How much would you spend for a fiberglass turtle with a graduation cap on his head?

For news anchor and university alumna Connie Chung let’s go with, say, $8,000.

“Testudo the Grad” and 29 other Fear the Turtle sculptures created for the university’s 150th anniversary celebration found new owners last night at an auction at the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center to raise money for scholarships.

But while it has a new owner, the grad will not necessarily have a new home. Chung, like several others who have bought sculptures, plans to return her purchase to the campus.

“She is very excited to buy ‘Testudo the Grad’ and she will re-donate it back to university so that it will around for graduations to come,” said Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs James Osteen, who bought the statue for Chung at the auction.

Men’s basketball coach Gary Williams, university President Dan Mote and Testudo were some of the people to lend a hand at the ceremony.

“This is a great, worthy cause because we are giving our people something to bring home and they are helping pay for students to get into our school,” Mote said.

Graduate theatre student Heather Lockard, who helps build “Jestudo,” a turtle in a jester’s costume, had the sculpture in her living room for three months.

“Every time people came into my home that monstrously would be the first thing they would see,” she said. “I’m really going to miss him, though.”

For many of those who are now bringing the sculptures home, the hardest decision – where to put the 4-foot-tall turtle – was made long before the bidding.

“This thing is tailgating with us in the parking lot for the homecoming game [versus North Carolina State],” said Ft. Washington resident Pam Prather, who bought a sculpture for $1,550. “After that, it is going on my desk with my other Maryland memorabilia.”

Daniel Kraus, a university alumnus who bought a sculpture for $7,500 for his business, Terrapin Chiropractic, plans to display it along with his other memorabilia, such as a Len Bias poster and pictures of Williams and men’s basketball coach Ralph Friedgen.

“Anything that I can give back to the university is my honor,” Kraus said. “I love this school and this school loves me back.”

For Patrick Welsh, a university alumnus who bought his sculpture in a separate, online auction for $4,300 dollars, the purchase was a way to show his pride in the university.

“I’m putting this in front of the conference room at my office so when anyone meets me, they know where I came from,” he said.

Contact reporter Eric Schaffer at newsdesk@dbk.umd.edu.