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From a series of leaked Cooper Union documents, here are (unverified) instructions to the administrative assistants for George Campbell, former President of Cooper Union. (If you’re just joining us, Cooper Union provided tuition-free education for over 150 years, which ended in 2013.)

• “Hotels: Dr. Campbell likes to stay at nice hotels when on College business: Ritz Carleton is his favorite, especially while in LA (he always stays at the Ritz Marina Del Rey when in the LA area — make sure to book the executive level suite, ocean view room).”

• “Cars: Dr. Campbell prefers to drive a luxury SUV during the winter and a luxury Cadillac in the summer/spring or in warm climates. If a luxury car isn’t available, order a convertible. He likes to have a car on almost all of his trips as he prefers to drive to different venues.”

All of which would be fine with me, in principle, if old George had been bringing in the correlating cash for the endowment. 

But instead, he presided over the slide into the extinction of Cooper Union’s principles and finances (while stating otherwise in the press, and capturing $668K in compensation in 2009, including a cash bonus of $175K, all of it approved by the Board of Trustees.)

And after gutting Cooper Union from the suites of the Ritz Marina Del Ray, where do you go from there? To the inexplicable 20% bonuses of Con Edison, of course. 

I’ll be the Alumni Trustee at Cooper Union shortly. One of the challenges before me will be to explain to anyone why they should help partner with, fund, or endow the culture of luxury SUVs and Ritz hotels, at the very same time it was on its way to ending 150 years of free tuition.

It’s not a rhetorical question: if you have an idea on what would inspire trust for such an institution, feel free to drop me a line.