Florida Atlantic’s Owlcatraz: The GEO Group controversy

Owlcatraz won’t happen. FAU announced Monday night that it will not name its football stadium after for-profit prison corporation GEO Group, according to the Miami Herald’s Michael Vasquez.

This comes after major public outcry against the school’s decision to provide publicity for an organization whose operations have been fraught with controversy, which included a 60-person opposition letter being delivered to FAU president Mary Saunders hours earlier.

About 50 FAU students staged a sit-in outside school president Mary Jane Saunders’ office to protest the sale of the school’s stadium naming rights to GEO Group -- a protest that caused Saunders to say she doesn’t know everything about the for-profit company that paid the school $6 million and prompted her to question the validity of accusations against them.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, students -- calling themselves members of a group entitled the “Stop Owlcatraz Coalition,” utilizing the name the stadium has picked up since GEO Group bought naming rights -- waited outside her office for two hours, at which point Saunders briefly addressed them and agreed to meet with them on Friday.

Stephen Colbert offered his take on the FAU stadium-naming controversy on Thursday night’s episode of The Colbert Report. Mainly he cracked jokes in character but managed to slip in some valid criticisms of the Geo Group’s controversial past.

Here’s video of the segment:

Florida Atlantic has accepted a stadium sponsorship with the GEO Group out of Boca Raton. There is significant controversy concerning the naming rights though, as the GEO Group has been targeted by human rights groups for numerous alleged violations and corruption charges.

As far as the money goes, the 12-year deal ticks out at $500,000 per year.