Higher Ed | Daily Report

Five years after entrepreneur Ross Brown donated $1.5 million to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to endow a professorship, the College of Engineering still has not hired a professor to fill the job, Cal Coast News reports.

Brown and his family have given frequently to the university. Gifts from the Ross M. Brown Family Foundation, Grant M. Brown Memorial Foundation and the Brown family have provided funding to help construct a new engineering building, to provide scholarships and for the endowed professorship.

Brown endowed the James L. Bartlett Jr. Professorship, named for an engineer and businessman who mentored him, in 2005. He hoped it would be filled in time so that Bartlett would be alive to meet the recipient, Cal Coast reported.

Bartlett lives in Santa Barbara and is now in his 90s.

Cal Poly officials blame their failure to follow through on the gift agreement on high turnover in the college.

Yet, according to the Web site for the school's College of Engineering, scholarships and endowed professorships are among the school's greatest needs in terms of donor support: "Endowed professorships help attract and retain outstanding faculty. And we can continue to attract top-notch students by offering applied research project sponsorships and establishing endowments for student scholarships."

University officials say the endowment has remained untouched and that neither the interest nor the principle has been spent.

According to Cal Coast, however, some university employees suspect that the endowment money has been spent in ways that go against Brown's wishes. Brown himself raises the same question.

“They said they were in the process of finding a professor two or three years ago,” Brown said. “I have no idea what they are using the money for.”

Cal Coast News could not verify the university's assertion because Brown's donation was given to the Cal Poly Corp., a separate nonprofit organization that does not have to comply with the California Public Records Act.

Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, has authored legislation that would open university auxiliaries such as the Cal Poly Corp. to public scrutiny. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill in October.