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Following more than a month of resounding protest from students, faculty and staff, the sponsor and planned namesake for Florida Atlantic University’s new football stadium has withdrawn, FAU announced Tuesday, leaving the university to find a replacement for the private prison company GEO Group (the GEO Group Foundation was the official donor) and the $6 million its founder had pledged toward the project. Protesters had criticized the management and inmate and employee treatment at prisons run by GEO, whose chairman is a Florida Atlantic graduate and former trustee.
FAU is technically out nothing yet in terms of dollars, Athletics Director Pat Chun said in an interview Tuesday. But as the university looks at its budget for next year, which it’s in the process of setting, there’s a hole where $500,000 should have been accounted for. (This would have been the first of 12 payments. About half of the $75 million stadium was financed with debt and in need of repayment.) Asked how long until the change in plans causes a serious financial problem, Chun said, “We’re probably there now,” but said the university will go "back to square one" to get it taken care of.
GEO’s withdrawal does have a financial benefit for the university’s academic side, however; officials said the company the company, or the founder? *** all I've seen says it's the company but the CEO is the one commenting about it. George Zoley. will donate $500,000 toward scholarships, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
