The Signal has been reporting on Georgia State alumnus and top donor Parker H. Petit’s criminal activity and investigation since 2018.
Read the related articles found at georgiastatesignal.com for a chronological recap of the investigation’s timeline.
- July 2018, Parker Petit resigns from MiMedx amid federal investigation
- August 2018, Petit gifts potentially inflated stocks to Georgia State
- September 2018, Petit officially removed from MiMedx board of directors
- October 2018, Georgia State and USG do not plan to rename Parker H. Petit Field
- December 2019, Petit indicted on accounting fraud charges
- November 2020, Petit convicted
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If you have been reading The Signal over the past three to four years, you know that top university donor Parker H. Petit was accused and convicted of securities violations that ended with his receiving jail time. But many of you might not realize that the university’s science center and football field share his namesake. And frankly, it’s time to get that changed.
Both are tangible reminders of the disgrace that Petit has brought on the university. It’s understandable why the university and USG are unwilling to change the name, considering Petit donated $10 million to the university in 2017 alone.
The following year, MiMedx employees accused Petit of donating fraudulent stocks to Georgia State, and he resigned from the pharmaceutical company amid the federal investigation.
This leads to an obvious question with an unclear answer. While we know that the stocks donated were part of the channel stuffing for which Petit was charged, was the $10 million a product of that as well? With no answer, the university is allowing the name of a crook to be displayed on our football field.
There is a clear answer as to who should be on the field: current Georgia State University President Mark Becker.
While I’ve been critical of the university and Becker over the past few years, I’d be foolish not to recognize all the excellent work Becker has done for Georgia State. Despite facing multiple economic recessions in his decade at the university, he added 17 new buildings to the Downtown Campus.
He also raised the graduation rates by 22 points over the past decade, making Georgia State the model of student success in the U.S. and across the world.
These achievements and many more make Mark Becker a far more worthy person to have the science complex named after.
Even if it’s not Becker, the university has plenty of names from which to choose. What about former quarterback Dan Ellington for the field and Baozhong Wang for the science center? The latter is a Georgia State professor who is working on a vaccine for all coronaviruses.
None of those names suit your fancy? What about letting the students vote for the namesake of both?
Give students the power to choose who represents them on the building they pay for and the field they cheer on. There are many possibilities, none who have donated possibly fraudulent money to the university.
Even then, no amount of money should allow you to sway university politics in such a way.
As it stands, the university and USG are unwilling to act because of the message it sends. If you commit a crime, you cannot represent the university. The message that no matter how white, male or wealthy you are, the university represents diversity and inclusion, and you can’t buy notoriety on our campuses.
