The Bobcat Nation

If you hadn't heard, Norm Asbjornson donated $50 million to Montana State's engineering program today
http://www.montana.edu/news/12467/msu-a ... ngineering" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I can't help but wonder what that will do for recruiting, particularly in all the sports not called basketball. For whatever reason, basketball doesn't have a ton of future engineers despite Brad Huse being a former engineer. But the football and track teams have a whole slew of engineering majors. It's a big time selling point for the coaches, particularly the football coaches when recruiting prospective athletes. The program is already one of MSU's strongest. It will be interesting to see how this affects recruiting.

holy crap!

What an amazing gift. Between his donation to Engineering and Jabs' donation to Business, MSU Alums are really stepping up!

The donation is intended to have a positive effect in all departments. The article said its supposed to "bridge" things together around campus. Things like this probably have far reaching positives attributes. I can't even come close to wrapping my head around $50 million.

Anyone know where the construction will take place? Seems like there are residences to the east and school facilities to the north and west. Kitty corner is the parking lot and across the street is the physical plant, if I'm not mistaken.

Wowzers. This is really amazing. I can't help but to think about what Cruzado has accomplished in a few short years...nothing short of legendary. Just like in football and other college sports when kids tend to get too much credit when things go well and too much fault when things go bad, Cruzado will likely go down in history as the greatest President ever. Just wow.

Darth Yoda wrote:Wowzers. This is really amazing. I can't help but to think about what Cruzado has accomplished in a few short years...nothing short of legendary. Just like in football and other college sports when kids tend to get too much credit when things go well and too much fault when things go bad, Cruzado will likely go down in history as the greatest President ever. Just wow.

Not nay-saying President Cruzado but remember this guy has given liberally for many years and these types of donations are years in the works.

Huge get for MSU. These types of gifts are amazing and are so beneficial to the University. I'm really interested to see where this place is built however. Would they potentially take away part of the practice fields?

BigBruceBaker wrote:

Darth Yoda wrote:Wowzers. This is really amazing. I can't help but to think about what Cruzado has accomplished in a few short years...nothing short of legendary. Just like in football and other college sports when kids tend to get too much credit when things go well and too much fault when things go bad, Cruzado will likely go down in history as the greatest President ever. Just wow.

Not nay-saying President Cruzado but remember this guy has given liberally for many years and these types of donations are years in the works.

Huge get for MSU. These types of gifts are amazing and are so beneficial to the University. I'm really interested to see where this place is built however. Would they potentially take away part of the practice fields?

I credit the football team with all of these big donations. The recent success keeps the school in the news, which is obviously what makes them decide to give to the academics.

Awesome for Montana State! Not many smaller schools get the kind of research funding, and donations we do for academics.


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Holy crap! Time for BAC to step up and compete in the Winifred native donation contest.

MSU01 wrote:Holy crap! Time for BAC to step up and compete in the Winifred native donation contest.

I tapped out on that one a LONG time ago.

allcat wrote:

BigBruceBaker wrote:

Darth Yoda wrote:Wowzers. This is really amazing. I can't help but to think about what Cruzado has accomplished in a few short years...nothing short of legendary. Just like in football and other college sports when kids tend to get too much credit when things go well and too much fault when things go bad, Cruzado will likely go down in history as the greatest President ever. Just wow.

Not nay-saying President Cruzado but remember this guy has given liberally for many years and these types of donations are years in the works.

Huge get for MSU. These types of gifts are amazing and are so beneficial to the University. I'm really interested to see where this place is built however. Would they potentially take away part of the practice fields?

I credit the football team with all of these big donations. The recent success keeps the school in the news, which is obviously what makes them decide to give to the academics.

If you are being serious with this comment, I'll just let you know that Norm isn't much of a football guy -- he's very passionate about academics and their positive impact on business (which is his passion).

Amazing donation, maybe the engineering department can use 10 million of that to rebuild the East side bleachers. I am sure they would do an amazing job.

GoCats18 wrote:Amazing donation, maybe the engineering department can use 10 million of that to rebuild the East side bleachers. I am sure they would do an amazing job.

I knew this post was coming eventually.

I think this donation has a significant effect on the athletic department both coming and going. It makes MSU a more attractive place to go to school, which in turn brings in better athletes. It allows MSU to churn out more and smarter (quantity and quality) graduates, who in turn donate more money to the school, including athletics. The same can be said about the multiple donations that led to the EZ project, which had a significant effect on the academic side by making MSU a more vibrant, and therefore attractive by most accounts*, place.

*Not to the viewshedders.

The media coverage of this isn't good. I thought the Tribune would have this on the front page of its Montana section. Not everyday someone invests $50 million in your state. Chronicle did a nice job with it as did the tv stations.

[cat_bracket] wrote:The media coverage of this isn't good. I thought the Tribune would have this on the front page of its Montana section. Not everyday someone invests $50 million in your state. Chronicle did a nice job with it as did the tv stations.

Billings Gazette's coverage was poor, too. Tiny article stuck in the "Montana Digest" section. Meanwhile um professors being paid over $100,000 gets 10 times the space.

catscat wrote:

[cat_bracket] wrote:The media coverage of this isn't good. I thought the Tribune would have this on the front page of its Montana section. Not everyday someone invests $50 million in your state. Chronicle did a nice job with it as did the tv stations.

Billings Gazette's coverage was poor, too. Tiny article stuck in the "Montana Digest" section. Meanwhile um professors being paid over $100,000 gets 10 times the space.

I found it buried in the Classified section of the Tribune. All the Montana papers, except the BDC, used the same short AP story.

The donation will help recruit more students to MSU. Meanwhile enrollment at UM keeps going down....

WeedKillinCat wrote:The donation will help recruit more students to MSU. Meanwhile enrollment at UM keeps going down....

For some reason that appears to be cyclical. When I went MSU had more students from 55 of the 56 counties than UM.

Instead of dumping large chunks into buildings and stuff, the school would be wise to look into a perpetuity. That would be one hell of an infinite stream of cash flows.

KeepTheChange wrote:Instead of dumping large chunks into buildings and stuff, the school would be wise to look into a perpetuity. That would be one hell of an infinite stream of cash flows.

You are partially right. The foundations that actually pay for schollies do make the education affordable. The but to this is that you need current facilities that can keep up with technologies. It also appears that the school is pursuing a larger enrollment, with new teaching facilities and they are building new dorms.