Phi Beta Cons

How To Give Money

Joe: I wrote on the Robertson vs. Princeton case a couple of years ago for NRODT.

I totally agree that Princeton has abused this major donation. One of the main problems, however, is that the Robertsons let Princeton do it when they set up the financing mechanism–i.e., they basically ceded control of the money to Princeton, even as they tried to retain a voice in how it’s spent. Here is an important lesson for conservatives, especially those who are in a position to give large gifts to their alma maters: Your money almost certainly will not be spent in appropriate ways by the people who think it’s okay to hire Marxists in the economics departments and deconstructionists in the English departments. Here’s a key graf from my article:

Too many benefactors write checks to universities and simply assume the recipients will channel the money in wise directions.

John J. Miller, the national correspondent for National Review and host of its Great Books podcast, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.
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