Opinion: Killing Us Softly -- and Chiseling That Man’s Name Out of the Building

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I for one do not understand all the handwringing. USC and UC Irvine are fit to be tied. Each has a building named after Henry Samueli, the Broadcom billionaire who forked over mega-dough so his name appears on a couple of engineering buildings.

Now he’s pleaded guilty to a felony, lying to federal regulators. And UCLA and UCI are twisting themselves in knots over what to do about the university institutions. They bear his name because of donations totaling $50 million.

Naming any UC building ‘’must be consistent with the university’s role as a public trust.’’ my colleague Larry Gordon reported, and if anything happens ‘’substantially’’’ that would ‘’compromise the public trust,’’ well, they’ll talk about what to do next.

Why so namby-pamby? The man is pleading guilty to a federal felony. Larry quoted Timothy McDonough at the American Council on Education, who offered, as insight to the quandary, the example of ‘’drunk driving versus insider stock trading versus homicide.’’

It’s odd how we have a class system of lawbreaking in this country, which comes down in part to violent versus nonviolent means, not the equivalent effect on lives. Drunk driving and homicide are terrible offenses -- they ruin lives and take lives. But what if you use a pen instead of a gun? A murderer takes life, face to face; a crooked businessman can ruin lives on a wholesale level, killing companies and jobs and pensions, and therefore investments and hopes and futures -- the very heart of the American dream, that ‘’pursuit of happiness.’’

As we see more financial shenanigans getting pursued by regulators and prosecutors, these academic institutions -- heck, and even sports stadiums -- should wise up and write in a morals clause to the naming rights.

Look on the bright side: stripping off a donor’felon’s name gives the university an opportunity to put a building out for big naming-right bids, all over again.