Gianforte to donate $10mil

[wbtfg]

Just read regents agenda includes discussing renaming cs program to Gianforte School of Computing (or something like that) for a $10mil donation.

Politically some dems don't like it and making it out to be a stunt to win over voters.

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. Could be another huge gift for MSU academics.


Here's a link form a very far left blog.
http://mtcowgirl.com/2016/05/11/gianfor ... ppearance/

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[kmax]

While I may not agree with him ideologically or politically for the most part, I'd say him giving a gift to the CS department would be pretty easy to see as genuine. That CS department helped build RightNow and there was always a very good relationship between the company and the department.

[HelenaCat]

While I may not agree with him ideologically or politically for the most part, I'd say him giving a gift to the CS department would be pretty easy to see as genuine. That CS department helped build RightNow and there was always a very good relationship between the company and the department.

And really, would he give $10M just to get votes? I don't care if he does have lots of money, a $10M gift is a BIG gift for anyone. Giving to MSU might lose him as many votes (i.e. um grads and fans) as it would gain him. Stupid complaint.....

[wbtfg]

While I may not agree with him ideologically or politically for the most part, I'd say him giving a gift to the CS department would be pretty easy to see as genuine. That CS department helped build RightNow and there was always a very good relationship between the company and the department.

And really, would he give $10M just to get votes? I don't care if he does have lots of money, a $10M gift is a BIG gift for anyone. Giving to MSU might lose him as many votes (i.e. um grads and fans) as it would gain him. Stupid complaint.....

Agreed....this would be huge for the campus! If anyone changes their votes one way or the other because of this donation, they have larger issues to worry about.

[CatBlitz]

But I thought money for MSU only went to football?!

[SonomaCat]

I'll applaud almost anyone who will donate $10 million to MSU, regardless of their political opinions or aspirations. Thanks Greg!

And while this is certainly good PR for him, I agree that this isn't the sort of thing that will sway a lot of voters ... it could even hurt a bit as many people don't want uber-wealthy people in public office. Not to mention that all of the loyalists to every other school in the state may even be a bit miffed about the competitive advantage this will give MSU.

[SonomaCat]

Turns out it is "only" $8 million. Excellent!

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/ap ... um=twitter

[BelgradeBobcat]

Better than $8 million worth of TV commercials.

[bobcat99]

I've never seen so many people get mad about a donation to the school...and now some democrats want to make it against the law...which hurts the school, not the politician. Freaking brilliant.

[iaafan]

I agree with the proposed bill to not allow candidates for office to donate for naming rights on public buildings. They can either do that before they decide to run or after the election, but not while they're a candidate.

[Hawks86]

I agree with the proposed bill to not allow candidates for office to donate for naming rights on public buildings. They can either do that before they decide to run or after the election, but not while they're a candidate.

What if has been in the works for 4 years?

[iaafan]

You could make an exception for that. Gianforte isn't saying this has been in the works for four years, is he? I don't profess to know how donations of this size come about, but I would think that someone that got $300-400 million from the sale of his company wouldn't need 4-6 years to work out the details on an $8 million donation.

[Hawks86]

It's actually 6 years. http://mtpr.org/post/gianforte-msu-nami ... m#stream/0

[bobcat99]

I agree with the proposed bill to not allow candidates for office to donate for naming rights on public buildings. They can either do that before they decide to run or after the election, but not while they're a candidate.

That just hurts the schools though.

Heck, if I even donated a million, I'd want naming rights too (if I could get them). Here you have a guy actually trying to help our education system and its students, and people are doing everything they can to find something wrong with it because of his political stances. That's the height of stupidity.

But let's be honest, look at Gianforte. He's always giving money away. He doesn't need this to show people he's generous, his history has already proven that. Why can't we just take this as a gift and graciously appreciate it?

[iaafan]

Does it hurt the schools all that much for them to wait until the election is over before donating? It probably helps the schools if they donate before throwing their hat in the ring.

Like I said I have no experience with donating millions of dollars to anything, so maybe there's a good reason for why it takes 6 years, but that seems odd to me. If it took six years, then another year (assuming that's how long a candidacy lasts) can't be too detrimental.

[SonomaCat]

Does it hurt the schools all that much for them to wait until the election is over before donating? It probably helps the schools if they donate before throwing their hat in the ring.

Like I said I have no experience with donating millions of dollars to anything, so maybe there's a good reason for why it takes 6 years, but that seems odd to me. If it took six years, then another year (assuming that's how long a candidacy lasts) can't be too detrimental.

I'm not sure if this was the reason for the timing of the donation, but I did notice that there was a deadline (maybe June 1?) for the matching that Norm set up in order for MSU to get his $50M for the new engineering building. It looks like the Gianforte donation counted toward those matching donations, thus allowing MSU to get closer (or all the way?) to the matching gift goal by the deadline.

So it seems quite likely that this isn't a gift that they could have put off due to the requirements set up by another donor.

[SonomaCat]

I think everybody should be encouraged to donate to MSU at all times. Except Hitler or Saddam. You always have to note those exceptions. But all regular non-terrible people should be encouraged to donate to MSU every day of the week and in every phase of their life, no matter their current job title or job aspirations.

[WeedKillinCat]

Meanwhile from the nut jobs in Missoula...go figure...

http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-re ... 1e63f.html

[SonomaCat]

Meanwhile from the nut jobs in Missoula...go figure...

http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-re ... 1e63f.html

If there were conditions on the gift (such as MSU agreeing to pretend like the earth is only 6,000 years old in all of its classes, or embracing policies that allowed discrimination against people for being gay, etc.), then the people quoted in this piece would have an argument when it comes to "MSU values." But if somebody gives you an $8 million gift with no strings attached (outside of naming a program after him, which is not an imposition in any way) that will benefit thousands of students and the local economy for decades to come, you take it and say "thank you."

[Hawks86]

Live video of BOR discussing this gift. http://mus.edu/board/meetings/Video/LIVE.asp