This is just horrible reporting. Why dont they talk about Bowling Green? They own a Jet for gods sake. Turbo Props are very efficient planes for the type of travel being used by the university. Not to mention that fact that Aviation Students can intern as First Officer in the King Air and gain experience. So its wrong for our president to fly to New York for business or to a University sporting event? Weird
Up and back for each night of the MAC tournament is a bit of a stretch though.
Depends on what it was for. Sometimes there are meetings scheduled well in advance involving out-of-towners and non-university individuals. If he missed these meetings while in Cleveland for the tourney, some would consider it shirking his duties. And I know that persons other than state employees aren't allowed in state vehicles; the same (or something similar) may be true for the plane, even if the cost is paid by donors.
I think this is just Channel 10 trying to catch up with Channel 4, which has an ongoing series on how tax money is (mis)spent. And a poor substitute at that. They said that donors pay a lot of the expenses, so it's really a non-issue.