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E-mailers write UVSC costly post-Moore-tem
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

OREM - Beneath the cacophony of Michael Moore protests, a quieter - and perhaps more significant - reaction rolled through the conservative halls of Utah Valley State College this fall.

Or at least through its computers.

Hundreds of e-mails to the college obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune under the Government Records Access and Management Act, reveal that dozens of donors - many of them alumni in the private sector - threatened to withhold everything from sponsorships and scholarships to internship offers and tax checkoffs. Dozens more vowed never to send their children to UVSC.

Donations ranging from $20 to $1 million were yanked.

At the same time, pockets of people from coast to coast - citing the Orem school's courage to invite the "Fahrenheit 9/11" director - kicked in roughly $10,000 in cash.

However, most e-mailers were "appalled" that the college was bringing the Bush-basher to campus.

* "What the HELL is UVSC doing inviting Michael Moore to speak, let alone pay him $50,000 to come?" wrote an alumnus and business owner. "Whoever put this together is out of their minds. . . . I will be damned to give you one dime."

* "I will not have any of my hard-earned money go to a college that would actually pay someone so un-American like Michael Moore to speak on their campus," another e-mailer wrote.

* "My daughter attends UVSC and I assist with her finances," an Orem resident wrote. "This is notice that I will no longer pay her tuition and fees if Michael Moore speaks at UVSC."

l "If UVSC persists in this insanity, we will never contribute financially to UVSC for any purpose," wrote a group of business people who live close to the college. "We will also endeavor to have others do the same."

l "This is the final straw," warned another parent. "None of my seven children will attend your school again."

The majority of e-mails were addressed to UVSC President William Sederburg, though names of private citizens and contribution amounts were redacted.

Nancy Bartlett, UVSC's human-resources director, cited privacy issues and said the omissions were made at the advice of legal counsel.

Concerns about Moore also rattled school administrators.

"I just had another call from someone who gave $10,000 last year but will not be willing to give that again this year," wrote Kathy Johnson, an employee in the Advancement Office. "I know we're not BYU, but there is a line. . . . We might need to rethink this."

Another complained about "a constant flow of criticism from legislators, students, donors and citizens." "The public is going nuts," he wrote.

An e-mail to the business school's dean titled, "The Michael Moore decision is really going to cost us," warns that an elderly donor with a "huge estate" decided to pull his support.

"I can tell you without any doubt, this decision is a very bad one," the author wrote. "And it will cost the school untold millions of future dollars."

One donor, former Springville Mayor Hal Wing, shifted a $1 million-plus art collection from UVSC to neighboring Brigham Young University.

Concerned about the long-term effect, Director of Alumni Relations Jeri Allphin stopped just short of recommending Moore's cancellation. She sent a series of form letters to donors arguing their money can help students for years to come, while the filmmaker-turned-polemicist will come and go.

"The thing that really bothers me is that by pulling support, donors and alumni are giving Moore a 'victory' by giving his one-time visit much more importance than it deserves," Allphin wrote.

On the opposite end, about 20 donors gave contributions ranging from $10 to $5,000, according to Tom Rasmussen, vice president for institutional advancement at UVSC. A handful of e-mails list donations, including one for $100 from a University of California at San Diego graduate.

"I became aware of your decision to support democracy in a place where people think diversity means eating at a Mexican restaurant," the e-mailer wrote. "Thank you for embodying the principles that are bringing Michael Moore to Utah."

Another gave $10. "I'm not rich, just concerned that people get a chance to hear him speak."

Rasmussen estimates the school has received $10,000 from new donors since the September announcement.

Highland resident Linda Walton, whose husband and son attended UVSC, is doubling her annual gift because of the Moore episode.

Walton isn't saying how much more she is donating.

"I don't need a plaque on the wall," she said. "The school is growing . . . there are a lot of needs at UVSC."

Allphin, the alumni director, said the one good thing to come from the Moore "debacle" is that people are flooding the school with e-mails. Armed with that database, she hopes UVSC can bring them back into the fund-raising fold.

"I don't even care if the sender requests no more contact from us," Allphin wrote. "Our office will sort through these and gather the information anyway."

djensen@sltrib.com

---

Tribune reporter Shinika Sykes contributed to this story.

Samples from hundreds of e-mails sent to

UVSC President William Sederburg over the Michael Moore flap

* "I suppose that if the Nazis were still in power, UVSC would pay $40,000 to invite Joseph Goebbels to speak on campus."

* "Allowing him to speak on campus is akin to inviting al-Qaida to do the same."

* "That is like having [University of Utah coach] Urban Meyer come speak at a BYU football luncheon."

* "As a Utahn whose ancestors arrived in July 1847 please be aware of my support for Mr. Moore's visit to your campus. Good grief, can he be any worse than the right-wing nuts we have to put up with around July?"

* "I imagine you will have a number of visitors from Park City and the [Salt Lake City] Avenues to your campus that evening, if they can find Provo."

* "At this time I am embarrassed to say that I go to UVSC."

* "Cancel Michael Moore and salvage UVSC's credibility. Otherwise, a UVSC diploma might as well be printed on twin-ply, perforated tissue paper and dispensed on rolls in bathroom stalls."

* "Donators will stop paying. Students will stop coming. And your crap community college will go up in flames. Shame on you for bringing in a propagandist. He is a liar. A crook. And so are you."

* "You are going to come to realize that you may not be able to stay in the same tent as these local crazies. It happens to a lot of us. Outside Utah we consider ourselves fairly conservative middle-of-the-road folk, but when we return home, we discover that we are on the left."

Sounding off: E-mails to the school reveal the threats to withdraw funds far outweigh statements of approval and support
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