Plans to rebuild the bloated University House have been scrapped. Good riddance. The university has much more pressing problems than building a $7.2 million roof over the head of a lavishly paid chancellor. It’s a shame that the university spent untold amounts of time and effort pursuing this ultimately doomed fund-raising drive instead of securing funding for projects that will benefit the university as a whole, not just a few fat cats.

Not only will the university now have to give back a pointedly undisclosed sum of money to the donors willing to support the University House project, but the time and effort now outgoing Vice Chancellor of External Relations James M. Langley spent trying to raise the $7.2 million is for naught. While the university languishes and students struggle under the weight of budget cuts and rising tuition, Langley spent six months working on behalf of already privileged elites.

His time would have been better spent raising money that would better the university.

In fact, administrators willingly admitted that competing fund-raising priorities hurt their attempts to raise the money. Surely, logic would follow, that this particular fund-raising project hurt the university’s attempts to find support for truly necessary programs.

While the university cites budget cuts for all its shortcomings and mercilessly squeezes students, diverting time and resources to serving university elites is unfair and unwise.