Professor proposes selling naming rights for Penn State - How About "Range Resources University"?

[JPZenger]

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20120213_HEY__DEEP-POCKETS__YOUR_NAME_JUST_COULD_SAVE_HIGHER_ED.html

"In 1985, the state provided 45 percent of Penn State's budget; in 2011 it provided 6 percent. In 1985, in-state tuition was just over $2,500; today it is over $16,000. Over the past twenty-five years, the cost of a public college education has increasingly been offloaded onto individual students and their families, as education has been redefined from a public good to a private investment.

It is becoming increasingly clear that public support for higher education in Pennsylvania is a thing of the past. Last year, in response to Corbett's proposed cuts, some commentators wondered whether Pennsylvania's public universities should turn down all money from Harrisburg. That was a forward-looking proposal, but it did not go far enough.

I don't see the point of haggling over Corbett's budgets for the next six years, doing the kabuki dance year after year until 2018, when Penn State, Temple, and Pitt will be reduced to begging for Harrisburg to maintain the state's 0.5 percent slice of the university budget...
A fully privatized Penn State no longer has any reason to call itself "Penn State." Indeed, the name would amount almost to false advertising, since there would be nothing "State" about us. And that means a whole new vista would be open to us - and in different ways, to Temple and to Pitt. In two words: naming rights.

...There are dozens of large, wealthy corporations whose profiles could use precisely the kind of boost that they would enjoy from leasing the naming rights to a university. Goldman Sachs and British Petroleum come immediately to mind, but doubtless there will be others, perhaps even among our new neighbors in the natural-gas industry, who will surely have plenty of untaxed income at their disposal."


"We are... Range Resources!"
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Slippery Rock could become Rolling Rock Beer University.
West Chester could become QVC University.
University of Pittsburgh could become Highmark Health Insurance University.
Temple could become Comcast Xfinity University.
Lincoln University could become BET Network University.
Mansfield University could become Joe's Fill Dirt and Croissants University
Edinboro could become Pennzoil New and Improved Synthetic Motor Oil University

[MADem]

1. "National Center For Missing And Exploited Children" University, perhaps? nt

[PADemD]

2. I vote NO!

[kysrsoze]

3. I'm sure NAMBLA would be interested.