Belmont still paying on debate bill of $3 million but claims positive impact of $21 million; what will university do with all the increased wealth?

A Belmont University official told The New York Times that it is still raising money to pay $3 million for last week's presidential debate, but the fundraising is easy.

And the university claims that the positive impact for the university has been tracked at $21 million, mentions on TV at almost 4,000 and there's been a multiplying of website page hits.

Still, that's a lot of money to spend with the kind of return that I view as questionable at best. What does the university want to become beyond what it is now?

This is the same kind of thinking Phil Bredesen sold to Nashville, the notion that it wasn't good enough. But his measure of good and values were much different from the people who built the city of many places of worship and many good families looking out for one another.

I hope Belmont got what it wanted. I just don't see what it is, except boosting the endowment fund. Increasing instructor pay and lowering costs for students would be great and worth the investment to boost the fund.

If the university wants to grow site wise and on to its enrollment at a little more than 5,000 students, however, there is little room except to eat up some of the working poor Edgehill community near it or build high rises on the campus. The Edgehill housing needs to be preserved in a city with no public policy on building affordable dwellings.

George Bailey of Bedford Falls would be shocked.

To read the story, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/us/politics/16campus.html