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[snape]

Worth it?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7460741.stm

[the_walrus]

That strikes me a pretty low price, at least by the standards of what it generally takes to get a name at a prominent place in the US.  I'd have expected it to require more on the order of £200m, minimum.

[qrypt]

Oxford and Cambridge are wealthy, but mainly in terms of stocks (assets), not flows (income).  My impression is that this is a pretty big gift in UK terms.  On the other hand, it's a pretty small percentage of the wealth of the donors.

[aandsdean]

If they loved the place as much as they claim, they'd refuse to have the (historic, unproblematic) college name changed.

[helpful]

If they loved the place as much as they claim, they'd refuse to have the (historic, unproblematic) college name changed.

I wonder if the tax people require a change in name to prove that it was a deductible donation.

[aandsdean]

If they loved the place as much as they claim, they'd refuse to have the (historic, unproblematic) college name changed.

I wonder if the tax people require a change in name to prove that it was a deductible donation.

They wouldn't in the U.S., but I have no idea about the U.K.'s rules on that.

[babbinacara]

Oxford and Cambridge are wealthy, but mainly in terms of stocks (assets), not flows (income). 

The universities and the colleges are different things and keep their money separate; and while some colleges are enormously wealthy (i.e., Trinity and St Johns at Cambridge), other colleges are not. New Hall, as a smaller women's college, I believe is near the bottom of the financial rankings.
Still, £30 million doesn't seem enough for such a tragic name change. "Murray Edwards College" does not lift the spirit. It doesn't say whether the students support the change.

[palmatenewt]

What's in a name?

I don't think it makes the slightest difference what the place is called, and I doubt anyone at the college would be inclined to value the name over the donation. It's hardly a first anyway; Harris Manchester in Oxford was originally "Manchester" until Lord Harris gave it lots of money. Templeton College in Oxford was the Oxford Centre for Management Studies until John Templeton stumped up some cash. This sort of thing is quite normal, and no-one thinks of those colleges as somehow selling out or betraying their souls. It happened in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance too - Clare College in Cambridge was originally University Hall until Elizabeth de Clare bailed it out in the fourteenth century. Gonville and Caius was originally Gonville Hall. And so on. And of course, colleges are quite capable of using nicknames for so long that the "official" names fall out of use (Oriel in Oxford is an example), which shows that names have never been regarded as particularly sacrosanct.

Also, where's this "Oxbridge"? New Hall is in Cambridge!

[frenchdoctor]

"Oxbridge" is a pun.

Maybe if I give €10 I can have an ashtray at the Sorbonne with my name on it. Who knows ?

[snape]

I think £30m is pretty cheap. There could be more coming soon.

Thanks palmatenewt for taking a long view!

[wegie]

Maybe if I give €10 I can have an ashtray at the Sorbonne with my name on it. Who knows ?

Once upon a time, many moons ago, I did a partial website redesign for an Oxford college. As part of the material, I got the college development office's information on how much naming rights cost. They started at a couple of hundred quid for a bench with a plaque in the garden and went on upwards . . .

[aandsdean]

What's in a name?

I don't think it makes the slightest difference what the place is called, and I doubt anyone at the college would be inclined to value the name over the donation. It's hardly a first anyway; Harris Manchester in Oxford was originally "Manchester" until Lord Harris gave it lots of money. Templeton College in Oxford was the Oxford Centre for Management Studies until John Templeton stumped up some cash. This sort of thing is quite normal, and no-one thinks of those colleges as somehow selling out or betraying their souls. It happened in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance too - Clare College in Cambridge was originally University Hall until Elizabeth de Clare bailed it out in the fourteenth century. Gonville and Caius was originally Gonville Hall. And so on. And of course, colleges are quite capable of using nicknames for so long that the "official" names fall out of use (Oriel in Oxford is an example), which shows that names have never been regarded as particularly sacrosanct.

Also, where's this "Oxbridge"? New Hall is in Cambridge!

All of the college you mention were "new" when they changed their names.  Who cares what the "Oxford Centre for Management Studies" is called?  It has minimal or no historical assocations with its name.

This is not true of New College.

Apples and oranges, or at least apples and pears.

[frenchdoctor]

They started at a couple of hundred quid for a bench with a plaque in the garden and went on upwards . . .

Cemeteries are managed roughly the same way.

[conjugate]

If I recall correctly, Rugby (the sport) was named after a college (Rugby College, obviously) because it was a student at that college who came up with the idea of grabbing the football (soccer ball to Americans) and running with it.  (Kicking wasn't getting the job done; the other team kept kicking it back, and there you were, right back where you started.)  This leads me to an evil plan, one worthy of Dr. Evil.

Find, or create, an eccentric billionaire with a silly name.  Have him or her (Madame Marie Wanking, let's say) offer a huge sum of money if Rugby College were to change its name (and with it, of course, the name of the eponymous sport).  Then as the name takes hold, the national spirit of Britain naturally suffers.  Consider: "Going to watch the Wanking game this evening?"  "Oh, yes, one can't miss Wanking, it's the national sport."

In the midst of the great national emotional malaise that is sure to follow this dreadful turn of events, it should be easy for the canny plotter to attain the office of Prime Minister, and then gain control of the entire country.  Once in control of Great Britain, the world should shortly follow.  It's foolproof.¹  I can't think of a single thing that could go wrong.²

¹Of course, the people opposed to such a plan wouldn't be fools, in all likelihood.  I said nothing about "normal-person-proof."

²I can't.  But sets of a few dozen things that could go wrong, well, that's a different matter, isn't it?

[conjugate]

Oh, and I should add: apologies to any (all) whom I may have offended.  It sometimes happens that my sense of humor is more of an irritant than I expect.