THE NAME GAME by Jim Redwine

Gavel Gamut By Jim Redwine

(Week 31 October 2016)

♪ THE NAME GAME ♪

As a lifetime member of the Indiana University Alumni Association I receive regular email postings from IU. Not all of them are requests for more money. Today I received notice my alma mater has renamed the basketball gymnasium “Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall”.

In 2008 I received notice my Indiana University Law School had been renamed the Indiana University Mauer School of Law in honor of Micky Mauer. The Skjodt family gave $40 million dollars. Micky Mauer gave $35 million dollars. Nobody from IU sought input from me on either change. As far as I can tell both changes were made for the best of reasons, i.e., we wanted the money.

When I was on campus (1963 – 1970) we had another arena where we held ballgames, enrolled in classes and ran around a dirt track. At the law school we had a library, classrooms and study areas. My guess is they still do.

I recall as an undergraduate being involved in the pros and cons of building the $28 million dollar Assembly Hall. The pros named it Assembly Hall in an effort to convince the cons it would not be just a gym for basketball but an educational edifice where academic and cultural events would trump mere athletics. I never had an English or psychology or geology or any other class there. Cultural events were then and are now held in the IU Auditorium by Showalter Fountain.

The taxpayers of Indiana established IU in 1820. Indiana University has several campuses with Bloomington being the main one. The total budget for all campuses for 2015 – 2016 is $3.27 billion dollars. The gifts from Mauer and Skjodt are a total of $75 million or about .2% of the total budget.

I appreciate people who contribute money, time, talent and sweat to IU. I think they should be encouraged to do so and be rewarded when they do. That is why we have statues, plaques, paintings and busts of heroes and contributors. Perhaps a room within Assembly Hall and the Indiana University School of Law where contributors are honored might be good. A statue or bust of Mauer and Skjodt, and others, would be fine with me. I assume they are fine people.

However, the naming of an edifice built with money from all Hoosiers and maintained with money from all Hoosiers might best be named for all Hoosiers. What’s to be done when someone wealthier or more narcissistic comes along? Do we rename the entire institution or perhaps tear it down and start anew so we can give it a new name?

I understand and, in fact, agree with honoring those who have performed great service to others by naming things after them. The city of Washington, D.C. comes to mind.

However, the current trend of pay for play in which multibillion dollar institutions sell naming rights for relatively small amounts reminds me of that old joke about quibbling over the price of an evening’s entertainment with someone who will play for a large sum but is offended by a small one.