…or so it seems to this member of the local lumpenproletariat.
I find this quote especially revealing:
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“The records show the foundation routinely pays hundreds of dollars to clean and decorate Bunnell’s home before events and for expensive meals for the chancellor and her guests. Bunnell said the events are necessary to impress donors and partners.
Bradley also pointed out that the foundation signs off on all the expenses, which come from private money, and that if it feels there is a problem, it is the foundation’s responsibility to address them.
For instance, records show the university and foundation spent almost $900 on food and $260 on wine for an event…”
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You know what? If I’m a sustainability-oriented donor and/or “partner” to a “sustainability campus”, I don’t want to be impressed, do I? Or, should I say, I want to be impressed with how frugal or downright stingy the local campus hierarchy is. I want to see inexpensive, local, home-cooked food, laid out in a downright Shaker or Amish-style simplicity.
If I’m this kind of donor, I’d rather see the Foundation paying $500+ dollars for the Chancellor not to belong to the Country Club, where she can hobnob with the local bourgeoisie, but rather, to belong to several hard-working non-profits which have membership dues that support the local working families instead.
If I’m a sustainability-oriented donor, I’d rather see my bucks going to support local campus leadership who graciously offer their own homes furnished out of their own paychecks like every other worker in this town does, for austere, frugal gatherings without expecting to have the place outfitted by the most expensive retailers on the planet, and designed by feng shuit consultants and all that jazz…
We seem to have a bizarre disconnect in this sustainability town, between what the word “sustainability” is supposed to mean, and the political/local power elite cynicism of using “sustainability” as a cutesy buzzword for just more bourgeois business-as-usual back-room bullshit.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking widdit.
Bobby G.