Stan Geiger

The State's University?

One of the many things that annoy me about state-funded higher education these days is the advertising. I turn on the evening news, and what do I see? I see an ad for OSU, or OU, or NSU, or TCC, or whatever.

OSU, like all of higher education, claims year after year that it doesn't have enough money. It lays claim to a need for more tax dollars, higher tuition, more money from football tickets, and anything else it can dream up. But the school always seems to have enough money for frivolous media advertising.

Do you reckon there is anyone in the state that is unaware of that fact that Oklahoma State University exists? I'd wager you'd have a hard time finding anyone in the nation that doesn't know there is an Oklahoma State University. So, why the need for advertising?

There is no need. It's just the political-educational complex at work. OSU, for example, takes some of your money and gives it to KOTV. That greatly lessens the possibility of any investigative reporting of, say, the exorbitant pay and benefits the school gives employees coming out of KOTV. That is to say, selected employees. You know, the "deserving."

I mean, hey, what private enterprise wants to bite the hand that feeds it?

That stuff aside, I caught an OSU ad last night. It's an ad I've seen many times. The ad calls OSU "the state's university."

I have a question: If OSU is "the state's university," why is it that a handful of unelected boobs called regents get to decide how much it costs a citizen to attend?

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