Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Donations to the University

After reading an article in the Financial Times, about the £1.5 million donation from Gaddafi's foundation to the prestigious London School of Economics -LSE-, six weeks after Seif al-Islam Gaddafi (son of  former Libya president) had been awarded his doctorate, several thoughts came to my mind.

The first one, is a popular saying in Colombia: "Even in the best families happens...". Probably it was the first one given an evil tendency to look for the malicious side of this type of news, in which the speaker might insinuate something, but saying nothing that could compromise him/her. Some people call it prudence, others diplomacy and others "throw the stone and hide the hand", but lets call it diplomacy for the newspaper case. Although this kinds of news are in a blurry line with gossips, but no those cheap jet set gossips, these ones are the special ones that you can only hear in coffee breaks and cocktails, in which everybody talk about everything but after nobody can remember who says what or where they heard about the story. Anyway  my intention is not to talk about gossips ( but you can meet me for a coffee break!). I will close this part citing the BBC web site article about this issue "He [Lord Woolf, who investigate the case] also concludes that the timing of the donation, six weeks after Saif Gaddafi was awarded a PhD, was "unfortunate", "risky", "indicative of naivety at the LSE" and gave the impression that Saif had "purchased his degree", so I'm not the only one who tends to read between lines, but I love the diplomacy and the use of the adjectives.

The second thought is about the universities funding needs, and the origins of the money. Nowadays the cases of students demonstrations in Chile, Colombia and UK because of the cut to education funds has shown the effects of funds cutting policies could have in the education system, which in the long run will affect the future and competitiveness of the people and therefore of the country.  At least since the last decade I've been hearing the speech of how universities have to be sustainable from external funds and consultancy services, which in the paper sounds good, but in the practice the model is still weak and misinterpreted .

I know that a university beyond the social role is a business as well, and in order to continue offering the educational services, the institution  have to sustainable, and why not profitable -even though we all know how profitable can be a private university-. Thus, the incomes of the university can come from the following sources: public budget, registration fees, external funding, donations. in a future post I will talk about the first three to keep the post short.

Donations, is like a holy grail for universities, alumni and PR offices make all sort of events and possible efforts to convince potential charitable souls to donate generous amounts of money to their institutions, you know that apart from the taxes deduction and other benefits you will fell really good with yourself knowing that you are helping not only the university, but also the society (insert picture of students saying thanks).

But as Rudyard Kipling said "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch", hence, you are not going to gift/donate £1.5 millions , just because you have a big hearth as Gaddafi's Family. You know that your generosity will be rewarded in this life; give me the money to make a new building or to research the cosmos and the new building or the star discovered will have your name, just as humble way to say thanks (insert picture with researchers smiling and thumbs up). And I will confess that I had dreamed with at least an auditorium with my name. Imagine an invitation to an event to be held in the "Osorio" building; although, probably I am  not only one who had dreamed with a building named in my honour.

However, the issue with donations is that money can come from diverse sources or intentions, as the case of the LSE, in which the news insinuate that this donation was a cover for some contracts in Libya, or the case of other donations that comes from non-sanctus origins, like drug/criminal cartels in countries who have this horrendous problem. Thus, an ethical dilemma arise in the charity panorama: Is not only to find the money but also where and when it comes and their impact in the image of the university, which create the need for a practice code or a regulation document, which is good to protect the institution from scandals, but also narrows the list of candidates to benefactors, because maybe is not well seen that some people/companies from certain company or affiliation contributes with the university, which leads towards segregation in some cases, like some controversial companies, which are completely legal but with polemic practices in some parts of the planet, which makes me think in creating a certification norm to be considered as potential donor, now that are creating standard certifications for everything, moreover who will integrate the board who gives the certification?.

If this topic is not managed carefully, it will lead to a regression to the old times in which your family name was your presentation card, denying the opportunity to valuable efforts to people that don't belong to the aristocracy, or to those who make a mistake in the past and want to start again. So, the challenge is to find the balance between finding the sources of donations, ethical code and the impact in the university image.


As a conclusion incomes and profits are outcomes of a process in which the process is as important as the result, showing how important are the ethical issues in any business decision, and how the good will of a company can be affected by a good - and "naive"- intention of a  member, due to a good deed of get a generous donation and the pressure to get external funding.