On July 27, Interim Vice President for External Affairs Ben Allen

announced that the Foundation would establish a task force to

ensure donors’ wishes were being fulfilled.

On July 28, ISU Foundation Chairman Arend Sandbulte was

quoted in the Ames Tribune as saying a preliminary task force

report could be ready in time for the ISU Foundation Board of

Governors meeting Sept. 28.

On Monday, task force co-chairs and Foundation Governors Peg

Armstrong-Gustafson and Labh Hira met with Foundation

President Tom Mitchell to talk about what exactly that task force

would do.

Why did it take four weeks for a task force to be assembled,

especially coming off the heels of the public relations nightmare

that was the Marie Powers estate controversy?

That is a question the ISU Foundation will not answer, among a

handful of others. They will not release anything about the other

members of the task force except that they are all Foundation

Governors.

The task force, composed of Foundation Governors and appointed

by the Foundation Chairman, now has but four weeks to prepare a

preliminary report to give to the Foundation Governors at their Sept.

28 meeting.

We aren’t saying this isn’t enough time to prepare such a report,

but examining all the policies and regulations of all donations

would seem to eat up a large chunk of time, especially for a task

force compiled of people with full-time jobs. It is quite a daunting

task.

The Foundation is notorious for creating the appearance of foul

play, whether or not foul play actually exists, and this is another

example. The members of the task force are the very people who

will receive the report.

This self-evaluation gives off a feeling of impropriety. Students

hardly ever give themselves Ds or Fs when a professor asks what

grade they deserve in a course, and we fear the same will occur

with the Foundation and its self-appointed task force.

The appearance of foul play can be just as bad for the Foundation

as actual proof of foul play. They should, at the very least, release

the names of those on the task force, and even take a step further

and keep the public aware of what is learned in the

investigation.

editorialboard: Andrea Hauser, Tim Paluch, Michelle

Kann, Zach Calef, Omar Tesdell