(06-02-2018 03:25 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(06-02-2018 03:04 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  The problem with the viewing of the allocation of resources as 'look what we can build' is that the view by University BOT and a business BOD is the fundamental duties the individuals have to the entities.
The BOD fundamental duty is to maximize shareholder value -- this requires them to actively consider new investment in new lines; to disregard items that are 'achievable' and that would increase the value would be a breach of their ethical obligation to the company.
The BOT fundamental duty is to safeguard the endowment -- this requires them to shun new investment in unproven avenues; if they moved forward on the 'might be achievable' test that the BOD act under above, that would probably be a breach of their ethical obligation to the school.
In this case, it takes money to make money. To 'get to parity' with a normal Big 12 school might take upwards of a 300 million dollar investment based upon how far Rice has sunk in the parity game with de minimis attention to sports in the last 40 years.
Yeah, it sucks not sharing in a pie like that. That decision not to was made in incremental and annual inattention for a half-century+. But, I dont see the BOT ponying up the 300+ million or so to get on the gravy train given their specific duty at this point in time without the AD providing 'proof positive' that that level is achievable.

Agree with everything, except I think your $300 million price tag is low. That's just a little over the number that the SEC wanted to see around 1990, and it will have inflated a bunch since then. I think it's probably closer to $1 billion to get to parity at this point. You figure $250 million to get HRC up to P5 snuff, plus upgrading the EZF, $100 million for a P5 basketball facility, $300 million to endow scholarships, plus $350 million to subsidize operations for a period of time.

The problem with that is, as I understand the level of our endowment, that would be close to 20%. I am for spending more money, but not anywhere close to 20% of the endowment. We are after all a university and a pretty intellectually prestigious one at that. My question is why has our endowment (our investments) failed to keep up. When I was at Rice we had about the sixth largest endowment and first largest per capita. Last I looked, admittedly some time ago, we were just within the top 20 and around sixth per capita. If it had kept up, it would be easier to spend the money on athletics