Dennis Brackin: Donors will fund Maturi's new job - a $468,000 package

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The university may have a hard time securing future donations if they squander it on Maturi's exit salary. This is very difficult to stomach.:mad:
 

If somebody wants to summarize the article, in particular how the money was amassed, that would be great. Since I refuse to subscribe to the Strib, I try to meter out my monthly 20 free articles carefully.

Having not read the article, I could imagine reasons why people would nonetheless be upset, depending on how the money was raised.

If the money is taken from general alumni donations without having been designated for the "Joel Maturi early vacation" fund when raised, I can imagine alumni being upset over the manner in which donations are being spent.

If the money was raised quietly for this specific purpose, I could still imagine people making an argument that it poisons the well a bit for future donations or generally has a bad stench to it, unless these are dear friends of Joel. I think a lot of folks don't understand why Joel even needs to be kept around for another year to begin with (his contract is up in June, right?)

Regardless of the above, common folks' sense of equity might be troubled over a guy past retirement age being paid an outrageous salary to, in all likelihood, do little-to-nothing. It plays into the popular image among taxpayers, legislators and even many alums of the U being a spendthrift organization.

Again, if somebody wants to summarize the precise manner in which this was raised, it would be much appreciated.
 

Pathetic! Maturi can take credit for accomplishing a lot of great things at the U. He is a tireless worker and I don't think anyone would question his love for the U of M. However, he doesn't deserve to stay on for that type of money. I was listening to his press conference and I heard a lot of candid questions about the state of the big 3 programs and his hiring of Brewster. Maturi never stepped up and took responsibility for hiring him and kept saying how he always did his homework and careful consideration went into each hire. Maturi hired a TE coach to turn around a Big 10 football team with a new stadium. I think that Maturi should donate his salary to help fund the new baseball stadium.
 

"Maturi's salary as a special assistant will come from the University of Minnesota Foundation, which is from fundraising -- not state -- funds. State Rep. Michelle Fischbach, chair of the Higher Education Committee, said that because the salary doesn't come from tax dollars, she does not consider it a legislative issue.

"If they are using fundraising money, [the university] will need to answer to their donors," she said."
 


This disgrace goes on prexy k's head. What kind of leadership and fiscal management is this guy displaying with this move? The University of Minnesota fund-raising branch will NOT recover from this typical "fat-cat" type of lack of fiscal responsibilty and "taking care" of an old-boy's club member.

I can hardly wait for one of the U of M callers to call asking for contributions. They will get a very strong message to send along to prexy k.

This is a VERY stupid move prexy k...

; 0 (
 

Gopher Placenta said:
Regardless of the above, common folks' sense of equity might be troubled over a guy past retirement age being paid an outrageous salary to, in all likelihood, do little-to-nothing. It plays into the popular image among taxpayers, legislators and even many alums of the U being a spendthrift organization.
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This is really stupid on the University's part for the above stated reason. Our local representative backs cuts to higher education whenever he can. Talk about giving ammunition to your enemy!
(And this is from someone who has felt compelled to defend Maturi when the attacks on him were too unbalanced or went too far, IMO)
 


This is how it works over there, Total bull...t. Wasting other peoples money. Send e-mails. Is this where my "donation" for my four football tickets is going? New prez looks bad with this.
U of M never fails to disappoint with their stupidity. They live in a bubble of altered reality.
 



beavergopher said:
Is this where my "donation" for my four football tickets is going?
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Nope, it is not. Your athletic donations are not the same as the one's collected by the Foundation. The Foundation is the wider fundraising arm for the whole university.

The U of M Foundation "...advances the University's mission of teaching, research, and outreach to the community by raising and managing private dollars for scholarships, world-class faculty, leading-edge research, new facilities, and academic programs on all five campuses of the University of Minnesota."
 

GoAUpher said:
Nope, it is not. Your athletic donations are not the same as the one's collected by the Foundation. The Foundation is the wider fundraising arm for the whole university.

The U of M Foundation "...advances the University's mission of teaching, research, and outreach to the community by raising and managing private dollars for scholarships, world-class faculty, leading-edge research, new facilities, and academic programs on all five campuses of the University of Minnesota."
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Please tell me you are not defending this!
 

I am not a Maturi fan and think it was long past time for him to go, but that doesn’t mean I think he was a bad guy or horrible at every aspect of his job. The salary is probably too high, but I don’t have a problem with Kaler deciding to keep Maturi around for a year or two since I expect that over the last ten years Joel has developed relationships with donors who believe that he has done a great job and are upset that he’s not being given the opportunity to continue in his position. Those people don’t want to see somebody they view as a good man tossed aside. Keeping him available as a conduit to those donors is a positive if it helps the new AD establish relationships with those same people. If that aids in keeping the donations coming in to the athletic department or the programs those people helped fund, then Joel can probably earn his keep. Seems especially important if the new AD is an “outsider.”
 

beavergopher said:
Please tell me you are not defending this!
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Well first off, I was just answering your question. You were potentially flipping out over your donation being "misused" and I was simply pointing out that no, it wasn't coming from the money you gave. Not sure how quoting the Foundation's own page implies that I feel one way or the other about the whole thing, but whatever.

Second, I honestly don't care. The U is capable of making it's own staffing decisions. Since my allegiance to the Gophers comes from growing up as a Minnesotan versus being a U alum, I have no reason to care (since my alum donations go to my liberal arts alma mater). My financial contributions to the U come in the form of athletics, and that money isn't being used. In fact, I have reason to cheer the move as it means that soon my athletic contributions will support the paying of an AD who I will hopefully find to be better suited for the U's current athletic situation.
 



I have a profound allegiance to the U. I am a graduate of the Dental School and my older sister is alive today because her open heart surgery performed by Dr. Lillehei. She was the 32nd person in the world to have that procedure performed. So I have donated in both areas. This is a misuse of funds any way you look at it. JM has been well compensated. A token salary is one thing, but this is over the top. Hire an researcher in the medical field with the money. There are much better uses for that money. People worked hard for it and I would hope they expect it to be used more productively. I will climb off the soapbox.
 

I would be curious to know if there have been other Div.1 situations similar to this (new Prez., hiring new AD in year 1, etc.) and how those situations were handled. Has anything like this ever happened at the U before?
 

GoAUpher said:
Well first off, I was just answering your question. You were potentially flipping out over your donation being "misused" and I was simply pointing out that no, it wasn't coming from the money you gave. Not sure how quoting the Foundation's own page implies that I feel one way or the other about the whole thing, but whatever.

Second, I honestly don't care. The U is capable of making it's own staffing decisions. Since my allegiance to the Gophers comes from growing up as a Minnesotan versus being a U alum, I have no reason to care (since my alum donations go to my liberal arts alma mater). My financial contributions to the U come in the form of athletics, and that money isn't being used. In fact, I have reason to cheer the move as it means that soon my athletic contributions will support the paying of an AD who I will hopefully find to be better suited for the U's current athletic situation.
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this. read this before you post an over-the-top response people! do i even want to see maturi stick around for another year just to receive a pay-check for doing nothing? no. would like to just see him go on june 30th and be done with it.

but, as was stated above, the money for his salary is NOT coming from athletic department donations. right or wrong, i am just happy it is not coming from the athletic department fundraising pool.
 

GoAUpher said:
Well first off, I was just answering your question. You were potentially flipping out over your donation being "misused" and I was simply pointing out that no, it wasn't coming from the money you gave. Not sure how quoting the Foundation's own page implies that I feel one way or the other about the whole thing, but whatever.

Second, I honestly don't care. The U is capable of making it's own staffing decisions. Since my allegiance to the Gophers comes from growing up as a Minnesotan versus being a U alum, I have no reason to care (since my alum donations go to my liberal arts alma mater). My financial contributions to the U come in the form of athletics, and that money isn't being used. In fact, I have reason to cheer the move as it means that soon my athletic contributions will support the paying of an AD who I will hopefully find to be better suited for the U's current athletic situation.
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+1
 

supadupafly said:
this. read this before you post an over-the-top response people! do i even want to see maturi stick around for another year just to receive a pay-check for doing nothing? no. would like to just see him go on june 30th and be done with it.

but, as was stated above, the money for his salary is NOT coming from athletic department donations. right or wrong, i am just happy it is not coming from the athletic department fundraising pool.
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Agree, although I would add that if I was a donor to the foundation, giving any of my donation money to that yo-yo would anger me. So I can understand that part of it. But like you said, since no athletics monies are going to be used, it doesn't really affect me one way or the other.
 

There might also be the possibility that Prez Kaler knows what he is doing.
 

Nate said:
"Maturi's salary as a special assistant will come from the University of Minnesota Foundation, which is from fundraising -- not state -- funds. State Rep. Michelle Fischbach, chair of the Higher Education Committee, said that because the salary doesn't come from tax dollars, she does not consider it a legislative issue.

"If they are using fundraising money, [the university] will need to answer to their donors," she said."
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Exactly.. Who in their right mind (or even their left mind) would WANT the legislation to take action on this?! Ridiculous!!!
 

I don't know what Kaler's reason was for this, but that's a lot of money that I feel could be well spent on other stuff. That much money could go a decent way towards a practice facility.
 



If he helps bring in more than that a year in donations then I don't see the problem with it
 

station19 said:
There might also be the possibility that Prez Kaler knows what he is doing.
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Exactly. Do folks really think that Kaler (who has no ties to Maturi and no reason to give him a golden parachute) is giving him this salary as a do nothing gig? Sure, I guess that's a possibility, but it's not the likely or logical conclusion. Clearly they have something in mind for him to do over the next year and they want him to do it badly enough to make sure he didn't take a paycut.
 

2nd Degree Gopher said:
I am not a Maturi fan and think it was long past time for him to go, but that doesn’t mean I think he was a bad guy or horrible at every aspect of his job. The salary is probably too high, but I don’t have a problem with Kaler deciding to keep Maturi around for a year or two since I expect that over the last ten years Joel has developed relationships with donors who believe that he has done a great job and are upset that he’s not being given the opportunity to continue in his position. Those people don’t want to see somebody they view as a good man tossed aside. Keeping him available as a conduit to those donors is a positive if it helps the new AD establish relationships with those same people. If that aids in keeping the donations coming in to the athletic department or the programs those people helped fund, then Joel can probably earn his keep. Seems especially important if the new AD is an “outsider.”
Click to expand...

This is an insightful response. Not to diminish the other poster's opinions but the reality is JM is very highly regarded by many influential and significant donors. This "golden parachute" is well worth the investment for the U.
 


Jealous? It is what it is. why don't you people apply and get the same deal?
 


It sounds like this prexy k really ticked them off in the state legislature! Way to go prexy k.

So, when are you going to make the announcement about the next tuition hike at the U prexy k?????

Slush funds for the prexy aren't such a good idea.

If you keep this up prexy k, I think that you will find out that being prexy of the U is not so much fun. Especially when you have to make a trip over to St. Paul to beg for funding.


Throw b(s)jm under the bus and let him collect his Social Security check. He has cost the University and the athletic department millions and millions with his ill-advised extensions followed by almost immediate buy-outs...

Do your homework prexy k...

; 0 (
 

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