Friday, December 12, 2008
Education / Kotz Phillip Fulmer Backs Out of Fundraising Job
Posted by Pete Kotz on Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 5:20 PM
It was a PR move worthy of the tin-eared execs on Wall Street. After the University of Tennessee agreed to pay Phillip Fulmer $6 million to not coach football over the next four years, it decided to pay him even more--$12,500 a month--to raise money for the school.
On the paper, the university's move seemed a sound investment. Fulmer would be paid with private money, and administrators seemed quite sure he could raise more than $37,500 over his three-month contract.
But none of this sat well with pretty much everyone else on campus. The university is about to launch a massive cost-cutting regimen, and faculty wondered why their ranks were being cut while Fulmer was once again lapping at the trough. For a wealthy man with no job who so often professes his love for school, wouldn't the gracious thing be to volunteer his services, especially when the university is already throwing him $1.5 million a year to do nothing?
Today, Fulmer belated got the gist of this moral dilemma. He said he was no longer interested in the job, and would now work on a volunteer basis.
On the paper, the university's move seemed a sound investment. Fulmer would be paid with private money, and administrators seemed quite sure he could raise more than $37,500 over his three-month contract.
But none of this sat well with pretty much everyone else on campus. The university is about to launch a massive cost-cutting regimen, and faculty wondered why their ranks were being cut while Fulmer was once again lapping at the trough. For a wealthy man with no job who so often professes his love for school, wouldn't the gracious thing be to volunteer his services, especially when the university is already throwing him $1.5 million a year to do nothing?
Today, Fulmer belated got the gist of this moral dilemma. He said he was no longer interested in the job, and would now work on a volunteer basis.
Comments (0)