(09-05-2014 06:09 AM)Top Dawg Wrote:  There was no reduction for the students when they cut those sports. However, there really wasn't any money "saved" as the savings were redirected into the other sports that continued. I believe that prior to the cuts, the majority of the sports teams did not utilize the full amount of scholarships allowed by the NCAA. My recollection is that JMU took the funds from the cut sports and "fully funded" up to the NCAA ceiling all other sports. I believe that meant additional scholarships offered for field hockey, tennis (both men's and women's), softball, and volleyball. Soccer may have also seen an increase.

You are correct. Add golf (M & W), and Women's swimming and diving, track and field and cross country.

(09-05-2014 07:27 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(09-05-2014 06:09 AM)Top Dawg Wrote:  There was no reduction for the students when they cut those sports. However, there really wasn't any money "saved" as the savings were redirected into the other sports that continued. I believe that prior to the cuts, the majority of the sports teams did not utilize the full amount of scholarships allowed by the NCAA. My recollection is that JMU took the funds from the cut sports and "fully funded" up to the NCAA ceiling all other sports. I believe that meant additional scholarships offered for field hockey, tennis (both men's and women's), softball, and volleyball. Soccer may have also seen an increase.

You are correct. Add golf (M & W), and Women's swimming and diving, track and field and cross country.

As stated, government entities have a difficult time passing along savings. Not that I am or was opposed to increasing our scholly's, but this is where we must be getting beat in the budget department by other schools. I know many schools, even UNC-Chapel Hill (I have first hand knowledge of the Tarheels), doesn't give out all the scholly's available for sports like girls track.

Should we find it necessary to reduce our athletic spending, this full funding of scholly's should be looked at very close. How exactly does Title IX work? Is it based off of total number of student athletes or total number of scholarships or some combination of both?

I keep going back to alumni. JMU has a way to offset and even surpass whatever state funding it may lose but isn't getting it done. Alumni giving is a joke but stoked the right way could be a huge revenue gain. My personal interests? A national level basketball program and FBS football. I'd give 10x what I give now and would far more receptive to the school's academic needs.

If anything I see JMU rated worse today then when I attended 20 years ago so I'm going to be a hard sell on supporting strictly for academic reasons. Do enough others feel the same way? Who knows? I'm not sure what research the school has done about increasing donations but to me it seems like an untapped cash cow if done the right way. JMU has a growing alumni base hitting their professional peaks and now is the time to improve alumni engagement.

I agree with others here. We are straddling the fence with FBS. Lots of money into the stadium and program for what? If we don't follow through it's a drain. Either pull back and go Patriot and focus money into basketball (and maybe get back on track with Mason, VCU and Richmond), or clearly state our goal is FBS and launch a campaign to get it done.

(09-05-2014 10:23 AM)2Buck Wrote:  I keep going back to alumni. JMU has a way to offset and even surpass whatever state funding it may lose but isn't getting it done. Alumni giving is a joke but stoked the right way could be a huge revenue gain. My personal interests? A national level basketball program and FBS football. I'd give 10x what I give now and would far more receptive to the school's academic needs.

If anything I see JMU rated worse today then when I attended 20 years ago so I'm going to be a hard sell on supporting strictly for academic reasons. Do enough others feel the same way? Who knows? I'm not sure what research the school has done about increasing donations but to me it seems like an untapped cash cow if done the right way. JMU has a growing alumni base hitting their professional peaks and now is the time to improve alumni engagement.

I agree with others here. We are straddling the fence with FBS. Lots of money into the stadium and program for what? If we don't follow through it's a drain. Either pull back and go Patriot and focus money into basketball (and maybe get back on track with Mason, VCU and Richmond), or clearly state our goal is FBS and launch a campaign to get it done.

Rankings wise, JMU has absolutely stepped back academically compared to when I applied 15 years ago.

I am struggling to see where JMU is exceeding my modest expectations, anywhere. CoB I guess....but that will slip too, I'm afraid.

Pretty sure the goal to reach FBS has been clearly stated for almost the last two years, just not in public forums and not the Sun Belt. Well, it sounds like these cuts aren't a done deal and hopefully won't occur. It sounds more like a "How would you go about making the cuts if we imposed them?" stage right now which definitely leads me to believe they're going to happen but fingers crossed that they don't. I just don't know how the state legislature can keep telling JMU to increase enrollment and do the opposite to allow us to be successful. Agreed that alumni giving is nowhere close to where it needs to be and I guess that'll never really be a dead horse but we keep beating it and it doesn't seem to be showing any signs of getting up.

(09-05-2014 10:27 AM)JMU2004 Wrote:  I am struggling to see where JMU is exceeding my modest expectations, anywhere.

This sums up my feelings perfectly and is the reason for my struggle when it comes to giving more.

(09-05-2014 11:23 AM)JMUETC Wrote:  

(09-05-2014 10:27 AM)JMU2004 Wrote:  I am struggling to see where JMU is exceeding my modest expectations, anywhere.

This sums up my feelings perfectly and is the reason for my struggle when it comes to giving more.

Yup, completely agree. Makes it a much harder to decision to keep writing checks each year.

(09-05-2014 11:23 AM)JMUETC Wrote:  

(09-05-2014 10:27 AM)JMU2004 Wrote:  I am struggling to see where JMU is exceeding my modest expectations, anywhere.

This sums up my feelings perfectly and is the reason for my struggle when it comes to giving more.

I think we can find a examples of "greatness" both academically, athletically, individual student growth, and student preparation for life after JMU, but its very difficult to give directly to specifics.

The kids today love their experience as much as we did. My wish is that we keep them engaged. My perception is that JMU has fallen flat in doing this, and where much work is needed.

When you think of the events that cause you to connect with your alma mater it's usually centered around sports. Attending games, watching on TV, viewing online, etc. Outside of athletics under what other circumstances are alumni connecting with the school or other alumni? I'm more likely to attend an alumni event in my area if it's at a game vs what ends up another typical networking event. Athletics also leads to engaging family and friends, not just the graduate. The activity on this board is centered around sports, not how the academic programs are performing.

US News releases their new rankings on Sept 9th. Irregardless of how well it reflects what the school really accomplishes- the national perception it creates becomes reality for most.

We have fallen flat across the board academics, athletics, engagement, outreach, strategy....but hey honey look at that new shiny building!!

I somehow missed the memo about how being a top 6 south regional university is a bad thing.

Its the "regional" part I have a problem with.

(09-05-2014 12:07 PM)Potomac Wrote:  I somehow missed the memo about how being a top 6 south regional university is a bad thing.

When I applied, we were #2 behind UR. Then UR changed classifications, and we were #1. We've fallen to #6 since then.

(09-05-2014 12:12 PM)Dadgum Wrote:  Its the "regional" part I have a problem with.

then pony up and help get more doctoral programs started. complaining on a message board does nothing.

(09-05-2014 12:15 PM)JMU2004 Wrote:  

(09-05-2014 12:07 PM)Potomac Wrote:  I somehow missed the memo about how being a top 6 south regional university is a bad thing.

When I applied, we were #2 behind UR. Then UR changed classifications, and we were #1. We've fallen to #6 since then.

Are you sure it wasn't #1 public? I know we were #1 public for something like 17 years until the citadel passed about 2-4 years ago.
FWIW, US news uses alumni giving rates as a metric of measurement for your ranking. Although it's important, how is alumni giving in any way significant in ranking a school's academic quality?
It's more an indication of two things. 1) how much alumni end up making on average and 2) how they perceive their school. I would say that giving rates are poor outside of Ivy's, Junior Ivy's (patriot league and w&m), and BCS programs.

The problem is that US news doesn't post past years' rankings for comparison purposes. I wish they did.

I remember reading somewhere that US News officials said the primary reason why the citadel passed us in the rankings was their alumni giving rate compared to ours.

(09-05-2014 12:03 PM)Dadgum Wrote:  We have fallen flat across the board academics, athletics, engagement, outreach, strategy....but hey honey look at that new shiny building!!

Over what time frame? I graduated 30 years ago. I have been "engaged" by JMU FAR more over the past 10 years than I was the previous 20. I have been involved with JMU in several substantive ways unrelated to athletics over the past 10 years - some initiated by me, some initiated by JMU.

My two oldest kids are current JMU students and I can tell you, as much as I loved JMU, their opportunities and experiences are so much better (academically and socially) than mine were - I'm very jealous. I think the death of JMU is greatly exaggerated on this board.

(09-05-2014 12:15 PM)Potomac Wrote:  

(09-05-2014 12:12 PM)Dadgum Wrote:  Its the "regional" part I have a problem with.

then pony up and help get more doctoral programs started. complaining on a message board does nothing.

So true. I'm not sure the average person understands the cost of funding competitive graduate programs. JMU struggles to fund its current programs at a level that allows it to compete for top students.

What is the largest public university categorized as regional? Serious question. I would think that we must be in the top 5%. I realize that size has nothing to do with a school being listed as a regional or a national university, I'm just curious.

If my guess is correct, this is a compelling reason for the unrest among the alumni. We have grown in so many ways, head count, fiscal structures, landmass, yet we have failed to reach national recognition or to even be recognized as a national university. How much closer are we today than we were 5 years ago? 10 years ago? Is this even a goal?

I'm not saying this is right for JMU, but tell me if you are attempting to reach this status, and if so, what is the timeline.
As has been stated many times, presenting qualifiers to the alumni and students alike, is often avoided by our admin. Its as if we simply report rather than reach out and project.

JMU used to be considered the 3rd best public school in VA behind WM and UVA and was sized in the middle of the two. JMU approached the average 1200 SAT score and our acceptance rate was in the 40% range from a strong applicant pool. Then JMU made a deal with the 'devil' as the state saw a spike in student population coming at a time when state support for higher education was strained. JMU basically doubled in size to accomodate these high school graduates while keping the smaller campus feel and JMU spirit. My perception is that we are now competing with the George Mason's, ODU's and VCU's of the world and less so with the UVA's and VT's. I know that growth of this magnitude creates its own challenges and JMU has probably done a good job of maintaining a highly qualified applicant pool, but it seems like we are now considered to be a very large back up school with small time athletics. JMU has seen an increase in the number of applications, but at the same time has to accept more students (60-63% acceptance rate, while the actual yield falls slightly to maintain the 4,000 freshman spots...so clearly I am not the only one with this perception. As an alum, I feel that part of the administrations job is to make the value of my degree worth more in the marketplace. Having small time athletics coupled with a large student population makes JMU look like a large commuter school in the middle of a cow pasture which probably diminishes the perceived value of my degree. No wonder almuni are underwhelmed and not willing to open up their wallets to an administration who has put us on such a path and seem to have no actual concrete plan to change this trajectory other than 'listening'...but not hearing... our concerns.

(09-05-2014 12:19 PM)Potomac Wrote:  

(09-05-2014 12:15 PM)JMU2004 Wrote:  

(09-05-2014 12:07 PM)Potomac Wrote:  I somehow missed the memo about how being a top 6 south regional university is a bad thing.

When I applied, we were #2 behind UR. Then UR changed classifications, and we were #1. We've fallen to #6 since then.

Are you sure it wasn't #1 public? I know we were #1 public for something like 17 years until the citadel passed about 2-4 years ago.
FWIW, US news uses alumni giving rates as a metric of measurement for your ranking. Although it's important, how is alumni giving in any way significant in ranking a school's academic quality?
It's more an indication of two things. 1) how much alumni end up making on average and 2) how they perceive their school. I would say that giving rates are poor outside of Ivy's, Junior Ivy's (patriot league and w&m), and BCS programs.

The problem is that US news doesn't post past years' rankings for comparison purposes. I wish they did.

I remember reading somewhere that US News officials said the primary reason why the citadel passed us in the rankings was their alumni giving rate compared to ours.

We were #1 public, tied for # 2 overall in 2000. Quite a fall according to US News, which I know is far from perfect.

Nonethless. We have been passed academically and athletically over the last 15 years, by many objective measures. I struggle to see why so much of the prior administration has been allowed to hang around, and why we hired a listless yes man with no vision.

I'm not motivated to continue to donate $3k+/year, as I have over the last couple of years. And it sucks, because JMU needs the money now more than ever....but I have zero faith in our administration. They lack charisma, they lack leadership, and they lack the ability to inspire.

http://www.jmu.edu/jmuweb/general/genera...0658.shtml