There shouldn't be anything extraordinary about this

Perhaps you shouldn't look a gift chicken in the beak, but there was something more than a little off-putting about all the self-congratulation and awe that accompanied the USC athletics department's recent "contribution" of $15 million to the university to help pay for ... academics.

This clearly is a large amount of money that has the potential to do a great deal of good at a school that is struggling under state budget cuts and the larger economic crisis. Just as clearly, such a gift is extraordinary and such a gesture, in the words of one USC trustee, "historic and symbolic."

But there shouldn't be anything extraordinary — certainly not "historic" — about university money being used to further the core mission of the university. In fact, it should be expected — the sort of thing that deserves commentary only in its absence. As difficult a concept as this seems to be, money generated by the athletics department, or any other part of a university, belongs to the university. ...

So yes, it's good that a small fraction of USC's new TV revenue will go toward the mission of the college. Let's just not get carried away with thanking anyone for giving to the university what already belongs to it.

The (Columbia) State