There is never enough money to go around.
We want to be wealthy, eat fancy food and wear fancy clothes, but there just isn't enough money for us all to live the lavish lifestyle we yearn for.
Someone always gets left out.
Nationally, so-called "too big to fail" banks and corporations are the ones with all the money right now, and most of us are the ones left out of the loop. The leaders of these organizations make multi-million dollar salaries, while some of us eat bologna sandwiches three times a day.
They didn't necessarily earn their money, but they hold onto every cent just as if they had toiled day in and day out, dreaming of a champagne-filled Jacuzzi and a penthouse in the sky. Many a Cayman Island and Swiss bank account is filled with American money the country will never see again.
But hey, that's capitalism.
Those of us who will only ever use the nasty hot tub at the local gym, filled with boring old water, will just have to make do. We can complain and protest all we want, but that money isn't going anywhere near our wallets.
However, locally, there is actually potential for this sad trend to be disrupted, and a worthy group of University students helped out along the way.
As many of you know, Auburn's Aviation Management Professional Flight Program is in danger of being shut down by Bill Hardgrave, dean of the College of Business. The main reason Hardgrave wants to shut down the program is a supposed decline in students and a lack of instructors.
Without the instructors and the flight school, the program will lose accreditation and the prestige it has garnered during 41 years of excellence in the field.
Unfortunately, that's not even the worst part.
If the program is allowed to end and eventually shut down, many current and future aviation management students will be cheated out of jobs in the growing Alabama aviation industry. These are jobs that companies want to give to Auburn graduates because they know the program produces highly qualified professionals.\0x2028Take the University's recent partnership with JetBlue Airways as a perfect example of what will be lost.\0x2028So we say the College of Business should reinvest in what has already proven to be a deserving program.
Raymond J. Harbert's recent donation of $40 million, along a $15 million match campaign from other alumni, couldn't have come at better time. The College of Business now has a name and enough money to become a competitor on the national level.
According to a press release posted on the new Raymond J. Harbert College of Business website, one of the key ways the money will be spent is to "recruit and retain top faculty members in such areas as finance, business analytics and supply chain management."
Aviation management should definitely be part of that list. If the College of Business wants to establish itself as a prominent institution for business education, then it needs to learn to appreciate one of its most important programs.
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