Sarah Palin gave her much discussed speech at the California State University fundraising dinner on Friday night. And, no, we still do not know how much she was paid. However, we do know that the event grossed around $450,000 in cash and in-kind donations. Of that, the net cash total was around $200,000. Not bad for one night.
Palin's appearance garnered media attention after part of a torn-up contract detailing extravagant expenses for the speaker was located in a garbage can. This launched an investigation into her contract specifics and sparked outrage about the overall expense of her engagement. People asked if this was an appropriate way for the university foundation to allocate funds. It would appear that the answer is yes.
The purpose of the university foundation board is to promote the mission and goals of California State University. This mission is to further education in the form of scholarships, qualified professors, and other opportunities for intellectual development. The accomplishment of this mission requires a lot of money.
As much as we like to focus on higher education as a source enrichment of the human mind and development of our civilization, none of this would be possible without funds. This is why each university has fundraising boards whose role in life is to raise money so that schools can provide the kinds of education their students (and the parents of those students) expect.
At the end of the day, we should not be focusing on how much Palin was paid for her appearance. I'm sure it was a staggering amount. What we should focus on is the university foundation who managed to drum up $200,000 in cash to fund university programs. They have said that one-third of that money will go to scholarships. What about the other two-thirds?
After the dust has cleared from Palin's speech, I hope that focus continues to be on the distribution of the funds that her appearance raised. I hope that the groups who dedicated effort into investigating her contract spend an equal amount of effort ensuring that the money raised on Friday night gets distributed throughout the university in a way that will be to the sole benefit of the students who attend classes there.
If the students benefit from Palin's high speaker's fee, then it matters less what she was paid. If the only one who profits is Palin herself, than indeed, she was paid entirely too much.
Photo Credit: Bruce Tuten
