Howard Schultz (Facebook photo)
Billionaire Howard Schultz, who is exploring a run for president as an independent, graduated with a bachelor's degree from Northern Michigan University in the Upper Peninsula in 1975. His LinkedIn page includes that detail.
Still, who knew?
In a lengthy story titled "Northern Michigan University Alum Howard Schultz Wants Nothing To Do With His Alma Mater." the website Deadspin, writes that Schultz may never have donated any money to his school. One former administrator claims Schultz, the coffee king, never returned phone calls to the university.
Schultz, who's from Brooklyn, first attended the Marquette school on a football scholarship. But he lost it due to a jaw injury during practice.
He watched his losing team turn itself around and win a Division II national championship with the help of three-time all-American, Heisman finalist and future 49ers and Lions head coach Steve Mariucci. Mariucci, the article notes, became close friends with NMU basketball star Tom Izzo during their time at the school. The two dedicated the Izzo-Mariucci Room on campus together in 2015.
There's no such room or building named after Schultz and it's obviously not because of a lack of money. The 65-year-old, who was chairman and chief executive at Starbuck from 1986-2000 and 2008-17, is estimated to be worth $2.9 billion.
The author of the story, "NMUAnon," writes that many alum were interviewed for the story:
It emerged that a burgeoning area of bipartisanship consensus in Yooper politics is a shared contempt for Schultz and his inexplicable lack of generosity toward his alma mater. In this area and perhaps this area only, the candidate has already shown a knack for bringing people together.
There are no public records or private hints that Schultz, one of the richest men in the world, has ever donated to the only degree-granting university he attended. There is nothing online suggesting why this is the case; perhaps it is because donating to NMU doesn’t have the kind of financial return that funding sketchy, for-profit universities does. Perhaps, the green and gold of NMU’s crest triggers painful memories of his time owning (and selling) the SuperSonics. Those are just guesses, of course...
Every Mr. Monopoly wannabe wants a graduate school or building named after them, if only by way of fusing two popular pastimes among the super-rich: avoiding their taxes and flattering their egos. The cartoonishly villainous Sacklers have a medical school with their name on it; even Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross kicked in some millions for a building at the Yale School of Management. Why Schultz doesn’t want his name plastered all over the university that created him has remained a mystery to alums, administrators, and community members alike, myself included.
Here's a telling passage in the story:
In a meeting about tuition hikes with an administrator who is no longer at the university, the student body president and I asked why Schultz didn’t donate more money to the school. “Donate more money?” the administrator said, sounding as exasperated as Upper Midwesterners allow themselves to get.
“He won’t even return our calls!” Schultz’s name, when it was mentioned, was frequently followed by groans and laughter.
