All right. I'll bite. I'm frustrated with the state of our athletics program, budget, and funding as well, but this is ridiculous. I'm not a sunshine pumper by any means, but the mental gymnastics some people are going through just to continue to tear the university to shreds because they are uncomfortable is mind blowing
The university has been bitten by multiple years of poor leadership and instability in leadership in departments almost all across the board. Additionally, we've had to consistently fight a constant decrease in state funding, lack of an external safety net, and lack of high income producing alumni (i.e. donors) to help subsidize things we're having to foot internally. To put it bluntly, you can't donate back a million a year if you're a teacher.
We all know the examples of this leadership instability.
- President - Early 2000s drama with Fleming and Thames, Dr. Saunders's missteps with the HoCo and attendance, and then interim to Dr. Bennett now.
- Athletics has essentially been a revolving door for years now. Athletic Director carousel. Athletics Staff carousel. Coaching carousels, etc.
- Additionally core executive staff and departments that help the university survive (i.e. Admissions, Finance, etc.) have had instability with people coming and leaving within 1-3 years.
Now let's go through the statistics everyone seems to be attacking now.
(09-13-2018 09:00 PM)GeagleFan Wrote: The number of new freshmen from Mississippi increased over Fall 2017 by more than 100.
The number of new freshmen from out-of-state increased over Fall 2017.
For the first time in University history, more than 2,000 first-time, full-time freshmen have enrolled at USM.
The percentage growth was the most in Mississippi, and the Fall 2018 total enrollment figure is the most at the institution since 2014.
I don't think anyone can against this. The university has changed multiple application deadlines UP from mid-summer before the semester starts to December/Spring and drastically increased recruiting efforts through the office of admissions. This is a direct result of a great effort of admissions staff as well as finally stability in this department after 4-5 years of a revolving door and having to fight budget issues.
(09-13-2018 09:00 PM)GeagleFan Wrote: The average GPA for new freshmen is 3.37, up from 3.29 in Fall 2017.
Almost 12 percent of all new freshmen earned a 4.0 core GPA.
Yes. GPAs may have more 'bonus point opportunities' (which are few and far between depending on the school) and different weights than they did when people on this board were in high school. However many high schools produce two separate GPAs- a core GPA and weighted GPA to reward students who take on AP/IB/Dual Credit courses versus students who take basic level classes. That doesn't make the increase in core GPA reported by the university any less impressive. This is especially true when coupled with the fact that enrollment went up. That means that we're attracting and targeting harder working students that challenge themselves. Also, any school that just "gives out bonus points" is indicative of the broken secondary education system and is the high school's problem, not the University's
(09-13-2018 09:00 PM)GeagleFan Wrote: Almost 10 percent of all new freshmen scored 30 or above on the ACT.
The average ACT score for new Honors College students is above 30.
You can't fake the ACT or any standardized test for that matter. You can certainly prepare and "learn to the test" or attempt to cheat. But bonus points and weighted GPAs do not have an effect on these two statistics.
The university's budget is seemingly stable for now after the academic reorganization. Freshmen enrollment is up. The athletics budget won't get increased in a day. Just enjoy some pretty solid good news for once.
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Attendance down, results down, interest down, donations down, enrollment down
