October 7, 2007, 9:10 a.m., October 9, 2007, 6:30 a.m. (addition of Register editorials)
Thank You, Des Moines Register
The Register did the University of Iowa a big favor this morning.
You see, the UIHC has run into a bit of bad luck with regard to its public relations recently.
First, a patient was permitted to wander off and was later found 800 miles away. I always thought that was a bit of a bad rap. We can't be expected to keep an eye on all of these patients all the time. And besides, it's not like she was lost. She did turn up, after all. Think of all those folks who disappear and are never heard from again.
But some overzealous bureaucrats made a big deal out of it. One was heard to say, "Wha' the ****!" Following which he ordered a general investigation to see what else might be going on at the nation's largest hospital-owned university.
Needless to say, they couldn't find anything. Well, there were those nine dead bodies. But at least they hadn't escaped from the hospital. Call it "locking the barn door after the horses are stolen" if you must, but we do learn. We are, after all, an institution of higher learning. And what we've learned is that if you keep the patients restrained to their beds they can't wander off. Good point. They may die, but hey, you can't have everything. And you can even minimize that public relations damage if you'll just not report the deaths.
Then there was the matter of storing clean and soiled items in the same room. But that's really petty. At least we have clean patient-care items -- which is more than you can say for some hospitals in impoverished third-world countries.
Anyhow, there's been a little confusion regarding the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services report.
As is so often the case, the real problems with something like this are not so much about the substance as they are about the institution's response to the substance.
The Register asked for and was given a copy. It has now made the inspection report available online. Much to everyone's surprise, when the paper was asked to give it back they refused to do so, and decided to publish a big expose about it instead.
The paper claims the report contains "dozens" of alleged health and safety violations. I doubt that. After all, it's only 132 pages long. How could "dozens" of violations fit in such a tiny report?
From here on it gets a little confusing. The day the Register's story appeared the hospital held a news conference to defend itself -- but for some reason failed to notify the Register of that fact. The feds (CMS) want the report of its July and August findings to be withheld. But it turns out the inspection was actually conducted for the the CMS by the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals.
Having been reminded that the hospital is, after all, subject to the Iowa public records law, it is now making the CMS report available to those who request it.
But the CMS and State of Iowa officials are continuing to treat the public document as "confidential" and refusing to make it available.
So why do I say the Register has done the UI a favor?
Because they've kindly placed this embarrassing saga -- not on page one, not even in the first section of the paper, but on page B2. Clark Kauffman, "Some Officials Withhold U of I Hospitals Report," Des Moines Register, October 7, 2007, p. B2. [The story is available online as Clark Kauffman, "Some officials withhold U of I Hospitals report," Des Moines Register, October 6, 2007; and see, Editorial, "Make Public Any Problems at Hospitals Now, Not Later," Des Moines Register, October 5, 2007.]
"Oh, never mind . . ."
(. . . with credit to Emily Litella.)
Well, I guess I was wrong.
I guess the reason the Clark Kauffman story about the UIHC fiasco didn't make page one was only because the Clark Kauffman story about the UI credit card fiasco did. Clark Kauffman, "U of I, UNI refuse Regents' request on credit cards; They do disclose, along with ISU, that students' balances on the Bank of America cards average more than $1,000," Des Moines Register, October 7, 2007, p. A1. [And see, Nicholas Johnson, "The Bad News" in "UI Rips-Off Students Because . . . 'Revenue is Needed,'" September 25, 2007.]
There just wasn't room for a hospital story on page one this morning.
The UI finds itself in a credit card scandal and refuses to show the Board of Regents the contracts??!! You've got to be kidding. [See, Nicholas Johnson, "Stonewalling Not a Winning Strategy . . ." in "Regents Examine Credit Card Scam," September 28, 2007, and Editorial, "Regents should get credit-card contracts; Absurd that universities rejected request," Des Moines Register, October 9, 2007.]
Oh, my. This is not good.
Perhaps you'd like to talk about our athletic program and this fall's football team?
Oh, you don't want to talk about that either? OK. I guess that's all for now then.
# # #
October 2, 2007, 6:30, 10:00 a.m.; October 3, 2007, 7:15 a.m. (addition of Fire Chief Rocca's proposal)
Three reassuring stories this morning from the Department of Rational Governmental Analysis.
Women Bite Dog -- of a TIF Proposal. The Gazette reports that the Iowa City City Council members of the City's Economic Development Committee voted down the Mercy Hospital doctors' request for a $600,000 TIF. See Nicholas Johnson, "A TIF-kit's a Basket, With Money for the Askin'" in "TIFing Your Doctor," September 12, 2007. The "No" votes came from Council Members Regenia Bailey and Connie Champion (hence the "women bite dog" headline). The story reports, "Wendy Ford, the city's economic development coordinator, said she was not aware of a previous TIF application being denied at the committee level." Let's hope this is the beginning of a trend -- and not just a pre-election conversion. Gregg Hennigan, "TIF for I.C. Surgical Center Gets Thumbs Down," The Gazette, October 2, 2007, p. B7.
Thinking Outside the Firehouse. As Iowa City fire fighter Eric Nurnberg has detailed, "Fire Department" is a misnomer in the 21st Century world of responsibilities that fall to our "fire fighters." Eric Nurnberg, "This election, make sure that the Iowa City Council prioritizes firefighter safety," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 30, 2007.
I don't pretend to have the answer to how many firehouses and fire fighters we need, or the basis for calculating response time. In large measure, it seems to me, these are, like the issue of expansion of the Iowa City Police force, a matter of "peak-load analysis" -- along with a lot of Internet research that looks at much more than population figures and crime (and fire) statistics. Nor do I know anything like all of the innovative responses other communities have brought to these issues.
But what I do know is that our Fire Chief, Andy Rocca, has come up with one of them.
There are a lot more sirens these days than when I was a kid growing up in Iowa City. In part, that's because the population has expanded and more tasks fall to the police, fire, and paramedic personnel. But at least a part of it is duplication, when much of what all three are doing is paramedic work.
So, at a time when the City is trying to figure out how to pay for, and staff, a fourth fire station, the Fire Chief has done the unbelievable: Instead of fighting to preserve his bureaucratic turf he's doing a little thinking outside the firehouse and proposing a merger of sorts of the Johnson County Ambulance service with the Iowa City Fire Department.
The details have to be worked out, and I don't know what kind of hurdles will be found when they are. That's not the point. The point is that it's the kind of thinking we need a lot more of around here.
Face it, all of the "cities" in this metropolitan area -- Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, University Heights, Tiffin, you name 'em (including the University, a "city" in its own right) -- don't have a combined population any greater than a large apartment area in one of the world's larger cities.
We have an unbelievable duplication of governmental units, bus and other transportation systems, school districts, police and fire departments, and so forth.
As the Frenchman said when asked why he kissed women on the hand: "Well, you have to start somewhere." Andy Rocca has shown us how to "start somewhere" with this kind of thinking. And that's why he gets one of the "Rational Economic Thought" awards of the day. Lee Hermiston, "Iowa City Fire Chief proposes consolidating fire and ambulance services," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 27, 2007; Gregg Hennigan, "Iowa City Chief Suggests Fire-Ambulance Service," Gazette Online, September 27, 2007.
Digging the Dirt. It sounds like a no-brainer, more a bit of dust blowing in the wind than digging dirt, but you'd be surprised how often the obvious is overlooked. The Cedar Rapids Airport Commission is building a $5 million public safety facility at the Eastern Iowa Airport. The project requires a supply of dirt for fill. Normally that would be an added cost. Someone noticed that a runway project required that contractor to haul away large quantities of dirt. "How about we keep it here?" they asked. "We won't have to pay to have it hauled away. We won't have to pay to have more hauled in. We can just use what we have." Bingo -- and $80,000 in savings.
It's just one more in a long history of examples that creative thought, often just a child's common sense, can create approaches that simultaneously reduce cost while improving quality of goods or services. (I recall an example from 40 years ago when GE got a Commerce Department award for efficiency and energy conservation at one of its manufacturing plants. What did they do to deserve that? Someone suggested they close an enormous sliding door in the winter time -- resulting in a 30% savings in heating bills.) George C. Ford, "Airport Hits Pay Dirt; C.R. Commission Approves Contract That Saves $80,000," The Gazette, October 2, 2007, p. B8.
And speaking of moving dirt and defining a mission. The Press-Citizen editorializes this morning in support of the $120 million, 200,000 square-foot Institute for Biomedical Discovery and $20 million Bioventures Center in the UI's Oakdale Research Park. Editorial, "Groundbreaking More Than Just Moving Dirt," Iowa City Press-Citizen, October 2, 2007, p. A11. These projects are both consistent -- or at least appear to be -- with what I wrote about as President Sally Mason's clear articulation of a major role for the University. Nicholas Johnson, "Stonewalling Not a Winning Strategy . . . but President Sally's Mason's May Well Be" in "Regents Examine Credit Card Scam," September 28, 2007.
The challenge, from my perspective, is to "follow the money." (See, "Memorable Lines," Deep Throat to Woodward, in Matt Slovick, "All the President's Men," Washington Post (1996).)
Potential positives: genuine collaboration between UI researchers and for-profit professionals, working on projects UI researchers would be working on anyway, that provide a payback to the University and benefits to all Americans and all corporations wishing to profit from the advances.
Potential negatives: the use of the UI as little more than a money laundering intermediary for a transfer of Iowa taxpayers' money to the bottom line of a single for-profit enterprise with little meaningful involvement of UI faculty, staff or students; or, the use of UI researchers to create products or services that inure to the benefit of one lucky firm to the exclusion of all others and the resulting monopoly prices for consumers.
And the latest from the Department of Revenue is Needed. At the end of a persuasive editorial yesterday regarding the benefits of the fraudulently-named "21-only" proposal (fraudulent because bars can still sell liquor illegally to those under 21, just not after 10:00 p.m. when those patrons ought to be heading for home anyway), the Press-Citizen spoils it all by back-tracking, "But even we are concerned with how this decision might affect the Iowa City downtown economy" -- what it refers to as "unintended consequences." Editorial, "Spell Out the Unintended Economic Risks for Going 21-Only," Iowa City Press-Citizen, October 1, 2007, p. A11.
At a minimum, if one is to consider the "unintended consequences," or "externalities," of alcohol policies one is obliged to include the unexpected savings as well as the unexpected lost revenue. The savings (or reduced pressure for increased costs) include reduced demands for expansion of the local police force, and paramedics, City employees cleaning the vomit off the streets Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings (rather than billing the bars for the cost), the impact on local jails and justice system, the need for early morning hours transportation, lights and escorts. See, e.g., Kelsey Beltramea and Ben Fornell, "Alcohol Tickets Pour In," The Daily Iowan, October 1, 2007, p. A1, and Kathleen Olp, "Nite Ride Starts Well; The Safe-Ride Option Draws 55 Students on Its First Night of Operation," The Daily Iowan, October 1, 2007, p. 5A.
Gazette Should Give Itself "Gomer." Monday is "Homers and Gomers" day at The Gazette. But the Gomer it presented to Earthpark October 1 concluded, "This bold, decade-old proposal that would include a 4-acre indoor rain forest, 600,000-gallon aquarium and prairie and wetland exhibits has potentially great benefits for Iowa as a tourism attraction and educational venue." Editorial, "Earthpark/Gomers: What's Going Wrong," The Gazette, October 1, 2007, p. A4.
"Bold?" What's bold is the gall of Senator Chuck Grassley to earmark and offer up $50 million of the federal taxpayers' money for this boondoggle.
"Decade-old?" The reason it's a decade old is that nobody, I mean nobody, besides Grassley and project founder Ted Townsend, has been willing to part with a dime for this project in spite of the promoters' hard-sell trying with some of America's largest corporations and wealthiest philanthropists.
"Benefits for Iowa as a tourism attraction?" When the proposed scope was a $300 million structure the project's own consultants counseled against cutting it below $225 million (because being "the world's largest" is essential to tourism). And that was when it was to be located along one (or more) major Interstate highways. It has subsequently been cut to $225, then $180, then $150, and now $140 million -- and located in little Pella, Iowa, with the tulips, well out of easy driving distance, let alone sight, of Interstate 80. No independent economist I know believes this project has a prayer of making it as a tourist attraction.
The project has been considered and rejected by virtually all the communities up and down I-80 in Eastern Iowa -- some more than once -- including Cedar Rapids. There's a reason for that. There's much more that can be (and has been) questioned about this project. See, Nicholas Johnson, "Earthpark/Iowa Environmental Project/Iowa Child Project," at http://www.nicholasjohnson.org/politics/IaChild. Bottom line: The Gazette does no one a favor with its indiscriminate endorsement of all proposed projects -- regardless of their lack of reasonable business plan, inability to raise funds over ten years, shifting mission, and mismanagement -- including, perhaps especially, those whose proposals do make sense. The "Gomer" should go to any perpetuation of this earmarked folly -- not the refusal of sane people to fund it -- and to The Gazette itself.
Credit Press-Citizen on Credit Cards. The Press-Citizen had a tough, thorough and informed editorial analysis of the credit card scandal September 29, Editorial, "Openness Helps Ensure UI Deals are Aboveboard," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 29, 2007, p. A16. And Iowa Senator Joe Bolkcom provided an analysis from his perspective of the adverse impact on the state and what the Legislature has been doing to try to improve the situation. Joe Bolkcom, "Financial Controversy Doesn't Help Young People Make Iowa Their Home," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 29, 2007, p. A16.
Nicholas Johnson, "Stonewalling Not an Effective Strategy" in "Regents Examine Credit Card Scam," September 28, 2007, produced the following comment:
Anonymous said...
Wonder if any 'lunches with the team' have occurred? Considering the NCAA regulation qouted below, a 'lunch with the team' could be an NCAA violation.
"Promotional activity restrictions: NCAA rules strictly prohibit a student-athlete from promoting or endorsing a business, commercial product or service and/or receiving any type of compensation for promoting or endorsing. This restriction includes but is not limited to the use of a student-athlete's name, photograph, likeness, spoken words or appearance in any type of promotion or advertise from a business, product or service.
Student-athletes may participate in promotions for institutional, charitable, educational or nonprofit organizations but only after receiving prior written approval and verification that the promotion will meet certain criteria set forth by the NCAA. Prior written approval must be received through the Office of Athletics Compliance. Failure to receive such approve could impact the student-athlete's eligibility to participate in intercollegiate competition. "
9/30/2007 12:44:00 AM
It seems to me important enough to repeat here and to suggest that someone in authority ought to be thinking and doing something about it.
Iowa Boys Can Jump. I earlier asked, "But in the 'Iowa boys can't jump' department, just how Iowa is the 'Iowa Hawkeyes' basketball team going to be next year?" Nicholas Johnson, "UI Held Hostage Day 503 - "Pretty please," June 8, 2007. Well, it turns out after traveling to all of Iowa's 99 counties Coach Todd Lickliter has finally found a genuine Iowan who can jump sufficiently high to have attracted the Coach's attention. He's 6-foot-9-inch, 260 pounds, Brennan Cougill, a 16-year-old from Sioux City -- just barely inside the State line -- who did pretty well as a high school sophomore last year. As Pat Harty reported, "recruiting analyst Van Coleman said of Cougill 'He's only 16 years old, so he's just coming out of that baby-fat stage.'" Pat Harty, "Lickliter Lands First In-State Recruit," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 30, 2007, p. B1.
Isn't it amazing the amount of collegiate and professional team fan enthusiasm that can be whipped up over a chant like, "Our guys from out of state can beat your guys from out of state?" Well, in case the NCAA ever requires that there be at least one player from the state that names a football or basketball team -- such as "the Iowa Hawkeyes" -- we can at least claim that in two or three years we'll have a real Iowan -- sans baby-fat no less -- to give some credibility to the "Iowa" in our name. However, it may be a challenge for our out-of-state coach and basketball team players to make Cougill feel at home. The players will have to use their best out-of-state hospitality to welcome him to the team.
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September 28, 2007, 9:45, 11:30 a.m.
Stonewalling Not a Winning Strategy . . .
. . . but President Sally's Mason's May Well Be
The current flap over the Regents' universities profiting from secret deals with bank credit card companies -- helping the banks increase students' debt loads with outrageous interest credit card fees by sharing otherwise-private mailing lists and data about the students and their parents -- has now come to the attention of the Regents. Clark Kauffman, "Regents Question Dealings with Bank," Des Moines Register, September 28, 2007. See blog entries for September 26 and 27, and Editorial, "Universities shouldn't push cards to students; Don't further temptation to increase debt," Des Moines Register, September 25, 2007; and Editorial, "Disclose Details of Deals," Des Moines Register, September 25, 2007.
Since the universities don't seem to want to take the revelations seriously, the Regents are to be praised for trying to take a look at what's going on.
On the other hand, this is just a subset of all the consequences that we've seen flow over the past couple of years as a result of the absence of any meaningful theories and policies of governance -- a clear allocation of responsibilities between the Regents and the universities' administrations, the substitution of meaningful and measurable John Carver-style "ends policies" for vacuous "strategic plans." I've written about these on numerous occasions, see for example, Nicholas Johnson, "An Open Letter to Regents on 'Governance,'" in "UI Held Hostage Day 451 - Open Letter to Regents," April 17, 2007.
And, of course, the issue for which student credit cards is but a subset is one of the most serious and overriding confronting higher education today, one I spelled out in Nicholas Johnson, "It's the Mission of Higher Education -- Not the Naming of Buildings" in "UI's 21st Century Mission," September 20, 2007. With a meaningful governance process in place these issues (the academy's relation to corporate America) would have been long since identified, thought through, resolved, and been embodied in clearly articulated policies.
Sadly, a little "revenue is needed" crept into the Regents' inquiry. Kauffman reports, "Among the questions was one asking for the potential financial impact on the schools and their alumni associations if the agreements with Bank of America were vacated." (I'm aware it might be irresponsible for the Regents not to know the answer to that question, but one can hope the answer would not be decisive in deciding what to do about an arrangement the schools never should have entered into in the first place.) And "The board staff has not requested information pertaining to the use of student-athletes in the credit card promotions" -- a centerpiece of the entire arrangement.
The universities' administrators stone-walling on the details, in addition to being extraordinarily unseemly for public institutions, will probably come around to sting them like a scorpion in the end. Richard Nixon experienced that phenomenon, and it's amazing the difficulty others have had learning that lesson.
The regents are also asking for details pertaining to the financial benefits to the universities and alumni groups from the credit-card marketing; the schools' policies on sharing student and parent information with the alumni groups and others, and the process through which Bank of America was selected as the official credit card provider for each school's alumni group.
. . .
The answers to the regents' questions could shed more light on the schools' partnerships with Bank of America.
At the University of Iowa, many details of the relationship remain secret because of the manner in which the partnership was formed. The bank signed a contract with the private alumni group, and then the alumni association signed a contract with the school.
Only the contract signed by the school and alumni group has been made public. The alumni association refuses to disclose the terms of its deal with Bank of America and has also refused to say how much it is paid by the bank.
At Iowa State University, alumni association officials refused to make public its contracts with the bank and the school. After the Register requested the documents, alumni association President Jeff Johnson wrote to ISU President Gregory Geoffroy and others, saying, "I will not release our Bank of America agreement to them. I will not release the agreement between us and athletics (to) them, either."
Looks like this is all going to get very ugly before it gets better once it starts off with that kind of arrogance and intransigence. See, Editorial, "Disclose Details of Deals," Des Moines Register, September 25, 2007.
Meanwhile, UI President Sally Mason is Clarifying the Mission
As I've written from time to time, my primary concern about the UI's 21st Century mission is not so much what it ends up becoming (although I have my preferences) as it is the failure to have it articulated clearly. With ambiguity comes the potential for hypocrisy and inconsistency.
Recently, in a major though largely unreported statement, President Mason had some revealing things to say that, at a minimum, at least give us some insight into what she thinks we're all about.
Note: If anybody in Jessup is reading this, and if it was not all extemporaneous and unrecorded, how about posting the text of those remarks on the President's Web page?
Here's some of what The Gazette reported:
University of Iowa President Sally Mason is committed to an active economic development role for the university, going far beyond its primary mission and contribution of creating a highly educated work force.
Mason, speaking Wednesday to Corridor business leaders at the Iowa City Area Development Group’s annual meeting at the University Athletic Club, said UI’s research enterprise contributes significantly to Iowa’s economy.
“Our faculty, staff and students generated an all time record $382.2 million in grants and contracts for UI research, education and service in fiscal year 2007,” Mason said. “This amounts to almost a 5 percent increase from fiscal 2006.” Mason said the UI has brought more than $2 billion of research funding into the state’s economy in the last six years. She said a major portion of the research funding has been used to create jobs.
“Research projects often require hiring laboratory and other kinds of employees,” she said.
“We’re always in the employment business. The University of Iowa is a job creation juggernaut.” Mason said the university is working on technology transfer, commercialization of research, and academic entrepreneurship, which she termed “exciting opportunities in the world of the university today.” “The good universities, the best universities are doing this, and the University of Iowa is among the very best,” she said.
“Working in the marketplace is not just an exciting extension of research activity. I actually see it as a very important aspect of our public engagement obligations.”
George C. Ford, "‘Exciting opportunities’; UI leader, group voice commitment to state’s economy," The Gazette, September 27, 2007, p. B10.
And, in this connection, note the relationship between what President Mason had to say and what I highlighted from a recent Dick Doak column: Nicholas Johnson, "The Good News and the Bad News/The Good News/Richard Doak: Almost Always Good News" in "UI Rips-Off Students Because . . . 'Revenue is Needed,'" September 25, 2007.
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September 26, 2007, 8:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m.
"Revenue is Needed" Updates
The day after I posted the blog entry, Nicholas Johnson, "The Bad News" in "UI Rips Off Students Because . . . 'Revenue is Needed,'" September 25, 2007, last Sunday's story continues to walk on very sturdy legs for a three-day-old (Clark Kauffman, "U of I, Iowa State use student data to sell credit cards," Des Moines Register, September 23, 2007, p. A1).
The "revenue is needed" phrase originated in Nicholas Johnson, "UI Loves Gambling" in "UI Held Hostage Day 410 - March 7," March 7, 2007: "Once 'revenue is needed' is the Polestar for a university's financial decisions its moral compass begins to spin as if it was located on the North Pole."
And for a more general discussion of the corporatization of the UI see, Nicholas Johnson, "It's the Mission of Higher Education -- Not the Naming of Buildings" in "UI's 21st-Century Mission," September 20, 2007.
Although I didn't watch the show, I'm told that last evening's "Boston Legal" dealt with corporatization of higher education issues (an allegation that oil company contributions to a university were affecting its research results). "Beauty and the Beast," Boston Legal, Season 4, Episode 69, September 25, 2007.
The Register has a follow-up story this morning. Clark Kauffman, "State Probes Citibank Promotion," Des Moines Register, September 26, 2007 ("free" food offer doesn't mention requirement to sign up for credit card before eating).
State Senator Joe Bolkcom and Regents President Michael Gartner are concerned about the Regents' universities' use of students' identities for credit card marketing as a part of the universities' ties to the credit card industry. Associated Press, "Schools' credit card deals draw concern; Bolkcom calling for limits; Regents to seek information," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 26, 2007, p. A1.
The Gazette has weighed in with a forceful editorial, Editorial, "Look Out for Students' Interest First," The Gazette, September 26, 2007, p. A4 ("when a college or university loses sight of protecting student interests and focuses instead on the revenue to be gained through an exclusive contract with a credit card issuer, a higher power needs to step in. . . . The state Board of Regents should step in and . . . prohibit the universities from actively marketing to students . . .. If the regents won’t step up, then the state legislature should . . ..").
And don't miss the comment appended to this blog entry by "anonymous" at 10:49 a.m. It's much more informed, detailed and powerful than anything I wrote yesterday or today.
And State29 once again takes me to task for my concern about these issues -- not because he necessarily disagrees on the merits, but because he thinks it's naive of me not to have caught on long ago that of course universities are in it for the money and are willing to rip off their students in the process. State29, "I'm Shocked SHOCKED To Discover That ISU and The University Of Iowa Pimp Student Data Out To Market Credit Cards," September 23, 2007; and State29, "Speaking of 'Revenue is Needed,'" September 26, 2007 ("What the Register ought to be looking at is how financial aid departments at the state universities are pushing student loans onto the kids. It would not surprise me in the least if the modus operandi of these universities is to drain every last borrowed penny out of their record number of students. . . . No wonder all the kids at Iowa's universities are binge drinkers! I'd become a miserable alcoholic if the next 20-25 years of my life were going to be nothing but huge loan payments . . ..").
Although the UI has clarified that professors can still call students by name in class without violating the students' privacy rights, Brian Morelli, "No More 'Hey, You': Name Rule Clarified," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 26, 2007, p. A1, it has said nothing as of yet regarding its practice of selling off all kinds of student information (as well as that of their parents) to the highest corporate bidder.
And an op ed in this morning's Press-Citizen at least alleges the Regents with what is in some ways an even more serious selective application of privacy rules. Gwen Gruber, "UI Has Other FERPA Issues," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 26, 2007, p. A13.
Gruber charges that the graduate student union, UE Local 896/COGS, and the Regents' collective bargaining process produced a contract in March 2007 that included the union's rights to "bargaining unit information" (which I take to be, presumably, contact information for the constantly shifting UI graduate student population). She alleges that "weeks after" the contract was signed the Regents filed a lawsuit seeking to nullify the union's contract right.
Yesterday the UI's Faculty Council, sort of an executive committee for the Faculty Senate, discussed among other things the so-called "21-Only" proposed Iowa City referendum. (I say "so-called" because it's "21-only" in the sense that illegal sales of alcohol to undergraduates can continue to take place prior to 10:00 p.m.) Brian Morelli, "Faculty So Far Mum on 21-Only," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 26, 2007, p. A3.
I wouldn't even mention that meeting, and Morelli's report of it, but for the revelations toward the end regarding why some faculty members were reluctant to support the measure: "Opposing arguments included that the referendum would . . . lead to reduced enrollment . . .."
And why do we probably have this concern about "reduced enrollment"? Because reduced enrollment means reduced cash flow from tuition payments, and more pressure to find income from elsewhere.
In other words, whatever binge drinking may produce -- dropouts, fights, missed classes, illness and injuries, sexual assaults, and occasional death from strangling on vomit or other causes -- is of little concern to these faculty members.
Why? Well, because "revenue is needed."
And from the "Owners Stealing the Bass Drum from their own Brass Band Department" -- the equivalent of "revenue is needed" in the world of commerce -- comes the report that the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce has been accepting advertising dollars for its newsletter from the Quad Cities Airport! Now you may agree with me that competition between Iowa cities is no way to promote economic growth in this state. But the fact remains that's the environment in which chambers of commerce exist these days. George C. Ford, "Ad draws ire of C.R. airport; Quad City airport’s 1-month sponsorship of C.R. Chamber newsletter questioned," The Gazette, September 26, 2007, p. A1.
Now there's a new twist for the UI "revenue is needed" folks. The UI Alumni Association could run ads for the Mayo Clinic, or the advantages of sending your kids to Madison rather than Iowa City. Think of the ad revenue it could raise that way. The marching band could solicit funds from fans of the opposing team to play their songs rather than the Iowa Fight song. Want to run the university more like a business? Take a page from the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce newsletter.
Finally, to bring all of this full circle, the Press-Citizen arrived this morning with one of those irritating stickers on page one covering up some of the news. It's message? The Riverside gambling casino is continuing to advertise the numerous advantages of its partnership arrangements with the UI athletic program -- with advertising on the scoreboard, sky box seats for high rollers, and transportation to and from the stadium from the gambling casino.
It was that partnership that got me thinking about the "revenue is needed" rationale in the first place.
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September 25, 2007, 3:15 p.m.
The Good News and the Bad News
Last Sunday, September 23, brought both good news and bad news.
Oh, you want the bad news first? OK.
"Revenue is needed" has reared its ugly head again in academia. It's the basis for one of the best investigative stories in any of the Iowa papers since this blog began 16 months ago. More -- actually much more -- on this story further down in this blog entry.
The Good News
. . . Shaner Magalhaes: MBAs, They're Not Just in For-Profits Anymore. The first good news story is selected because it illustrates (a) the application of MBA skills to non-profits, and (b) the selection of employment on the basis of doing what you love rather than what will pay the maximum income.
The Johnson County Historical Society has a new Executive Director. His name is Shaner Magalhaes. That's a story for the reasons it's important to him and his family, and those who support or otherwise care about the Historical Society -- and that the local papers found worth prominent mention. Rachel Gallegos, "Mixing Business with History," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 23, 2007, p. A1; Emily Heiden, "All Work and All Play; New Historical Society Director Brings Wealth of Experience to the Job," the Gazette, September 23, 2007, p. J3.
I'm not disinterested in such factors. But it's not why I select this story as an example of "Good News."
It's because I've long advocated to public interest organizations and other non-profits on the one hand, and business students and business colleges on the other, that they get to know each other better. Non-profits need what MBAs have to offer. They're different from for-profits, of course, but both have far more in common than what differentiates them. Both need business plans, human resources, governance models, budgets and accounting, management information reporting systems, insurance, and so forth.
The late Molly Ivins once wrote about Texans for whom "too much is not enough." How many college graduates -- and not just MBAs -- select jobs on the basis of pay alone, or what they will "be" rather than what they will "do," without regard to what they're best at, most enjoy doing and gives them the most satisfaction?
Like the medical student who decides to specialize in "diseases of the rich," it's not uncommon for individuals to choose professional specializations that will permit them to bill the wealthiest Americans at the highest rates. This option is particularly difficult to resist among the MBAs who are offered jobs in the financial community that may ultimately pay millions of dollars a year.
It takes awhile, but many find that the old adage about money not buying happiness is true -- and that it is not necessary to have "too much" in order to have "enough" -- as they try to figure out where life went wrong. And so I've encouraged those with an aptitude for organizing and running institutions to think about the advantages of jobs with non-profits: looking forward to going to work every morning, an ability to sleep soundly at night -- and usually a salary that provides "enough."
As Magalhaes is quoted as saying, "My wife and I love this area. I really love history. I really believe in what the State Historical Society is doing. . . . I thought this would be a great thing to do."
The next Magalhaes story, a year from now, should be: "so what?" What difference did it make for the Johnson County Historical Society? Under the "but for" test, how different did it become from what it would have been without an MBA running it? Did he apply the John Carver -- or other -- approach to the activities of the board, and its relations with the CEO? Was there a better focus to the organization's day-to-day activities as a result of the board's equivalent of Carver's measurable "ends policies"?
Hopefully we'll get the answers to those kinds of questions a year from now if Gallegos and the Press-Citizen will do that interesting follow-up story.
Meanwhile, Sunday's story contains two lessons I consider "good news."
. . . Lonny Pulkrabek: Thinking Outside the Jail Cell. Rachel Gallegos has another story in last Sunday's (September 23) paper that is, by my standards, good news because it illustrates the possibilities when research, analysis and rational thought are brought to bear by public officials in the formulation and execution of public policy.
As with the Shaner Magalhaes story, the Pulkrabek story is also one that is, among other things, important to him and his family, and those who support or otherwise care about the Johnson County Sheriff's office and the current sheriff and his re-election. That's primarily (I'm guessing) why the Press-Citizen assigned a good reporter to write it. Rachel Gallegos, "Pulkrabek announces bid for re-election; Says he has some unfinished business," Iowa City Press-Citizen, September 23, 2007, p. A3.
Those aspects of the story are also of interest to me. But the reason it came to my attention as "good news" is for what it reports of his creative thinking about crime and punishment.
The story reports one supporter as emphasizing "Pulkrabek's role in creating more solutions for working with people with substance abuse problems, rather than just locking them in jail," and continues, "If re-elected, Pulkrabek said he wants to see through the work on a joint dispatch center and continue tracking the jail alternative programs that have been implemented in the past three years, especially the mental health diversion program."
I wrote an op ed in the Press-Citizen a year ago, when he was under attack for such innovative ideas, suggesting that we need to encourage, rather than attack, that kind of thinking by public officials. Nicholas Johnson, "Shooting Our Messengers," Iowa City Press-Citizen, March 3, 2006.
(Not incidentally, this story shares something more with the Magalhaes story than the existence of "good news." Pulkrabek also enjoys what he's doing: "it is a job," Gallegos reports, "that he 'really, truly enjoys. I've just really enjoyed doing it.'")
I'm not writing about the merits -- either of any of Pulkrabek's proposals or, indeed, the whole of his performance in office. That's not the point of this blog entry. Frankly, I don't know the details of Pulkrabek's day-to-day performance in office, and it's not my area of expertise. I see by the story that he's still pushing a "new and larger" jail. Are there more alternatives that could still be pursued, or has he truly exhausted all of them? I don't know.
What I do know is that we have altogether too much "shoot from the lip" in public policy discussions and political decisions. Some officials who are quite willing to invest three days in a conference -- 72 hours away from the office -- are "too busy" to spend 72 minutes researching a local issue on the Internet.
As is often said, "We have more problems than we deserve and more solutions than we have ever tried."
It is highly unlikely that there is any challenge confronting our County, City, University or School Board (among other institutions) that has not existed elsewhere -- existed, been identified, researched, resolved, with the solution implemented, written up, and made available for us to read (at no cost for "consultants") on the Internet.
Whether it's the creation and preservation of Eastern Iowa's green spaces, deciding on the most appropriate number of Iowa City police officers (a "peak-load" analysis, among other things), the arming of campus police, students' binge drinking, the most appropriate way to help those children who have been "left behind" in our School District, for the City of Iowa City to deal with economic development, or alternatives to the ever-escalating building of "newer and larger" prisons as a national response to the "crimes" of mental illness and substance abuse -- there are answers out there.
Lonny Pulkrabek has found a couple of them. And that's why this story was, for me, an example of "good news."
. . . Richard Doak: Almost Always Good News. The Des Moines Register's Richard Doak, former editorial page editor and continuing columnist, sort of combines both of the two prior elements of "good news" -- he clearly loves his work, and he's committed to research and innovative thinking. So I just selected the latest in his life's work of columns: Richard Doak, "Iowa Isn't Enough; Sell the Best Region in the Nation: The Midwest," Des Moines Register, September 23, 2007.
This time, in addition to the suggestion in the title -- that we should emphasize promotion of the "Midwest" rather than going it alone as "Iowa" -- he also reminds us once again of Richard Florida's advice:
Florida recognized the emergence of a new driving force in economic growth, "the creative class."
This new class is made up of people who make their livings by thinking, creating, innovating and independent problem solving - people such as engineers, scientists, designers, architects, educators, artists, musicians, writers and others.
. . .
Florida's great discovery was that economic growth occurs in regions that are most inviting to creative people. That's what revolutionized thinking about economic development.
The old model of development was that you create jobs and the people will follow.
The new model is that you attract creative people and the jobs will follow.
. . .
Iowa has not entirely embraced the new thinking. There's still a strong element of bribe-the-companies-and-they-will-come in the state's development strategies.
Nevertheless, Iowa communities increasingly seem to realize that their best hope for growth is to become the kinds of places that creative-class people would find attractive.
. . .
The smart thing to do would be to take all the money wasted on business incentives and plow it into education and quality-of-life improvements. . . .
Doak is right. "Money can't buy love," and bribing businesses can't buy economic growth. The good news is that Iowa can have both: economic growth and improved quality of life. Indeed, that's the only way we can have either.
The Bad News
I may not have seen it all, but I've seen much of it in my lifetime.
And yet even I was simply not prepared for the page-one story in last Sunday's Des Moines Register. Clark Kauffman, "U of I, Iowa State use student data to sell credit cards," Des Moines Register, September 23, 2007, p. A1. (You might also want to take at look at the 42 comments -- as of the afternoon of September 25 -- entered by readers of the story, most of whom, it turns out, responded as I did.)
(To remind: Last week was also when UI professors were told they could no longer refer to students by name in class out of respect for the students' privacy, and the laws and regulations protecting it. (The suggestion was subsequently rescinded.) Now it appears the UI thinks it's perfectly appropriate to sell students' personal information -- and that of their parents -- to banks for the purpose of marketing credit cards!)
As I have written before, "Once 'revenue is needed' is the Polestar for a university's financial decisions its moral compass begins to spin as if it was located on the North Pole." Nicholas Johnson, "UI Loves Gambling" in "UI Held Hostage Day 410 - March 7," March 7, 2007.
"Revenue is needed" is why politicians accept the bribes called "campaign contributions;" why "non-commercial" educational radio stations run commercials; why K-12 schools subscribed to "Channel One" and continue to sell sugared soft drinks to their students, knowing they will increase obesity, dental caries, and diabetes; why the UI's athletic program becomes a partner with the organized gambling industry's casino in Riverside; and why universities provide advertising on their buildings, and in naming their colleges, that promotes their corporate "donors."
But the Regents' universities have really set their moral compass to spinning with this one.
You have to read the full 2300-word Register-copyrighted story to become totally outraged, but these fair use excerpts will get you started:
Iowa's two largest public universities are aggressively marketing credit cards to their students as part of an arrangement that generates millions of dollars for the schools' privately run alumni organizations.
Publicly, the University of Iowa and Iowa State University have expressed concern over the debt of their students, many of whom graduate with $25,000 to $30,000 in bills to pay. The schools say they are trying to reduce that debt load.
At the same time, however, the two schools have signed deals with their alumni associations in which they have agreed to endorse, promote and profit from Bank of America credit cards marketed directly to students.
Records obtained by The Des Moines Register also show that the U of I has agreed to give the bank access to databases that include the mailing addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of students, parents and people who buy tickets to Hawkeye football and basketball games. The university has also promised to provide its biggest-spending cardholders with exclusive access to university facilities, coaches and even student athletes.
. . .
In Iowa and most other states, the financial details of those partnerships are often shrouded in secrecy, despite the involvement of public universities that rely on taxpayers to provide a substantial portion of their operating revenues.
. . .
Consumer advocates . . . contend the schools are also facilitating on-campus marketing aimed directly at students who have limited income and are struggling with debt from student loans. They say public assets are being used to enrich corporate lenders . . ..
. . .
U of I alumni officials declined to say how much they are paid through their arrangement with Bank of America. Also, the bank declined to comment on its partnerships with Iowa schools.
But federal records show the University of Iowa Alumni Association was collecting $550,000 per year from MBNA, now Bank of America, through 2005.
Under the terms of the association's newest contract with the bank, the school is guaranteed at least $200,000 per year - all of which is to go to the athletics department.
. . .
Chris Bavolack, vice president of the U of I alumni association, declined to comment on the revenue-sharing deal that results in the association collecting additional money as cardholders' debt loads increase. . . .
The sales pitch that arrives in students' mailboxes in Iowa City is written on alumni association letterhead that includes the trademarked logo of the U of I.
The letter is signed by Vince Nelson, president of the U of I Alumni Association.
It begins: "Imagine the convenience of being able to purchase supplies for your classes without worrying about carrying a lot of cash. You could pay for your books - or get quick cash in an emergency - and put it on one easy-to-use account. That's the kind of flexibility every student can appreciate and it can be yours with the University of Iowa credit card."
Nelson's pitch also includes this postscript: "Bank of America helps support the University of Iowa with every account opened, and for every purchase made with the card. All at no additional cost to you."
[T]he alumni association . . . has signed a contract with the school committing the university to "creatively and aggressively" marketing the Bank of America card.
As part of that agreement with the association, the university has promised to provide Bank of America with lists of all people who purchase season or single tickets to athletic events - a list that would include students, parents and other supporters [as well as] for Bank of America's use, electronic lists containing the phone numbers, e-mail addresses and mailing addresses of students and their parents . . ..
In return for every new account opened as a result of the university's sales pitches, the school collects $50.
The agreement obligates the university to help sell the credit cards through public-address announcements during games at Kinnick Stadium and Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Card applications are mailed to buyers of sporting-event tickets, and the cards are promoted in advertisements during the coaches' weekly TV shows.
. . .
The [Iowa State] athletics department agreed to exclusively endorse the credit card program at athletic events and agreed to give the bank, free of charge, the names and contact information of season- and single-game-ticket holders.
. . . The company could set up booths and tables [at athletic events] to sign up cardholders at football and basketball games. To help with the "Charge it to Cy" campaign, the school authorized the bank to give T-shirts, hats and bobbleheads as gifts to new card applicants.
. . .
Robert Manning, a professor of consumer finance at the Rochester Institute of Technology, has testified before Congress [that] such programs increase the likelihood of students failing to complete school. He faults school administrators for having a "greater interest in increasing credit card royalties than in fulfilling their responsibility to ensure the graduation of their students with the lowest possible level of financial debt."
Using a credit card to pay for textbooks and class supplies can be risky, too. The U of I card offered to students has an interest rate that can balloon to 29.99 percent in the event of a single late payment. . . .
Governor Bill Richardson says he has been nominated four times for the Nobel Peace Prize. Well, I think this story of Clark Kauffman's should be nominated at least four times for a Pulitzer Prize.
It's eligible for any one of the first five (of fourteen) categories "for excellence in journalism work."
This is the kind of "investigative reporting" that serves to remind us of what newspapers used to be and should continue to be today.
That's the "good news."
The bad news is what he found, and needed to report.
What a sad commentary on what happens "Once 'revenue is needed' is the Polestar for a university's financial decisions."
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