A Response from McCoy

Senator Matt McCoy from Des Moines recently said it was worth looking at selling the University of Iowa's massive Pollock Mural in order to keep tuition low for students in these tough economic times (that it would also keep it low for maybe two seconds or so was beside the point.) I emailed him to tell him what a dumb idea this was and I freely encouraged other people to do the same. This is the response one of my friends got:

Dear *****:

Thank you for contacting me concerning my comments regarding the sale of
the Pollack mural at The University of Iowa. I appreciate your
concerns. As you know, this isn't the first time the issue has been
discussed. Following the Board of Regents' initial mention of its sale,
they approved obtaining a new appraisal of the work.

I have continually tired to develop ways for loan forgiveness for
college students and to find ways to pay their college loans. As the
discussion regarding the selling of the painting developed, it appears
that money raised from such a sale would have to stay with the museum,
stay in their endowment, or be used for the purchase of additional art
work.. It makes no sense to sell it unless the Regents decides they
want to acquire other pieces. In retrospect, I regret bringing up again
the issue of selling the Pollock that had been initially raised by a
member of the Board of Regents.

We should be able to freely discuss and dialogue on difficult decisions
that need to be made. Some ideas are better then others but know that
the ultimate goal of keeping student tuition low is worth pursuing.


Matt McCoy



State Senator Matt McCoy

Senate District 31

Representing south & west portions of Des Moines

So, it's sounds like Senator McCoy hasn't mastered the whole art (hahahaha- pun intended!) of thinking before speaking. If the debacle of the Regents trying to play with this issue should have taught him anything, it should have been the importance of legwork. The inability of the University to sell this piece solely for profit has been something that has been widely publicized in the press. One would have thought that a State Senator would have known that, but apparently not.

And if McCoy wants to get serious about helping students in these tough economic times- how about joining up with Bono and championing his cause: debt forgiveness. You don't have to forgive all the debt, but if you said students, depending on their debt levels could be eligible for up to 20K in forgiven loans, that would help- and more to the point, be a real live help.

That would do more than selling off Iowa's greatest art treasure.