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Read in the ADG this morning that this donation by Aramark is contigent on the basis of them having their contract extended until May 2019. There's a couple of board members that are pissed, and I don't blame them, that they were not informed of this previous to the announcement of the donation at the BoT meeting this past Friday. No doubt that something like this goes on, and legally I'm sure, but in my opinion it is corporate blackmail at its finest. No doubt that Aramark would probably get the extension anyway and I don't blame them for attaching a "but" clause to the contract, but why all the secrecy and/or incompetence of not revealing this to the public?

Miss Shelton reported this developement and kudos to her for investigating the donation. You know what they say about "if it sounds too good to be true". I, and many other people that I know around campus, are having a real hard time in trying to understand why these kinds of "slip ups" keep occuring when it comes to handling the business of UCA. The article this morning implied that Diane Newton received a letter from Aramark about two weeks ago informing her of the "deal". With three lawyers on staff I find it hard to believe that something like this would go unnoticed. I would think anything with legal ramifications of a contract that our lawyers would be the second in line to peruse such an offer and make some kind of decision concerning said contract. Makes me wonder who made the decision not to disclose this information and why???

But I'm just a goat farmer - what do I know?

It's not worth $700K to have to eat their shitty food.

I've spent more than that on antacids and stomach medicine after eating that crap! Is our school that desperate for money?

Whoooie Pride! Howdoya really feel?

You scratch my back... I will scratch yours. You take care of the ones that
take care of you. This kinda stuff happens all the time. If you don't think that
the big time donors to uaf get special treatment then you live in a dream world.
I don't know who is building their new football facility, but I would be willing to
bet that some money will change hands... under the table or behind closed doors
or whatever, but it will happen. And DHS won't write a column about it because
her bosses won't allow any negative press about uaf.

Actually they did cover both of the USC football games.

Not sure linking a contract extension with a donation is so unusal (maybe some state contracting rules come into play) but not being upfront about it is more than a little puzzling.

Just got home. I did not know about the condition until I opened the newspaper this morning. Needless to say, I was not very happy about it. In defense of those making that decision, this is quite common with vendors, it is exactly what we did with Pepsi to build the indoor football facility. The difference is, on the Pepsi deal, everyone knew upfront it was not a charitable gift but a business proposition and everyone deliberated the situation fully aware of the facts. In this instance, six of the seven board members thought it was a charitable donation with no conditions. The sad thing is that if it had been presented as a business proposal, it might have been approved as a business proposal. I can not see how we can accept this proposal now. It will be fixed tomorrow. SORRY AND PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGIES TO THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY, TO PUT IT IN A FOOTBALL CONTEXT, A FUMBLE IN THE REDZONE!

who was responsible for bringing this to the attention of the BOT in the first place?

I'm putting my money on one, some, or all of the following:

Diane Newton - right hand (wo)man of Meadors. Common sense tells me she would have informed Meadors of the "deal".

Meadors - would/should inform UCA law team about proposal to get their legal opinion. No doubt he informed Rousell of proposal for presentation to BoT. Common sense tells me this is where the "keep it under the covers" occurred. Bottom line, this is a case of deception, incompetence, or both.

Whoever the guilty party/parties are, imo they should be terminated for their deliberate misguidings. If their misguidings weren't deliberate then their incompetence is beyond reproach.

How long do we keep on giving out mulligans to the people who are chosen to lead this university? There is no defense or reasonable explanation acceptable for this kind of behavior. We've been there, done that but undoubtably didn't learn our lesson.

If I'm not mistaken the BoT promised the UCA nation, more or less, that this kind of thing would not happen again. It has, so therefore, if no action is taken by the removal of the individual/individuals responsible for this embarrassment then I have lost all confidence in the sincerity of the Board's promise to us. A lot of UCA faithful lost confidence after the Hardin scandal. Now is not the time to add fuel to the fire. It's time to step up or stand down.

And FOOT, Miss Shelton is not the problem here, she is just the messenger. I don't think we need to be concerned with what goes on at UA. We have our own hot pan of which we seem to keep jumping out of into the fire. I'm tired of getting our tails roasted. When does it stop?

I agree HB... I was just venting a little bit. But having said that, have you ever
known DHS to write a column about the good things that go on at UCA? I have
never read one.

That's funny

It does seem that the ADG bends over backward to find something negative about UCA. My theory is that a few years ago,when UCA enrollment was exploding and there appeared to be a real possibility that UCA would become the biggest school in the state, the powers that be got nervous and decided to quash that possibility. Have you ever read anything about the world class undergrad business school at UCA? NO,too much of a threat to The Walton College. Bear in mind that this opinion comes from a UAF grad.

I think she co-wrote an article about Kris Allen but that's about it. Color of concrete, fixing a house that needs upgrades, silverware missing, etc. is being somewhat picky but I guess it's job security for her. In this case, I'm glad she wrote the story. This needed to be revealed.

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Not cool Mr. President...
Goodbye!!