Offer to help, get your hand chewed off
Recently the new dean of the school of humanities, arts, and sciences at NC State asked to meet with Art Pope, who heads the John W. Pope Foundation. The Foundation has given substantial financial assistance to higher education in North Carolina over the years and Dean Toby Parcel wanted to see if it would be possible to arrange additional support, particularly for foreign language programs.
The meeting was cordial and productive. Afterward, however, when Dean Parcel reported to her faculty on the prospect of Pope Foundation support, many members threw the adult version of a tantrum. One professor declaimed that money from the Pope Foundation was “dirty money” that would corrupt the university. Another opined that taking money from the Pope Foundation would be as bad as taking money from the Ku Klux Klan.