As students and faculty alike guess about the mystery amount Condoleezza Rice is being paid for her speech Thursday, a passerby may think Miami University is preparing for a visit from Drew Carey of The Price Is Right rather than the former secretary of state.
Senior Anna Beljin threw her guess into the fray.
"I think that she would likely be getting paid around $10,000," Beljin said. "Anything more than that would be a little much."
John Krafft, a Miami University Dolibois European Campus (MUDEC) professor, has attempted to find out the figure from the university. As of now, Krafft is left only with the educated guesses he has made with the help of several other faculty members.
"I've heard estimates ranging from $75,000 to $300,000," Krafft said.
Discussions about the fee of Rice's visit have been present since the event was announced Jan. 20. Among these discussions were a spirited dialogue at the Monday, Feb. 7 University Senate hearing. According to Krafft, a senator, the body was not able to attain an answer to the query.
"My sense is that nobody has talked because somebody has at least enough decency to be embarrassed by an outrageous speaker's fee," Krafft said.
Rice's talk is being presented by the Farmer School of Business (FSB). Alan Oak, associate dean for external relations of the FSB, stated the figure cannot be revealed.
"The contract provides for non-disclosure of the financial arrangements of the contract," Oak said. "The terms of the contract do not provide for us to offer that information."
Despite this, Krafft said there is still a case to be made for the release of the information.
"At a public university there aren't supposed to be secrets about things like that," Krafft said. "I think there are some matters of student records and personal information that are, and should be, protected. But I don't think that these matters should be protected."
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Oak reiterated that the figure is not public knowledge.
"It was a donor preference," Oak said. "Some donors like to support athletics, some donors like to support the Armstrong Student Center, others support speakers."
Oak explained the deal was negotiated between Miami and the Washington Speakers Bureau using funds from the contributions of Jack and Rose Marie Anderson.
"The context that we are dealing with here is that the Anderson family, starting about 10 years ago and several times since then, have made important contributions into an endowment to enable Miami to bring world leaders to Campus," Oak said. "Miami is not spending student fees for this event, or general revenues, it's spending dollars that were contributed specifically for this purpose."
Regardless, Krafft feels the issue stands as a point of interest and concern.
"I've heard events like this defended as being paid for by alumni and other supporters of the university, so in effect they're gifts," Krafft said. "But, depending on how much it is, I have three issues about this on principle; the secrecy, the value, because sometimes I feel that the quality of the lecture is in direct opposition to the price, and the judgment we show by spending large amounts of money in times of economic crisis."
Krafft also said the assumed high fee for Rice's services sends an overall wrong message to faculty and students.
"There are lecturers at Miami University who are paid $40,000 to teach six or eight courses in a year," Krafft said. "So for a one hour celebrity speech, what should she be paid by a university entity? $500?"
Oak, in response to this viewpoint, said a different interpretation of the issue needs to be considered.
"I respect their right to have that perspective," Oak said. "I think a broad perspective is that it's part of the unique education Miami is fortunate enough to provide."
While he did not disclose the price, Oak did reveal that questions to Rice will be screened. Oak said that this decision is not based on concerns about the appropriateness of potential questions nor was it done for any particular reason related directly to Rice.
"We decided that this was an appropriate thing to do," Oak said. "We'll provide the opportunity for people at Millet to write a question on an index card and put it in a box and then I'll look at the questions that are submitted. Questions from this box will be selected and asked during the question and answer segment."
Ultimately, Krafft hopes a promise given to the university senate will be adhered to.
"The provost promised to have an answer for us and I assume that we will get this answer eventually," Krafft said.
At this time, both John Skillings, Interim Provost, and President David Hodge have deferred to FSB as the final word on the issue.
UPDATED (3/29/11) - This story corrects a previously posted version in which John Krafft was incorrectly quoted. The previously printed value of 7,500 has been updated to the correct value of 75,000.
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