UNH facing criticism after $1 million of late librarian’s gift goes to football scoreboard
University of New Hampshire is facing criticism from students and graduates weeks after it announced that one of the college’s librarians left the school his entire estate of $4 million after his death last year.
The late librarian and alumnus Robert Morin spent almost 50 years of his life quietly cataloging books, writing short descriptions of DVDs, and entering ISBN numbers of CDs at the Durham campus’s Dimond Library. He had a love of all movies and books, so it made sense that $100,000 of his unexpected gift was specifically dedicated to the area of the school where he spent the majority of his time.
But a much larger chunk of the money – $1 million – will be spent on a video scoreboard at the school’s new football stadium. And some alumni feel that doesn’t honor Morin’s lifelong love for books.
In response to that allocation, one graduate, Claire Cortese, wrote a critical blog post for the Odyssey website that is now gaining national attention. In the post, Cortese writes that she doubts a scoreboard will affect students in the same meaningful way as other uses for the funds including research grants, scholarships, student publications, or the arts department.
“The money could be spent on a cause that would truly, positively impact the lives of the university’s students,” Cortese wrote. “It could have changed lives. I doubt any student will look back in ten years and say ‘man, that video scoreboard – that really impacted my experience at UNH in a meaningful and beneficial way.'”
Cortese also notes the school’s athletics history of being highly funded, including the UNH football stadium’s recent $25 million renovation.
“Apparently, $25 million just wasn’t enough,” she wrote. “The university tried to justify the purchase of the new scoreboard by claiming that Morin became a football fanatic while he was in an assisted living home during the last year and a half of his life. So clearly, that’s much more important than his life long passion of reading and literature, right?”
Cortese said that she’s received mixed feedback on the article.
Robert Morin’s decision to leave his entire estate, $4 million, to the university was incredibly generous. Despite being asked many times over many years by his financial advisor it was Mr. Morin’s firm decision to designate only a small portion of his estate to the library and to leave the rest unrestricted for the university to use as it saw fit. It is also important to note that the majority of the gift, $2.5 million, will be used to directly support students with the launch of an expanded and centrally-located student career and professional success center.
Yes, we have heard from people who disagree with how the gift was used. We respect and acknowledge that feedback but it does not change our decision. Matching infrastructure to UNH’s aspirations and investing in student career success are two of our highest strategic priorities that we have communicated with our board and our campus community.
Historically UNH has invested very little in athletics facilities, and it showed. It took 80 years to expand and renovate our 1936 facility into Wildcat Stadium – a superb, immersive experience for students and others. UNH now has a stadium that, while very modest compared to others in the country, is one every New Hampshire resident can be proud of. A facility like Wildcat Stadium is transformative to our campus experience in helping UNH to recruit the best and brightest students, build our campus and alumni community pride, and host events like Special Olympics and state high school championships that are as excellent as one would expect from a flagship state university.
Cortese said she loves UNH and cares about the school deeply, but is disappointed in the university’s decision to move forward with the funds allocation.
The statement released by UNH really just rubs dirt in the wound. The fact that they are moving forward with their initial decision, despite the outcry and protest from so many within the UNH community, shows that they clearly don’t respect the voices and opinions of their own people. And worse than that, it further soils the memory and legacy of Morin. He was clearly a man that loved the UNH community. And I think it has been made pretty clear that the majority of the community does not want his money to be spent on a scoreboard. But it has been made clear that the administration doesn’t care what the community wants. I’m truly shocked that they have chosen to move forward with this.
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