TO: Alumnishockerblackandgolds.com
Date: 26 July ‘06:BARE BONES
•There are those who contend that Chancellor Hemenway and or his surrogate KU chairman and KU co-chairman of the WSU selection committee, Frank Sabatini and Dr. Steve Jordan, hand picked and requested Don Beggs to apply for the position of President of WSU, upon the representation that he would be chosen if he would commit not to reinstate football at WSU, just as his predecessor president Gene Hughes admitted his first day on the job, July 1, 1993: “Neither I nor the Board of Regents have any interest in reinstating football at WSU.”
•Perhaps that commitment went further than just football and to not compete with KU for local Wichita traditional students; but also extended to effective competition with KU for WSU’s fair share of the state education capital improvement budget.
The Board of Regents FY2007 Capital Improvement Summary for the six state universities indicates, we believe from our understanding of the documents, the following:
UniversityTotalCurrent &Current &PriorProject Cost Prior Yrs Prior Yrs State
Provided Funds
KU
14 Projects$191,581,000$ 93,513,000$ 54,465,000
KU Medical Center
8 Projects$243,765,403$ 92,019,522$ 76,105,522
Total KU + KU Med. Center
22 Projects$435,346,403$185,532,522$130,570,522 70.4 % provided so far by state funds.
KSU
13 Projects$210,463,920$ 69,777,244$ 3,356,690
WSU
3 Projects$ 10,930,000$ 7,010,000$ 145,000 02.1 % provided so far by state funds.
Emporia State
3 Projects$ 15,574,000$ 4,225,000$ 425,000 10.1 % provided so far by state funds.
Pittsburg St.
9 Projects$ 43,082,827$ 18,233,516$ 15,241,000 83.6 % provided so far by state funds.
Fort Hays St.
3 Projects$ 11,800,000$ 7,200,000$ 320,000
•So there you have it. After 8 years in the saddle competing with Chancellor Hemenway, standing up and pleading the case for WSU, Beggs by FY 2007 has obtained a paltry feeble $145,000 from the state for the latest capital improvements, compared to Hemenway’s $130,570,572 of state moneys, or one tenth of one percent as much, 00.1 percent.
•KU has $435,765,403 in total projects in progress, for which the state has currently funded 70.4 percent. KSU has about half of KU, or $210,463,920 in total projects in progress. And, WSU has $10,930,000 in total projects in progress, less than even Pittsburg St., Emporia St., and Fort Hays St.
•By the way, 10 years ago, the KU senior class of graduating doctors was 54 as I recall, and 8 percent, or 4 doctors stayed in the state to practice. How many doctors do you suspect we are getting for $243,765,403 in building funds as of this year, not to mention the cost of running the medical school? In FY ‘95 as I recall, the state gave KU $311,000,000 just to run the KU medical school. So in FY ‘95 it cost us $78,000,000 for each doctor KU graduated that stayed in the state to practice. This has to be the biggest rip off in the history of the state annually, year after year. And, the KU folks stole (excuse me, transferred), WSU’s budding medical school when they had monopolistic control of the Board of Regents just to avoid any competition.
•Do you suspect that it is because WSU is seen as a non traditional university with no football team, that Don Beggs can’t compete with the other state universities for our fair share of the State Educational Capital Improvement Budget, or is it rather just Don Beggs’ inability to plead the case for WSU. Which is it do you suspect. And, the Chairman of the Board of Regents is a WSU graduate, and we now have 2 WSU graduates on the 9 member Board of Regents for the first time in history.
•In 42 years of WSU being in the state system of higher education, the Board of Regents has not built a single new building for WSU, while spending hundreds of millions of state moneys on KU and KSU.
•Since president Beggs was only able to persuasively obtain $145,000 in state moneys towards WSU new engineering lab building, why didn’t the WSU foundation pay to debt service the revenue bonds funding the project? Either the State or in the alternative, the WSU foundation should have paid for the new engineering lab building. But no, Don Beggs submitted the bill to the Sedgwick County tax payers at least in part, thus:
“Campus Land and Facilities Development - $900,000. These funds will provide the Board of Trustees flexibility to acquire property surrounding the university as it becomes available. It will also be utilized to develop and maintain facilities directly related to the university’s outreach and research activities in the region. Any funds not utilized will be placed in a fund with other private giving and federal resources for the construction of the Engineering Research Building.” (Emphasis added).
You are required to guess as to how much will be used for flexibility to acquire property around the university, and how much will go to debt servicing the Engineering Research Building, they don’t say. And, the $900,000 is applicable year after year.
•We pay state taxes to support KU, K-State, Emporia St., Pittsburg St., Fort Hays St, and 20 some community colleges, as well as also WSU. But then we are uniquely taxed again to support WSU, because the Board of Regents thinks it’s only fair to give all the state capital improvement money to the other state education institutions, and WSU can build its own campus with local tax dollars. So our Sedgwick County citizens get taxed twice vis-a-vis the rest of the state.
•When it is we say for our tax money, we would like besides funding capital improvements the state should pay for in the first instance, and if not, the WSU foundation, and besides supporting 1683 scholarships on the Mill Levy; that we would also like to support another 85 football scholarships on the Mill Levy, the president thumbs his nose at us and says “its my money”. But in truth, our gift money is not WSU’s money, until we give it to WSU, and if we choose to condition the gift to require some of the addition to the Mill Levy to support 85 football scholarships to stop our loss of traditional student problem, why should we suffer the nose wave from a KU hired surrogate, who evidence suggests can’t effectively stand up and plead the case for our university, or is otherwise not allowed to?
Drop Kick the Eagle Drive-by
KU Scribblers
•Say, have you seen anything in the Eagle lately on the WSU contingency line item expenditures or carry over expenditures accounting gymnastics? The answer is no, for the reason that the bigoted Eagle Drive-by KU Scribblers don’t view it as in their KU interest. The Eagle covers the County Commission meetings, and was at the presentation on the 19th of July. (See our, 19 July 2006 “MAY IT PLEASE THE COMMISSION” presentation ). The self proclaimed eyes, ears, nose, and voice of the people; the right to know advocates; the defenders of freedom of the press as an adjunct to the people’s right to know; the open records advocates; and the self proclaimed defenders of the realm, and the underpinning basis of our freedom and Republic; are nowhere to be heard. They sit silently by and hold their nose, cover their eyes and ears, and say absolutely nothing, in the face of a significantly large story they refuse to recognize; and do so because to recognize the story and deal with it, the process would require their scourging their intriguing partner against reinstatement of WSU football, for its illusory – how was it in fact spent – accounting. If it was an enemy, or even just not an anti-football soul mate, there would be hell to pay, and the Eagle drive-by KU scribblers would be profoundly incensed, and with a high degree of moral superiority, would be plummeting, skewering, and goring WSU like bodacious the rodeo bull. Just more evidence of selective indignation and bigoted scribbling by the Eagle.
•Say, have you heard the results of the Eagle web sight poll on the return of football at WSU? We know you haven’t, and the answer is no. For months now the Eagle has run the poll, and the result has been a consistent 68 percent plus want football returned to WSU. But the bigoted Eagle won’t print their own poll results on the issue, for the reason that the results are contra to the KU scribblers opinion, and they do not want the public at large to know the results. But in equity and justice, and in the exercise of their version of the Code of Journalistic Ethics, and obligation to the public, they continue to provide anti WSU football editorials. Punt the Eagle.
cc: County Commission
Mayor Carlos Mayans
Councilman Jim Skelton
Community Leaders
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