Tough to say, but you zeroed in on this interesting detail:
PG wrote:The brief note from the Maxwell Institute about Gee's transfer to ANEL states that he is retaining his rank and the Gay chair. It also rather oddly goes out of its way to mention that the Gay endowment which funds Gee's chair remains with the MI.
Now *that* is certainly very intriguing, particularly in light of Midgley's claim to have seen some "memo" (and also his unkind remarks about the "control" of Spencer Fluhman).
I don't see that this changes the fact that Gee has kept his Gay chair; I think it just means that when Gee retires the MI will get to appoint his successor and that meanwhile the MI gets to use whatever income remains from the Gay endowment after paying Gee's salary.
Indeed: that's the problem. We don't know the whole scope of what the endowment/gift entailed. There pretty clearly seems to be some "piece" of it that the Maxwell Institute got to keep, and we don't know what that is. The Mopologists have never insisted that they got "all" of whatever the endowed chair entails; they've never even tried to counter that particular element of the "new" MI's announcement.
This last point, however, might mean that the Gay chair used to have research funding attached to it, which Gee could use to pay grad student stipends or hire assistants, and that Gee has now lost this nice extra funding. Sometimes the amount of funding that is attached in that way to a professorship can be substantial, particularly in older German universities. I know a guy who can pay four post-docs out of his permanent funding before even touching his grant money. If the Gay endowment was generous to that kind of degree then it would make more sense for the MI to mention that it has kept these significant resources, and it would be fair to describe the move as a big loss for Gee. On the other hand the extra funding above salary might be just a token sum for conference travel and the MI might just be mentioning it out of petty bitterness.
Again: what were the stipulations of the endowed chair? Was it an outright statement that Gee was supposed to defend the Book of Abraham? (Or perhaps simply "the Church" more generally--which would mean that there was a fully-paid apologist for the LDS Church?) DCP (and Midgley, for that matter) have insinuated that Gee getting moved out of the MI would enable to do the "work" that he was supposed to do under the terms of the gift.... Well, if that means Book of Abraham, apologetics, then that means that the Church has had a paid apologist all along....
So, let's reformulate this in the form of a pop quiz....
Q: Why would a wealthy LDS donor create a "Research Chair" devoted to Egyptology?
a) He just really likes Egypt and ancient things, and likes to support the idea of a Mormon scholar following his passion.
b) He understands that Church critics attack the fact that Joseph Smith didn't actually understand Egyptian, and he thinks that if he hires an Ivy League-trained scholar to address the issue, it might help to quell the criticisms.
c) He could use another line-item on his income tax return, and, hey: this would count as a "charitable donation."
d) None of the above.