(12-21-2016 01:29 PM)BufflOwl Wrote:  

(12-21-2016 10:48 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(12-20-2016 10:22 PM)gsloth Wrote:  

(12-18-2016 03:55 PM)BufflOwl Wrote:  Latest annual report sent to Owl Club donors shows more than $23M in "University Support." Just to get you up to date. I bet your $400K savings on a head coach would really excited Leebron and Tudor. Let's do that!

I wonder how much of that university support is for scholarships, and what the true figure of foregone university revenues really would be. Because Rice is proud of how much people don't pay to go to Rice (the less they family can afford, made up for with need-based aid), what the average student pays (including external grants) should be the figure used for that figure.
Maybe it is, but my guess is that it probably isn't. The department has to account for the full cost being "transferred" back to the school. I don't know the number of athletes, but if the total number of athletes is 200 (guaranteed to be low, but chosen as a round number) and the average student gets $10k forgiven (I have no idea if that's accurate, but again chosen as a round number for easy calculation), that's $2M right there.

The university support is scholarships plus subsidies for operations. I think the $23M number includes the cost that the university kicked in on Patterson. Based on the total amount of university contribution to that facility, and on the assumption that it is a 3 year project with about 1/3 of the cost per year, that would put the other university support back into about the $15M per year range, where I have been told by many that it still is. My understanding is that the Board wants to keep the operating subsidy at $15M, but has been forced to cover shortfalls that pushed it into the $15-20M range. I understand that the Board has recently pushed to limit the subsidy at a time when revenues have been declining. I think this points up the need for both revenue enhancement and a comprehensive plan to support investment by the Board.

At one time, the scholarship amount was based on some formula that considered what the average student paid instead of the full sticker price. I believe that is still the case. I think there are more than 200 scholarship athletes, but so many are partial scholarships that 200 is probably not a bad estimate of the full scholarship equivalents. The total sticker is about $58K/year, with the average student paying about $24K, per published sources. Based on 200 equivalent scholarships at $58K, the subsidy would be about $11.6M for scholarships and $3.4M for operations; using the $24K cost, the subsidy would be about $5M scholarships and $10M operations. This is somewhat different from the McKinsey numbers extrapolated, probably reflecting the continued decline in revenues as CUSA has lost members.

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/rice...Report.pdf

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/rice...014-15.pdf

http://dev2.pubaffairs.rice.edu/owlclub/...Report.pdf

If these are true (which its always possible they aren't) the University Support number seems to be growing a pretty steady pace over the past 3 years. This isn't what I'd expect to see if the true number was $15 M with some additional was added for the Patterson Center. Unless you are sharing with us the entire $31 M project was funded by the university. That'd be some news and probably surprising to Brian Patterson. Should we expect the University Support number to drop back to $15 M in next year's Annual Fund report?