By Emerson Drake
3/30/10
here is much justifiable outrage over CSUS’s choice of Sarah Palin as speaker for their 50th anniversary celebration.It is known that Ms. Palin generally receives approximately $100,000 for a speaking engagement.
While CSUS refuses to inform us of her fee (her contract forbids it), it is unseemly to have such a high priced speaker at a state university when the recession and unemployment have hit California harder than most other states. Few, if any, of the students at CSUS will be able to afford the $500 fee to attend her speech.
These same students have also been hit with higher enrollment fees in recent years, making it much more difficult to obtain an education.It is also questionable to have a speaker who doesn’t support higher education.
She refers to people who seek a higher education as “elitist”. She has supported higher education in Alaska by means of “vocational training”, not traditional higher education.
One has to wonder if there might not have been a more suitable speaker than one who left her elected position prior to completing her term in order to make money by giving speeches, and considers higher education elitist.The Voice of Modesto has contacted CSUS and inquired about her fee.
We were told they would not reveal it and we cannot obtain it through the Public Records Act, as the CSUS Foundation is exempt from that act.
We have discovered, however, that when the Foundation (with a 501c3 IRS status) files its tax reports for 2010, they will have to list payments made to individual speakers.
We will be watching for the information when the time comes.In the meantime, it is unfortunate that the CSUS Foundation is withholding the information.
We can think of no reason why the information should not be made public (other than Ms. Palin insisting upon it in her contract.)
Perhaps Ms. Palin would like to “donate” her fee to the university in order to benefit the students who are trying so hard to continue their education….We would encourage transparency in all aspects of public education fund-raising and feel it is unfortunate that the California State University at Stanislaus does not feel the same way.
