criminal con was unfortunate, and probably a dose of naivete... but to waste more university money on what should now be a criminal case... do they really think they can re-coup any of this study money & the rest of the money they have wasted on firings & re-hirings (with more staff added) & other ego/ interest stuffing????

It does now show to me how large the wastefulness is... & how big the egos are...

[Bullwinkle]

Dumb question: Why do educational institutions of higher learning - focus so much on football and in this case concerts ....

education should keep to education - not business (sports licensing and concert biz)

then there are the mixed mission schools as I consider them - university of phoenix et al -(master degree mills imho) should be banned.

In the meantime - strikes me as funny - all those Phd's running around and they could not manage to book a blind has been rocker - or keep track of the 200k$

and heads didnt roll........................

Meanwhile we hired an "engineer" the other day - who didnt know the purpose of - or able to identify or use a "church key" to open a bottle. - the pop top generation lacks some basic skills - grin

The 7th grade literature teacher I met for dinner a while back - had never read the Jungle Book....... sign of the times I am afraid - the emperor indeed wears no clothes these days imho - grin

[csgray]

In all fairness, Bullwinkle, it wasn't the PHDs who tried to book that concert, it was the athletic department, which probably doesn't have too many PHDs. And is it really fair to criticize a member of a younger generation for not knowing an archaic name for a tool that is rarely used anymore (church key). I remember my grandfather being equally critical because I didn't know what he meant when he made a reference to the old hand cranks his generation had commonly used to start their cars, I'd never seen one!

You know you are old when you start criticizing the younger generation for being the product of THEIR times, instead of yours.

Carol

[Carey]

Another "sign of the times" ... and a big part of the HUGE increase in the cost of this blunder....heads DID roll... and lawsuits for the firings happened & people were re-hired... and there were compensations made...

So - instead of initially acknowledging that they were duped into a con & using it as a "never do this again" learning point to do due diligence and get credentials before sending money (gosh, this does seem like a no brainer), the egos of many all got puffed & there are committees & hearings & firings & lawsuits & re-hirings & & senate hearings & studies of how not to be duped...

If you ask me... maybe this was the biggest con of all, not the fake concert organizers, but the egos of the supposed "elite" in the academics to not just admit they were able to be duped...and to just let it go & not involve more wasted money after a bad investment...

[Bullwinkle]

The ipod charge ing wood fire eye opening as well - folks who cook on dirt floors in the boonies - dont have wifi - not everyone idenditfies with apple.....

So.............what were the foot ballers doing booking concerts in the name of the school without legal advice?....... or here it comes .......accountability

Competing with the private sector (entertainment) that subsidies (hand that feeds) them? and even with unfair advantage they made a mess.

What this proves it that there was no management in place while marching around pretending to be role models .(emperor) .... meanwhile the chancellor lives in university housing as a perk - seems they were able to manage that......

Phd's or not - we tend to judge folks by the company they keep - mentors they respect and whom they choose to work for ' nough said

Church key - leverage and moment arm a pretty basic concept.... so is opening a non twist top bottle - plastic lighters and table spoons work as well - grin

Edits....tiny screen,bad readers and time warner having a mind of its own this a.m.

[csgray]

To only go slightly off topic, there are many parts of the world that skipped the whole wired in technology phase. They went from no phones to smart phones, from no electricity to solar powered laptops. I have a friend who stayed with Bedouins in the deep desert who rode camels and drove land rovers, who used both the stars and gps to navigate, and whose kids studied on line using satellite phones and Ipads, but still cooked over camel dung fires.

Carol