July 11, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Two California institutions might undergo name changes at their engineering schools after a big donor pleaded guilty last month to a felony charge of lying to financial regulators.
The University of California is contemplating whether to retract the name of the high-tech billionaire from the engineering schools at the system’s Los Angeles and Irvine campuses, the Los Angeles Times reports.
In another recent case, Richard (Dickie) Scruggs and his wife asked the University of Mississippi to take their names off of a music building after he pleaded guilty to bribing a state judge in March.
In an age of mega-donations and ethical lapses, does this latest flap constitute one more piece of evidence that it’s time to have a bigger conversation about how to handle big gifts from generous donors who later have legal problems? Should there be a protocol for handling donations from disgraced titans, and does the severity of the crime matter?
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