The University of Colorado at Boulder athletic department has donated pay-per-view proceeds of $11,000 from last season's football game against Washington State to the CU-Boulder Libraries.
The donation was first announced before the Sept. 11, 2003 game. The funds were received this summer by the libraries' new "Top Drawer Society" donor program, which honors donations of $10,000 or more.
"We hope the athletic department's donation sets a precedent for other departments at CU-Boulder to support the University Libraries, which serve the entire campus," said James Williams, dean of libraries.
The athletic department will be permanently recognized for its donation with an engraved nameplate on the Top Drawer signature sculpture in the east lobby of Norlin Library. All Top Drawer Society donors receive a nameplate, invitations to exclusive events of the dean of libraries and Friends of the Libraries, specified library privileges and a variety of memorabilia.
The libraries are not the only campus department to receive support from athletics. For the past seven years, the CU Athletics Ticket Office has partnered with the College of Music, Shakespeare Festival and theatre and dance department to support the ticketing needs of performing arts on campus.
"It is a little-known fact that the performing arts ticketing system on campus runs off a computer server housed at the football stadium," said College of Music box office manager Sandy Miller. "In addition, the staff at the athletics ticket office recently helped negotiate contracts with shared software providers -- contracts which will facilitate the possibility of real-time online ticketing for the arts.
"The athletics staff has continually provided outstanding technical support to their arts partners as well as assuming many costs associated with upgrading computer hardware and software," Miller said. "Without the support of the athletics ticket office, the arts box offices on campus would incur thousands of dollars of additional hardware costs and software fees each year."