Ed Hansen’s support for UW comes with a price

Published 10:04 pm Saturday, January 12, 2008

So Ed Hansen no longer wears his “Husky colors” in public because of razzing and embarrassment.

That’s what — a small part of what — Everett’s former mayor told University of Washington President Mark Emmert in an e-mail last fall, one of a string of persistent messages from Hansen that were made public by the UW last week.

Funny, I wear UW sweatshirts all the time. Nobody ever razzes me because the Husky football team coached by Tyrone Willingham hasn’t had winning seasons the past three years.

Clearly, I hang out in different circles than Hansen, a wealthy attorney, co-founder of Frontier Bank and former general manager of the Snohomish County PUD. I go to the occasional Husky game, but unlike Hansen I’m no Tyee Club donor to UW athletics, with great season tickets.

I do happen to be a card- carrying, dues-paying member of the UW Alumni Association. I’m proud of the university. I’m especially proud to know that despite all the financial muscle Hansen flexed in his correspondence with Emmert, Ty Willingham remains the UW’s football coach.

For me, Hansen’s e-mail provided an ugly glimpse at how ordinary folks suspect high-level decisions are all too often made — by influential people accustomed to using wealth and power to get their way.

I’ve lived in Everett a long time, since 1981. No one has to tell me that Ed Hansen and his wife, Andi, have contributed greatly to this place. In my opinion, though, all the professional success and charity in the world don’t excuse a rich man who tries to buy the firing of an employee at a public university.

In his e-mail dated Oct. 30, Hansen told Emmert he was prepared to pledge a minimum of $100,000 for UW Law School scholarships, but only if “Ty Willingham is replaced as Husky football coach.” Hansen offered another $100,000 in law school scholarship money contingent on the axing of Todd Turner as UW athletic director.

Last month, Turner announced his resignation, effective Jan. 31. In a UW news release, Turner said he’d been hired “to create a culture of integrity in athletics and to reconnect the athletic program to the mainstream mission of the university.”

Those are laudable goals.

I, for one, have no interest in a return to those glory days of Rick Neuheisel Husky football, when UW tight end Jerramy Stevens pleaded guilty to misdemeanor hit-and-run after ramming his truck into a retirement home and leaving the accident scene. But who cares?

In 2001, Stevens helped UW beat Purdue in the Rose Bowl. Perhaps that’s all that really matters for some boosters.

Good for Emmert for keeping the coach who some — but not all — call a loser.

Imagine if a wealthy person disapproved of research being done at the UW Medical School, anything from an AIDS vaccine to stem-cell research. What if a rich donor wrote a big, fat check to get rid of a key researcher or an entire program?

Apples and oranges? Maybe, but Hansen’s e-mail’s provide a chilling glimpse of what potentially could happen under the table.

So the former mayor is embarrassed to wear his Husky stuff. Maybe that makes us even. I’m embarrassed for Everett.

Not only did Hansen offer scholarship money in exchange for the firing of a coach, he mentioned in his e-mail the proposed UW branch campus, “hopefully in Everett.” Like Hansen said via e-mail, I too believe Everett “would be an ideal location for a UW branch campus.”

Unfortunately, because of Hansen’s heavy-handed approach to voicing displeasure with a football coach, I see a cloud over Everett as far as UW North is concerned.

Despite all the public meetings and open debate, will taxpayers have confidence in how the decision is made in the end? Or will we be asking how loudly money talks?

Here’s another thing Hansen noted in his e-mail: “The City’s conference center was recently named in my honor.” Indeed, the Hansen Conference Center at the Everett Events Center is a permanent fixture downtown. Too bad the man for whom it’s named has tarnished his legacy.

And please — just $200,000? It’s a hefty sum to most of us, but at a law school located in the new William H. Gates Hall, named in honor of William Gates Sr., would $200,000 be a big deal-breaker?

Who am I, though? Just an ordinary UW grad, not concerned with being ridiculed in my Husky hat on some world-class golf course. I lack the means to give big — with conditions attached.

Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.