On August 27, 2004, St. Olaf and MPR execute a Purchase Agreement [PDF, 21 pages] without responding to SaveWCAL's letter of August 25, 2004 and without meeting with SaveWCAL representatives, as SaveWCAL had requested.
The purchase agreement appears distinctly disadvantageous to St. Olaf College. Phil Voxlund '66 sent an analysis of the agreement in his letters to Thomforde and St. Olaf treasurer Alan Norton. See entries for September 27, 2004, and September 30, 2004.
Among other things, the Purchase Agreement clearly shows that St. Olaf sold the Skifter Building on the St. Olaf campus (an asset of the WCAL charitable trust built completely by gifts from WCAL donors) to MPR. There is no evidence that MPR actually owns the building at this time.
SaveWCAL wonders why St. Olaf's attorneys, senior administrators and Regents would approve and sign off on a purchase agreement that is so clearly disadvantageous to the seller and seems to show the heavy hand of the buyer.
