OT: Phil Knight donates $400m to Stanford
This morning Nike co-founder Phil Knight donated $400 million to fund graduate student scholarships at Stanford.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/24/business/philip-knight-of-nike-to-giv…
Highlights if you don't feel like reading:
-Goal is to recruit graduate students from all around the world (2/3rds approximately will come from out of the country) to fix the major global challenges. Poverty and climate change will be the first issues addressed.
-100 students will be admitted each year, and will be given full tuition and room+board for three years.
-$400 mil is the largest donation in Stanford history, and the 2nd largest ever. (Knight donated $500 million to Oregon in 2013)
Just curious what the board thought about this. Seems to be generating both a lot of high praise and a lot of negativity as well.
February 24th, 2016 at 3:35 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 3:14 PM ^
We have this alum named Larry Page who founded an obscure company named Google. Page is believed to be worth about 30 billion. Both his parents are also Michigan alums.
Does anyone know if Larry Page ever made a substantial gift to Michigan?
February 24th, 2016 at 4:27 PM ^
I believe he's made a few donations, although I don't know what the bar on substantial would be - I don't think they've been anywhere near Ross-sized, if you will. One thing that I always found interesting regarding Page is that at TEDx in 2014 he said he would rather give his money - should he pass prematurely - to people like Elon Musk and those he said were making a substantial impact on humanity.
February 24th, 2016 at 5:08 PM ^
Page was the keynote speaker at one of my kid's graduation a few years back. He effusively praised the University of Michigan. It is his money of course, but donating a billion to Michigan would certainly be appreciated.
February 24th, 2016 at 3:18 PM ^
Good work, I don't think that the effects of large corporations outsourcing jobs to low wage countries has been studied enough yet. It's good he's donating $400 million for Stanford to do it.
February 24th, 2016 at 3:44 PM ^
This is what is getting a lot of people up in arms. With Nike's long tradition of sweatshop labor, Knight's plan to combat global poverty is a tad comical.
February 24th, 2016 at 5:31 PM ^
Probably the best way to combat global poverty is to employ people in third world countries, wouldn't you say?
Working conditions aside (Nike's record is up and down here, but that's irrelevant to the point) it's really counterproductive to apply American wage standards to factories in Indonesia. The point isn't whether Nike pays overseas workers American wages - if they did, they might as well just hire Americans and then the "sweatshop" workers, instead of being paid low wages, are paid zero wages. Which is preferable?
February 24th, 2016 at 3:16 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 3:23 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 3:53 PM ^
They are free to post it to whoever they wish or on whatever subject they want. Some people agree with them, other think they are idiots. That's the way life goes.
February 24th, 2016 at 4:17 PM ^
Sometimes when you feel like you have to take a poop, it comes out. Sometimes it doesn't. That's the way life goes.
Phil Knight should fund the publishing of my book Wisecrack Wisdom.
February 24th, 2016 at 6:24 PM ^
he wouldn't take this type of criticism...it would be switched to the greedy lane.
It's his money, good for him and Stanford.
February 24th, 2016 at 3:22 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 3:54 PM ^
that so much of it already is funded, so why is 1 more person at 1 more university gonna matter?
February 24th, 2016 at 3:50 PM ^
Phil could do a lot to fight poverty by paying his sweat shop workers a descent wage. Funny how you make 25 billion on slave labor (pretty much) and donate 400 million and come out looking like a good guy.
February 24th, 2016 at 5:17 PM ^
You want their wages to go down even more? The word you are looking for is, "decent."
A friend of mine used to think the way you do. He then spent a year in a Bolivian slum - the actual place, not our MGoHell - doing missionary work for his Church. He came to the realization that a crappy job with low pay is better than no job with no pay. First world societies aren't created overnight. The history of civilization has proven that capitalism buttressed by a social welfare system is the best method we've had so far for improving living conditions.
February 24th, 2016 at 5:18 PM ^
yea my fault I misspelled a word, I figured you'd be smart enough to read it even with that small mistake... guess I was wrong. I'll try harder next time
February 24th, 2016 at 5:24 PM ^
He was smart enough to read it even with that mistake. Hence the reply about Bolivia and crappy jobs vs. no jobs. If you hadn't ignored it, you might have learned something. Instead, you ironically decided to focus completely on the typo while accusing him of focusing completely on the typo.
February 25th, 2016 at 12:05 AM ^
he edited the reply in after the initial post
February 25th, 2016 at 12:32 PM ^
I try really hard not to point out spelling mistakes, but when a spelling mistake causes a post to say the opposite of what is meant, I find that funny and worth pointing out.
February 25th, 2016 at 4:37 PM ^
not really a problem. I understand why you did what you did, was just giving you a hard time.
February 24th, 2016 at 6:10 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 3:51 PM ^
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February 24th, 2016 at 3:58 PM ^
The money might as well been flushed down a toilet, because that is about the only difference it will truly make when it comes to being Charitable. Don't get me wrong, if one wants to flush their own money down a toilet, that is their right.
Now when it comes to marketing and goodwill, now it's paying for a benefit. One wonders though if Nike even owns the plants in which its shoes are made, and also what the pollution laws are in those countries.
February 24th, 2016 at 4:15 PM ^
sorry posted in wrong thread
February 24th, 2016 at 4:56 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 5:09 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 7:21 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 8:28 PM ^
The former Enron Adviser?
February 24th, 2016 at 8:54 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 5:25 PM ^
The guy did a good thing...he shelled out $400M!!!
You can give a man a fish and feed him for the day, or you can teach him to fish and feed him for life. Seems to me like Phil Knight is investing in the long term of some very serious issues.
...just saying
February 24th, 2016 at 6:02 PM ^
Better to give than not give, yet if he's truly after impact, that's not the way to do it (in my humble, far less wealthy, anonymous web message board poster opinion)
February 24th, 2016 at 6:48 PM ^
Mark Zuckerberg thought the same as you, and donated $100 million to the Newark public school system. Five and a half years later the effect on the graduation rate from Newark high schools is literally zero, despite that being the exact metric the donation was intended to improve.
Here's a key point that people are forgetting: What Knight is doing is not "here you go, Stanford, take my money and have fun with it." He has a very specific idea he wants implemented. Stanford is getting the money because, by virtue of being Stanford, they can execute that idea better than just about anyone else. Who is anyone to say that Phil Knight's idea is not worthwhile enough to invest Phil Knight's money in and someone else should get Phil Knight's money instead because their idea is better than Phil Knight's idea?
February 24th, 2016 at 8:25 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 5:50 PM ^
Cool. Good for him and Standford.
February 24th, 2016 at 6:03 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 6:47 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 7:27 PM ^
Unless you are a dumb honky, I don't know how this could be negative... oh wait people don't like minorities in this country
February 24th, 2016 at 7:35 PM ^
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February 24th, 2016 at 7:33 PM ^
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February 24th, 2016 at 8:22 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 8:30 PM ^
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February 24th, 2016 at 8:47 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 9:41 PM ^
Fact of the matter is that Phil Knight can do whatever the hell he wants with his money. When it becomes national news it's subject to ridicule. My opinion is that he's flat wasting his time and money.
Want to know a secret that no humanitarian in Palo Alto is willing to admit? Drop $266 million dollars in U.S. Currency printed with Abraham Lincoln's face on it over all the countries that are worthy of aid. Literally drop that money from the sky out of a plane.
You would literally be putting the most stable currency in the world into the hands of the people that truly need it, albeit the ones outside or own borders who could use it just as bad..
Problem Solved. U.S. Currency begins to circulate even more rapidly across the globe which is great for us. Aid is not in the form of consumable goods that are often commandeered and sold on the black market by the worst type of people. It's that simple. But doesn't give you that warm fuzzy feeling, so....
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February 24th, 2016 at 9:59 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 11:08 PM ^
February 24th, 2016 at 10:09 PM ^
his money are as interesting to him as his would be to you. The man is doing something that is helping people and whether or not it meets with your standards is moot. When is the last time you picked up the tabe for the person behind you just because to do so would bring a smile to their face? Charity, no matter in what form, > than those setting around giving their opinions on how it could have done to realize the greatest possible benefit for what we feel is of more importance.
February 24th, 2016 at 10:59 PM ^
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February 24th, 2016 at 10:29 PM ^
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