Big Amy doin' big thangs

I’ve got some bad news.

Despite what was probably the advice of her advisors in College Hall, President Gutmann has hit one out of the ballpark.

This is bad news because, well, we all enjoy giving Big Amy a hard time. (Though is it really called a “hard time” when it’s deserved?) You see, I’d love to take this moment to criticize, demean, mock, etc. But I can’t. Not this time.

Why, you ask?

Because Big Amy did it! She stopped the world economic crisis!

Okay, so she hasn’t stopped the crisis, per se. But between jet-setting to Dubai and writing letters to crazies, she has done something really great for Penn. Last week, President Gutmann and her husband Michael Doyle made a $100,000 gift to undergraduate education at Penn. Most of the gift will be directed to the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. The remainder of the gift will support the Seniors for The Penn Fund program. (More on the gift is here and here.)

And in addition to a monetary donation, we are also the beneficiaries of another kind of donation: a donation to the mind. The press release writer attributed this advice to President Gutmann: “Participating in the discovery of new knowledge is always rewarding and often life-transforming. I want more Penn students, regardless of their future career plans, to experience the thrill that Michael and I have had in our academic research.”

This donation is important because it shows her confidence in the University during such a tumultuous time. Symbolism matters. I’m especially glad that her donation was to undergraduates because we can sometimes get forgotten for fancy machines and vaccines. But most importantly, the donation will help encourage other donors, large and small, to keep Penn in their hearts and wallets despite the economy. Our capital campaign could really benefit from this.

I’m fully aware that it’s common for university presidents to donate to their schools. And I’m also aware that President Gutmann is one of only eight private university presidents earning over $1 million annually. Still, this donation is a nice little Thanksgiving/The-World-Is-Falling-Apart-O-M-G present to us all.

So thank you, President Gutmann. I look forward to your next executive decision, the cancelling of classes the day before Thanksgiving.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 11:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.