The Ave Maria Foundation may well be the single most generous contributor to Catholic causes at the close of the 20th and the opening of the 21st Century. According to IRS 990 form, from 1998-2005, the Foundation gave away close to ¼ of a billion dollars, most of it to Catholic education, which has been suffering since the decline of vocations in the wake of rising liberalism in the 60’s and 70’s. A close examination of the data demonstrates that salaries have been quite generous at these institutions. For example, a number of professors at Ave Maria School of Law have recieved annual compensation of over $130,000 since the law school opened in 2000. The whole church in the
Over 85 organizations have recieved a portion of the $235,000,000.00 donated by the Ave Maria Foundation through 2005. A partial list is below:
| Ave Maria University, Inc. | $116,869,641 |
| Ave Maria School of Law | $45,314,959 |
| Ave Maria College | $22,590,368 |
| Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist | $14,140,552 |
| Spiritus Sanctus Academy | $6,742,053 |
| Roman Catholic Diocese of Lansing Michigan | $4,100,000 |
| Thomas More Law Center | $4,099,712 |
| Ave Maria University | $4,084,665 |
I would guess that at least another $50,000,000 has already been donated by the Foundation in 2006 and 2007. Deo gratias.
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity, what is the difference between AMU and AMU, Inc.?
ReplyDeleteAnd the only ones still receiving money today are....
ReplyDeleteAMU, Inc
AMSOL (but only until they give up the fight and become a branch of AMU Inc.
All the others have been abandoned (and by this abandonment, forced to downsize), or in the case of AMC, shut down.
Ok, so I'm not sure about TM, but I'm pretty sure T$M and the diocese aren't on such shiny terms anymore.
oh, and the main diff. between AMU and AMU Inc, is that one was an overhasty legal formulation that existed prior to any actual students or classrooms, and the other is an institute claiming to be a University but lacking any substantive accreditation.
You certainly have no way to back up your wild assertions about who AMF is funding.
ReplyDeleteThe Sisters of Mary would not consider themselves abandoned considering that they are staffing his new K-12 school in Ave Town - but one example of how inaccurate your assertions are.
Ah, but the families of the students at the schools that had to close certainly felt abandoned.
ReplyDeleteThe sisters are just too good to be bitter. ;-)
And for all of this money, what do they have to show for it? - AMC closed, a $259,000 fine to the DOE, St. Mary's closed, AMU still not accredited as it bleeds students and turns-over faculty, and an AMSL where the faculty have no confidence in the administration as the school undergoes an investigation for violations of accreditation standards.
ReplyDeleteOh, and as far as salaries go, those are earned, they're not gifts or acts of "generosity". Employees should be "grateful" to the extent that Mr. Monaghan extends his sense of "gratitude" to these workers in the field; instead, Monaghan and his administrators show little but contempt. AMU salaries have been advertised as $37,000/year for full-time Associate Professors.
It is true that some are bitter because the higher ed projects took an unexpected turn.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about St. Mary's, but I know from the voluminous material on the internet that AMC was not abandoned. The practical reality of what happened is that AMC moved and renamed itself AMU, though some people apparently can't understand that or choose to deny that obvious practical reality. People were offered options and those who made certain choices (such as to stay in Michigan despite the undergrad programs' move to Florida) are very bitter.
I don't think there is any basis to deny that AMF has, by now, given (NOT loaned or promised) nearly $300,000,000 dollars to these 85+ non-profit entities (thats three hundred million dollars).
That is generosity of the highest order.
Re: AMC. Incorrect. Students were promised that the school would remaing open until 2007. Then, in the fall of 2005, AMC decided to close the school one year early, closing it in 2006, instead of 2007. Students were offered a full ride at Florida or $7000 to take to another school.
ReplyDeleteI'd be bitter if a promise was broken and my school was abandoned one year earlier than expected.
"Students were offered a full ride at Florida or $7000 to take to another school." To be clear, this was in lieu of the promised 2006-2007 school year in Michigan.
ReplyDeleteAs for a supposed "move" - when accreditation can't move, most of the faculty don't move, the donors have to be re-recruited, the surrounding environs differ considerably, and the vision entirely changes....
ReplyDeleteThat's not a move. That's killing one institution in order to loot the remains for the smallest scraps to feed a new one. They aren't even the least bit legally related to each other, as the administration found when it was fined and severely admonistrated by the DOE for using AMC to get AMU students federal loans.
The only reason they have the same name is because Tom has a corporate mentality and a 'thing' about franchises. Though I notice he managed to see the wisdom of naming his pet FL bank differently (can we say conflict of interest?).
Please, argue on the merits of AMU's campus, or it's vision, or whatever, but don't try to claim that AMC 'turned into' AMU. It just ain't true.
Kate,
ReplyDeleteI don't see how you can claim AMC didn't "turn into" AMU. The argument that it is not the same legal entity is kind of ridiculous, don't you agree? That is the only argument that I have ever heard from the fumaristas.
Like I said - it's not the same legal entity, but not only that - it is different in character, size, location, faculty (with a few exceptions), staff (again, with a small handful of exceptions), in history, vision, interaction with the surrounding community, and in the students it attracts. Some of these are regional differences, some of these are administrative differences. But, even those friends of mine who chose to complete their education at AMU would agree with me that it ain't the same creature.
ReplyDeleteI wish AMU well, but I wish even more that Tom had had the decency to pick a new name, if only so that I could remember and reminisce about the death of MY college without people trying to convince me she isn't dead. It's like someone telling you that you can't grieve your grandmother since your grandfather has remarried a woman with the same name. Or more to the point, its about as grotesque as giving a new baby the name of its miscarried or aborted older sibling.
sterling,
ReplyDeleteThe only thing similar between the two institutions is Monaghan and a handful of staff, everything else is different. Any student who went to AMC would tell you they're different schools, and every AMU student would agree.
In fact, you'd better tell Monaghan that the schools are the same, because Monaghan HIMSELF thinks that they're different schools. The official history of AMU describes the school as opening in Florida in August 2003 (while AMC was still open and operating):
http://www.naples.avemaria.edu/this_is_ave_maria/history.asp
"The argument that it is not the same legal entity is kind of ridiculous, don't you agree?"
ReplyDeleteAnd furthermore, in what way are the two institutions even remotely similar legally? In every possible consideration under the law, they are distinct.
How many students remained at AMC in Michigan unti the end?
ReplyDeleteWhen did the last students leave Ave Maria College in Michigan?
Why did he leave?
The last year AMC was open was 2005-2006. Don't know the # of students: there were seniors, juniors, and sophomores, but no freshmen (because they knew the school was soon closing so didn't take any more). (Maybe about 30 or 40? Just a guess.) Why did they leave? Because the students were sent letters in the Fall of 2005 stating "we are planning on closing the school 1 year earlier than promised. We are offering $7000 now to transfer to another school, or a full ride to AMU, but you've got 2 weeks to jump at this offer, or it may go away." Some students jumped at the offer, some students didn't and got nothing when they transferred.
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess in your view whatever rough spots there have been negate the $300,000,000 (that's three-hundred million dollars) that AMF has already GIVEN to all 85 of these entities. Some people will always view it that way.
ReplyDeleteI don't tend to give a deliquent father much credit for the money he spent on his kids and wife before abandoning them for the new, hotter chick either.
ReplyDeleteThese conversations drive me nuts because it always comes down to otherwise sane people talking as though money and legal contracts are the only measure of what is good, true, beautiful, and ethical. People are people, ok, they live in relationship, and the majority of contracts between people are social contracts, unspoken or informal, the sort of thing that keeps society running and gives individual people the courage and conviction to put their lives, education, well being and future on the line.
No amount of wealth can possibly relieve you of your place in that contract and your responsibility to those who have sacrificed and put themselves on the line at your request.
For goodness sake, people, stop thinking like godless materialists and starting thinking like Catholics who believe in the dignity and worth of each human person!
Your analogy is off a bit.
ReplyDeleteYou make it seem so black and white.
Is the father/husband the villain when the mother refuses to move to where he thinks the best opportunity for the entire family lies? No, he is not.
There was no abandonment, by the way. There was a change in the particulars of how the mission was going to be accomplished, but the heart of the mission remains the same. The people who resented the change in particulars abandoned their commitment to the overall joint project, demanding that they be allowed to do it their own way.
ReplyDeleteLike most divorces, all parties might have acted differently in hindsight and thus saved the marriage.
The "women" who feel they have been scorned are certainly in a hellacious fury. I don't see the virtue in that - or how that contributes toward a reconciliation.
The Sisters of Mary have set an example for the furious. They reportedly had a major concern regarding the change in particulars, yet they elected to reconcile and partner with, rather than rage against, their generous benefactor.
There really is no reconciliation possible, as Ave Mich is dead. The fury comes from seeing the law school treated the same way - the sugar daddy ex is abusing another lady friend with the same tactics that killed the last one. Yes, the analogy is flawed, but it does elicit the right emotional state - betrayal, dissapointment, and a feeling of helplessness when seeing the pattern repeated.
ReplyDeleteAll I want is to see proper institutional action to prevent the University from being treated as a sole proprietorship of a single man. I would love an apology for the tactics used in the past, but I'm not holding my breath. I would like to sees contractual steps taken to ensure that the faculty of AMU will be treated with the respect and given the voice faculty are accorded in every other institution of higher learning. I would like concrete assurances that AMU will grow at a sustainable speed, and that artificial recruitment goals will no longer have a place in the Admissions department. I would like to see the town project, if it must go on, commit itself to affordability and self-governance, and I would like to see those mortgages offered by major national banks with no connection to or interest in Tom. I would like to see Tom and Nick Healy both step down from their places on the AMU board, and see Tom in particular, stick to the strategy he claims made Domino pizz great - hiring great people and letting them do their thing.
Until that happens, I can best console the call of my conscience and the sorrow of my experience by warning others of the pernicious and unfaithful behaviour Tom et al. have engaged in in the past, and warn of indications of ill will or possibilities of abuse I see in the present.
This is, as I see it, my Christian duty. For the answer to "am I my brother's keeper" is "yes".
Is there somewhere I can write to obtain an audited financial statement for AMU? Usually universities include these in their annual reports and many make them available online.
ReplyDeleteWow - talk about not seeing the forest for the trees! Here is a Catholic who donates hundreds of millions to Catholic causes and purposes and will be donating hundreds of millions more, and all some folks can do is carp about this or that flaw in the manner in which he is DONATING the money and trying to make it work best to maximize the good results. No reasonable person claims - anywhere - that Mr. Monaghan is in this for the money for goodness sakes! One can certainly sympathize with people who are left behind in Ann Arbor, where his plans were unreasonably stymied repeatedly by governmental bodies there, but life does move on and even the best laid plans do change in ways no one can foresee. There is a certain naivete in most of the complaints getting posted here and there - demanding a foresight and perfection in others which no one can attain.
ReplyDeleteFind the person who has been able in life to keep all of his or her promises - however sincerely made at the time. Have you? Find the person who has not inadvertently or even somewhat carelessly - or, to put the worst case to it, deliberately - hurt others in some way in pursuing some higher good, such as their careers (taking the job others wanted, needed and applied for, for instance), in sincere romances and their termination, in helping others, even the church.
It just cannot be avoided at all times, even by the most wise, try as we might to balance the seemingly conflicting claims of obligation, justice and mercy.
He has made very sincere and costly efforts to help with the transitions - offering jobs in Florida, tuition compensation, etc. After all, he did not adopt everyone who benefits from one or another of his donations. It seems some will not be satisfied until they have done all they can to tear down all the good work he is doing simply to spite him for the ways they feel aggrieved. Hardly a charitable approach. All the ivory tower comments about the sanctity of AMC or AMSOL remaining at Ann Arbor, at some point do have to acknowledge the fact that neither would have existed without his donations, and moving them is not part of some sinister plan - to the contrary, they are being recreated on a grander scale in Florida as part of a larger vision, being funded, again, almost exclusively by him. For me, I say, thank you very much for your generosity and vision, which is helping in far more ways that it is inadvertently distressing others. One can never please everyone, nor accomplish anything worthwhile without making enemies. Do the best you can to make the inevitable changes in course as painless as REASONABLY possible for all involved, but persevere in doing good. If we all waited for all of our actions and motives to be perfect before we acted, then no one would ever act and no good would be accomplished.