"I'm not an academic or an intellectual", but I play one in my philanthropy

No one questions Tom Monaghan's great contributions to Catholic education. However, Mr. Monaghan should recognize that he is first and foremost a philanthropist, and not an expert in academia. Well, actually he has acknowledged this in the past, but he seems to keep forgetting it. In this story from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Monaghan admits:

"I'm not an academic or an intellectual, but my early pizza stores were in college towns around the country," said Mr. Monaghan, who founded Ave Maria College, in Ypsilanti, Mich., in 1998, and Ave Maria School of Law, in Ann Arbor, a year later. "This will be the finest Catholic university we can build."

Well... We wish Ave Maria University the best in the swamplands of Florida, which is all we can do now that the decision has been made to build that school there. But we are more interested in the plight of the law school, as its fate is still hanging in the balance. So, once again we will try to show why moving the school from Ann Arbor to Florida would be such a disaster for the law school, leaving all other institutions and questions aside.

Not only does the AMSOL have 5 plus years of blood, sweat, and tears built up in Michigan, but it also competes with a top ten law school (U-M) and beats it on the MI bar each year. In addition, you have all of the academic and legal resources of Ann Arbor, as well as the legal community in nearby Detroit, which is responsible for a good deal of the internships, clerkships, and jobs for students and alumni of the school. Also, Ann Arbor provides the opportunity for guest lecturers and visiting professors from U-M and Notre Dame.

As for Florida? The AMU campus will be in the town of Ave Maria, which is currently located in the middle of nowhere. Contrary to popular conceptions, the town will not be in Naples or nearby, but 5 miles south of the closest town of Immokalee, which is a solid 1 hour drive from Naples. The nearest federal courts are in Miami, 2 hours away. Because we have no data for what type of community Ave Maria will be, we will compare Ann Arbor and Immokalee, with data from www.city-data.com :


For population 25 years and over in Ann Arbor
High school or higher: 95.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher: 69.3%
Graduate or professional degree: 39.4%
Unemployed: 4.2%
http://www.city-data.com/city/Ann-Arbor-Michigan.html

For population 25 years and over in Immokalee
High school or higher: 24.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher: 2.5%
Graduate or professional degree: 0.4%
Unemployed: 12.0%
http://www.city-data.com/city/Immokalee-Florida.html

By my calculations, Ann Arbor has a far higher percentage of persons with graduate or professional degrees than Immokalee has high school graduates, bachelor's degrees, and graduate and professional degrees combined. Mr. Monaghan might be building what he believes to be the finest Catholic university, but what good are the most beautiful buildings and facilities a law school can have if it doesn't have any academic or legal community to support it? Yes, Mr. Monaghan, while you were a very successful businessman, you are no academic or intellectual. Please leave decisions on what is in the best interests of an academic institution to those who have actually been working in academia.