WMI Money Gift
St. Olaf College President Mark U. Edwards defends the $26,000,000 gift by founder and former Waste Management Inc. (WMI) CEO Dean Buntrock. But Edwards and the college have come up against some criticism. From St. Olaf College itself has come the website, Buttrock Commons. Also WMI protestor Bob Beineke of Fort Wayne, Indiana has delivered mighty written blows to Edwards.
"St Olaf College is unequivocally proud of the Buntrock family's gift to St. Olaf College. It is a magnificent act of personal philanthropy by a family that has given generously - usually anonymously - of their time and wealth to this institution," responded the college to Beineke. Beineke's State of Indiana denied WMI's landfill permit declaring them of "bad character."
In response to Beineke's charges the college stated, "The questions you raise about the corporate behavior of Waste Management, Inc, and its subsidiaries are certainly important and troubling concerns, but they are not issues over which St. Olaf College has any control or influence."
Beineke also disagreed stating that the college could have 1) refused to name the commons for Dean Buttrock; 2) used the WMI story for coarse case studies; 3) used some of the funds to assist communities damaged by WMI; or 4) initiated dialogue between St. Olaf's and communities harmed by WMI.
The Buttrock Commons website disagrees. They site how Augsburg College had a similar situation and dealt with it responsibly. The St. Olaf site presents a picture of the issue from a St. Olaf perspective:
Dean Buntrock is a St. Olaf alumnus and former Chair of the Board of Regents who recently (with other family members) gave $26 million to St. Olaf, with which they built the new replacement for the St. Olaf Center. St. Olaf's many buildings, with only two known unfortunate exceptions, are consistently named for people who have actually contributed to the educational/spiritual well-being of the school (or former college presidents who led the school well in day-to-day involvement with the administration, faculty, and students).
There's been quite a bit of discussion lately on the wisdom of naming a major building for someone who apparently sat down at the table of life and took far more than his fair share. This has been intensified by the (apparently belated) realization that Dean Buntrock made his millions from his company Waste Management Inc., and there's an entire site detailing the rather serious (and criminal) misdeeds of this company (the StopWMX site).
And here's an article on what a columnist at the Chicago Tribune thinks about Dean Buntrock. (Click for site). So the question of possible concern to people would be St. Olaf's connection as an official college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the wisdom of naming a major building after the financial donor (contrasted with the Biblical comments on the camel/needle's eye, etc.), and even more so in view of the means (WMI) by which this money was obtained.
In general, people are asking if this building naming is consistent with St. Olaf's avowed Christian/Lutheran beliefs, and indeed, money aside, is Dean Buntrock really the best person the college can come up with in its entire 125-year history to honor with a building name?"
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