LIMBAUGH SAYS GIVE SUPPORT OR GIVE UP CONTROL

U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh gave a sound argument Thursday night for philanthropic contributions to higher education: The alternative is more federal control over a university.

Limbaugh was the featured speaker at the Southeast Missouri State University Foundation's Copper Dome Dinner at the Show Me Center.

Contributors who donate $100 or more annually to the university through its foundation comprise the The Copper Dome Society. The annual dinner is held to recognize the contributors. About 525 people attended the event.

Limbaugh said about $10 billion of the $220 billion given philanthropically each year in the United States goes to higher education. The $220 billion, he said, represents 15 percent of the nation's $1.5 trillion budget.

"That $10 billion," he said, "is a lot of money, but not enough. It represents only about 5 percent of all charitable giving."

The federal judge said that without the contributions the university could turn to the federal government for help. But he asked if that truly was wanted.

"I can assure you that you will lose most, if not all, of your sovereignty," he said. "Do you want the federal judicial system, some federal judge, telling you how to operate your school?

"Do you want the President or Congress or some administrative agency telling you how to run this school?

"Or do you want the board of regents and President (Kala) Stroup and her staff with input from the faculty operating this school and making the decisions?"

Limbaugh told his audience that if they prefer the latter choice, than philanthropy at Southeast is only beginning. It be sustained.

He said that since the nation's founding, the responsibility for higher education has been given to the states and the people.

The Constitution, drafted in Philadelphia in 1787, mentions "not one word about education," Limbaugh said. Nor is one word mentioned in that document about knowledge, he added.

Limbaugh said that when Congress authorized the GI Bill at the end of World War II, it marked the first time the federal government intervened by providing veterans with education assistance.

But the judge said private gifts are the kind that truly contribute to the betterment of society, because a gift to an institution of higher learning is a gift for someone else's benefit.

"Could there be any higher purpose in the human spirit then to make a gift like that?" he said.

If philanthropy didn't exist at Southeast, the university would not have a number of buildings or scholarships, Limbaugh said. "In short, this institution would be in dire straits."

Limbaugh said those attending Thursday's dinner were there as this nation's founding fathers, in drafting the Constitution, anticipated they might be.

"We will be meet here next year and the next year and our progeny and the next generation will be here in the years after that because it is imperative that we maintain the continuancy of this grand institution," he said.

Robert Foster, executive director of the university's foundation, presented Limbaugh with a golden clock after his speech. Foster, in closing remarks, said that all of those who contributed to the university had done so with an idea of what they intended to accomplish, but the gift often exceeded the intentions.

"We have had some wonderful things happen at this university because of your generosity," he said.

The university's capital campaign is approaching $26 million in contributions, said Judy Wilferth, chairman of the foundation's Board of Directors. That's on top of $20 million in gifts and cash already on hand, she said.