Standard-Examiner: Team of WSU Professors To Explore Godfrey's $146 Million Golf Course Makeover Scheme

Notably, Dean Gale doesn't seem to be exactly champing at the bit to get moving on this

Interesting Ace Reporter Schwebke article this morning concerning Boss Godfrey's $146 million Mt. Ogden Golf Course makeover scheme, from which we'll carve out a few excerpts. At this early juncture, WSU appears to be playing right along:

OGDEN -- A team of professors will explore whether a hospitality and tourism management degree should be offered at Weber State University that may complement a proposed $119 million Mount Ogden Golf Course hotel.
Several faculty members are interested in evaluating the hotel proposal being floated by the Mount Ogden Golf Course Committee, said Lewis R. Gale, dean of Weber State's John B. Goddard School of Business & Economics.
"An opportunity has been presented," Gale said. "We want to know if we can help."

Lest our readers grow alarmed, and leap to the conclusion that there are those of influence at the WSU campus who have already bought into this project, we'll just say that we believe WSU's current posture is exactly right:

The formation of the Weber State faculty team to review the hotel component doesn't mean the school has formed an opinion about the committee's proposal, Gale said. [...]
"What we are doing is not signaling support or lack of support. It's an opportunity that has come up. We want to be involved early on."

As an owner of a property adjacent to the Mt. Ogden Golf Course, and a public university which might reasonably expand its degree offerings to include a program in "hospitality and tourism management," University officials have an obligation, we believe, to weigh all the options and return a well reasoned decision on the merits, which is exactly what we believe University officials will do.

Moreover, WSU officials have been the undeserving target of blistering criticism from the Godfrey Slime Machine in the past, for not playing along with Godfrey and his fellow big spending schemers. WSU officials thus have every reason to at least "go through the motions" on this.

Notably, Dean Gale isn't exactly champing at the bit to get moving on this. "It hasn't been determined when Weber State faculty will begin evaluating whether the university should offer a degree to complement the proposed hotel," Dean Gale says.

And on a slightly different note, here's an interesting Kent Petersen quote from further down today's story, referring to "prospective" financing for this latest Godfrey boondoggle:

The complex, which would include 150 time-share units and 200 condo/hotel units, could be built without taxpayer money by a private developer or a major resort company like Marriott, Petersen said.

This raises some interesting questions, we believe. Does Boss Godfrey actually have a private developer/hotelier already lined up; or is this just another Godfrey/Petersen pipe dream? Hopefully Mr. Schwebke will find the time to start digging on this.

So what say our gentle readers about this latest development?