Less than a year after Chelsea Clinton charged the University of Missouri-Kansas City $65,000 for a 10-minute speech, University of Missouri curators raised tuition at all four campuses in the UM system.
The Washington Post reported this morning that university administrators originally approached Hillary Clinton about speaking at the February 2014 event but balked at her $275,000 fee—with one university official exclaiming ‘Yikes!' Instead, they agreed to pay Chelsea $65,000.
The speech came amid rising tuition rates, with increases approved in 2012 and 2013. A year after the speech, the Board of Curators voted again to increase tuition across the University of Missouri system. From the Columbia Daily Tribune, 2/6/15: "Under the approved hike, undergraduate resident tuition at all four campuses except the University of Missouri-St. Louis will increase by 0.8 percent. In St. Louis, it will increase by 6.2 percent. Nonresident undergrads will pay 3 percent more in Columbia and at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, 0.8 percent more in Kansas City and 2.9 percent more in St. Louis."
This is not the first time the Clintons have come under fire for charging excessive speaking fees at a time of rising tuition. Last year, the Washington Post reported that students and teachers at universities across the nation had criticized and threatened to protest Hillary Clinton's on-campus speeches, for which she was charging as much as $300,000.
“It's hard to take Hillary Clinton seriously when she claims to be committed to reducing student debt while simultaneously charging six-figure fees to cash-strapped universities. The truth is, the Clintons profit while students go deeper in debt," said John Hancock, Chairman of the Missouri Republican Party. "To their credit, university officials balked at the excessive speaking fee, but this illustrates once again just how disconnected Hillary Clinton is from ordinary Missourians."
6 comments:
$65,000 is cheap for a hedge fund honey.
I hope the general public knows that these type of speakers are actually fundraisers. Alumni and VIP college donors get to meet and greet with the "guest" etc. I am sure the donations could be 10x the speaker amount. Keep it in perspective... I think it's kind of silly investigative reporting and ridiculous timing. This happened last year. BTW I wouldn't walk across the street to hear a Clinton speech.
A boy was standing on the corner with a puppy in a box. The sign he printed said,"Puppy For Sale- $100,000!" The boy's father chuckled and went on to work. When he returned home, the boy was there, but no puppy. The father asked the son where the puppy was. The boy replied, " I sold him and got the full price!" The shocked father said, "You got $100,000 for the puppy?"
The boy replied, "Well, not in cash, I traded the puppy for two $50,000 kittens!"
Workers, be it an actor, a sports star or a politicians are only worth what someone else will pay for them. Don't blame the speaker in this case, blame the idiots that paid the price.
I'm disgusted!
The price paid by the idiots is not a market-generated price, 2:31. The university isn't bidding for her speaking services with other universities. They have an arbitrarily chosen amount of money to spend on such things (care to guess where that money comes from?), and a small group of "administrators" makes the choice to spend that money--not market forces.
If Joplin R-8 spent $6500 on a speech by a talent-less, jobless thirty-something whose yet to do a single meaningful thing in her life except be born to someone who did (and did it poorly), you'd be apoplectic.
$65,000 seems like a deal compared to $10,000 for "the huff", neither have accomplished anything but at least people outside of joplin have heard of Clinton.
Post a Comment