There is no doubt that Iowa State is about to receive a very large monetary donation — the largest in ISU history, according to President Martin Jischke’s Aug. 24 convocation speech.

The doubt lies in the gift’s value, origin and destination, all important pieces of information Jischke has decided not to disclose until one magical day this month.

In his speech, Jischke said ISU’s fund-raising efforts have been gaining momentum, citing the ISU Foundation’s $199 million record and several large gifts the university has received in the past few years.

“And speaking of momentum,” he said, “stay tuned for an event on Sept. 9 at which we will make one of the biggest announcements in Iowa State’s history.

“I’ll give you a hint,” Jischke continued. “It has to do with the largest gift in the history of this university — and one of the largest gifts ever to a land-grant university in the nation.”

Jischke’s “hint” has stirred everyone with ISU ties to speculate on the gift’s parameters and led to coverage from all pertinent media, including top-fold stories on the front pages of The Des Moines Register and The Tribune.

Perhaps this kind of publicity is what university officials wanted, but what was the point? To make ISU top news twice in two weeks?

After hearing a vague explanation from George W. Bush regarding his questionable drug-use past, everyone is sick of half-hearted answers, and if Jischke wasn’t ready to spill the beans, he either should have said nothing or told all he knew.

ISU Foundation President Tom Mitchell told the Daily Thursday that officials still are working to assess the gift’s size and national rank. But these tidbits of information are not what the public needs to know to a T — we just want to know an estimated size, who it came from and where it’s going.

But this was not Mitchell’s only excuse.

“One of the reasons we talked about waiting until September is because the first week of school is a pretty hectic week for the faculty and the students,” he said. “We want to wait until everyone is settled in.”

Evidently some administrators don’t think the people who make the university important are capable of hearing some good news. If anything, a little good news would boost our morale.

Jischke’s intentional slip is one more sign that he is not connecting with the students the way someone who claims to care so much about them should.

Students don’t want the university president to be the psychological watchdog. He should treat students with respect and show he cares by spending some time connecting with them.