Consider the recent proliferation of corporate logos on endowed professorships, as reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education . I'm impressed by what companies have done so far, but I'm waiting for William Bennett to get the General Electric Chair in Philosophy. Mere advertising isn't enough for some firms. At West Virginia University, the Kmart professor of marketing is required to spend 30 days a year training Kmart store managers. It was a condition of the gift.
Whole schools are out for bid, too.
It used to be that wealthy donors endowed professorships and schools in an individual's honor, often someone no longer alive. But we now have a more business-like approach. After all, these names are too valuable a marketing opportunity to be wasted on the dead. And it would be merely sentimental to use the names of great figures in science and the arts. The economic logic is overwhelming.