????鑒于2012年的財政預算出現高達400萬美元的赤字，雷鳥全球管理學院（Thunderbird School of Global Management）已同意抓住一條亟需的救生索。這所以國際管理教育而久負盛名的學校打算將其坐落于亞利桑那州的校園出售給一家營利性的教育公司。

????這個決定激起了一波爭議風暴。至少有兩個董事會成員已經辭職以示抗議，近2,000位校友簽署了一份請愿書，聲稱與桂冠教育公司（Laureate Education Inc.）達成的協議將“貶低雷鳥學位的價值?！?/p>

????“我們心目中的那個雷鳥即將逝去，”董事和校友默爾?辛里奇在他的辭職信中寫道?！坝诶坐B而言，這筆交易是一個悲劇，桂冠教育公司則撿了個大便宜?！绷硪晃恍嫁o職的董事小托馬斯?格里爾聲稱，把一所用學費和捐贈資金建造的校園出售給桂冠教育公司“沒有天理”。格里爾發誓再也不向這所學校貢獻他的時間和金錢了。

????從去年11月開始擔任雷鳥全球管理學院校長的拉里?彭利認為，他們的憂慮可以理解，但被誤導了。“沉溺于對過往經歷的懷念致使我們抗拒改變，”彭利補充道?！懊绹藢I利性教育機構特有的偏見也造成了阻力。然而，這些事實都無法說明桂冠教育公司將像其他營利性教育機構那樣行事。”

????一些觀察人士指出，這筆交易再次證明公眾對MBA學位的興趣日益衰減。事實上，這家教育機構如今面臨的許多麻煩已經持續了很長時間，而且都是自身造成的，從而使它成為一個研究組織衰落的典型案例。這個新的合作關系映射出雷鳥全球管理學院多年來每況愈下的處境。這所商學院的衰落是許多因素促成的，比如競爭壓力不斷加劇，資金募集工作乏善可陳，沒有投入足夠資源幫助學生尋找工作，一些教師領取的薪酬過于優厚等等。

????相較于許多商學院競爭對手，雷鳥全球管理學院的捐贈基金顯得非常微薄，近幾年一直不到2,000萬美元。2004年好不容易爭取到的一筆價值6,000萬美元的冠名權捐款承諾（這是美國所有商學院當時獲得的最大一筆捐款承諾），后來卻并沒有完全兌現。

????然而，即使這所學校缺乏雄厚的捐贈基金，有幾位教授的薪酬卻非常優渥。全球戰略教授坎南?拉馬斯瓦米（供職于雷鳥高層管理人員培訓項目）在2011財年領取的總薪酬高達70.0096萬美元。對于一位在這所位于亞利桑那州格倫代爾的學校之外并不被視為超級明星的學者而言，這筆薪酬似乎高得有些離譜。它甚至超過了時任校長安吉爾?卡布雷拉的薪金總額（58.4749美元）。

????With its 2012 fiscal budget $4 million in the red, the Thunderbird School of Global Management has agreed to grasp a sorely needed lifeline. The school, long known for its international business focus, is selling its Arizona campus to a for-profit education company.

????The decision has kicked up a storm of controversy. At least two board members have resigned in protest and nearly 2,000 of the school's alumni have signed a petition contending that its agreement with Laureate Education Inc. would "cheapen the value of the [Thunderbird] degree."

????"This is the end of Thunderbird as we have known it," wrote Merle Hinrich, a director and alumnus, in his resignation letter. "The Laureate transaction is a tragedy for Thunderbird and a total windfall for Laureate." Thomas Greer Jr., another board member who resigned, called the decision to sell Laureate a campus built with tuition funds and donations "unconscionable." Greer vowed to no longer contribute either his time or his money to the school.

????Thunderbird President Larry Penley, who started on the job last November, believes their concerns are understandable yet misguided. "That intimate nostalgia for what we experience causes us to be resistant to change," added Penley. "And then the bias that Americans especially have because of what's been discovered about for-profits causes resistance. However, the facts don't line up with Laureate behaving like these other for-profits."

????Some observers say the deal is evidence of waning interest in the MBA degree. In fact, many of the institution's troubles have been long lasting and self-inflicted, making it a quintessential case study in organizational decline. The new partnership reflects years of deterioration due to?increased competition from rivals, lackluster fundraising, insufficient resources devoted to getting jobs for students, and overly generous compensation for some of its faculty.

????The school's endowment, which in recent years has been below $20 million, is meager compared to many of its business school competitors. It didn't help that a $60 million naming gift, at the time in 2004 the largest pledge ever made to a business school, never fully materialized.

????Yet, even though the school lacks a significant endowment, several of its professors have been paid extraordinarily well. Kannan Ramaswamy, a global strategy professor who teaches in Thunderbird's executive education programs, had a total compensation package with benefits of $700,096 in fiscal 2011. That is munificent pay for an academic who is not known as a superstar outside his school in Glendale, Arizona. It even exceeded the total pay of then-Thunderbird President Angel Cabrera whose compensation totaled $584,749.