Joseph Chapman, President of North Dakota State University, is resigning. “It just isn’t fun,” he told the AP. The list of things that aren’t fun includes the $22,000 he spent sending himself and his family to Barack Obama’s inauguration—money that came from NDSU’s donation-funded Development Foundation. In comparison, his counterpart over at the University of North Dakota spent $2,176 on his trip to the capital.
$22,000 versus $2,167: sure, it sounds like a big difference, like Chapman wasted a lot of money at a time when money is in short supply for public universities. But the human mind isn’t good with numbers or comparing them, so I think an overly annotated visual aid is in order:
Hmm. Certainly seems like he could have cut costs here or there.
Then there’s this:
The Board of Higher Education says it will likely ask for an audit on spending for the president’s house, which originally was estimated to cost $900,000 and be paid for with private money. The price ballooned to over $2 million, forcing foundation members to agree to cover most of the extra costs.
Not fun, indeed.
