Dome desecration

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published July 14, 2007

Naming the University of South Florida's iconic Sun Dome stadium for a student loan company whose chief executive is a convicted felon doesn't pass the smell test. It would be a desecration.

The student loan industry is under national scrutiny right now because of disturbing revelations about its cozy relationships with some colleges. Investigations have uncovered an offending brew of misdeeds, including colleges accepting commissions for steering business to preferred lenders and college financial aid officials being awarded free trips by these firms. Students facing higher borrowing costs were often the losers.

While Academic Financial Services, the student loan company currently negotiating for the naming rights, has not been accused of such practices, what has been unearthed so far has tainted the industry as a whole. It is simply a nonstarter to talk about tagging USF's most high- profile building with a name that evokes questions of loose ethics and worse. Students, alumni, parents and guests should not be asked to cheer in a place named for a type of business whose practices very likely made it harder for young people to go to college. It would be like naming the stock exchange after Ken Lay.

Moreover, there is a good chance that the business model of the student loan industry is about to significantly change. Congress is currently moving on a measure that would reduce federal subsidies to these lenders by $19-billion. In a relatively short time, AFS might not have millions of dollars to spend on promoting itself. If that happens, USF will be seriously disadvantaged. It would have to try to generate stadium brand loyalty around a new corporate sponsor, an expensive and iffy proposition.

Wayne Morgan is another reason to keep AFS at arm's length. The company's chief executive officer has been convicted of multiple serious felonies, including breaking and entering and safecracking. In 2002, not terribly long ago, Morgan pleaded no contest to a bad check charge and agreed to pay $19,000 in restitution. This man may have reformed his ways, as he claims, but the ink is a little too wet on the last charge for him to be considered as an acceptable corporate ambassador for USF.

The problem for the university is that it seems to have bargained away its discretion when it comes to who wins the Sun Dome's naming rights. In a contract with Action Sports Media, USF apparently sold that company the exclusive authority to broker a naming agreement, and Action Sports Media looks to be close to a six-year, $2-million deal with AFS. The university claims that it retains veto power over sponsorships, but Action Sports Media disputes this.

Even if this disagreement ends up in court, the university should not give in. The Sun Dome symbolizes the university community in a way that no other building on campus does. To name it for a student loan company headed by a convicted felon would be worse than an embarrassment. It would be an outrage.

[Last modified July 13, 2007, 21:59:19]