Plop Down in the Jason Weill Auditorium Seat

Unlike the vast majority of cross-lake commuters in Seattle, I was out on the roads this afternoon. At Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Carnegie Mellon University held an event called Network Night Seattle where I got to meet several of my fellow alumni, the Dean of the School of Computer Science, and a few staff members who do alumni relations and recruiting.

We were shown a brief presentation featuring mock-ups of the futuristic Gates Center for Computer Science, the not-yet-built structure which will be the School of Computer Science's new home when it opens. Not much is known for certain about the center, including what name will be attached to the new research center next door. Read on to see how much it'll be to name something around the new Gates Center, according to literature distributed at the presentation.

Research Center	$10 million
Planetary Robotics Center	$2.5 million
Conference Suite and Terrace	$2.5 million
Tiered Classroom	$1.5 million
Elliptical Walkway	$1 million
Bridge to Newell-Simon Hall	$1 million
Bridge to Purnell Center	$1 million
Dean's Office Suite	$1 million
Large Classroom	$1 million
Department Office Suite	$500,000
Reading Room	$500,000
Winter Garden	$500,000
Research Conference Room	$500,000
Gates-Newell-Simon Patio (Doesn't that already have some names attached?)	$300,000
Faculty Labs/Project Spaces	$200,000 to $300,000
Computer Clusters (Labs)	$150,000
Café	$100,000
Conference Rooms	$75,000 to $250,000
Small Classrooms	$50,000 to $150,000
Collaborative Project Spaces	$50,000 to $150,000
Undergraduate Conference Room	$50,000
Study Carrels	$50,000
Collaborative Project Rooms	$50,000 to $150,000
Faculty Offices	$10,000 to $15,000
Auditorium Seats	$3,000

There's a lot of money to be made here. As tempting as it would be to place a professor in the Jason Weill Faculty Office, I can only afford a seat in a much wealthier man's auditorium. Prestige is expensive.