(01-07-2020 12:18 PM)BearcatMan Wrote: To reiterate, I said the idea of EXPANDING the AD is ridiculous...now if you're talking about severe contraction and putting wrestling in then I'd be on board.
Also, shifting that tuition number to only show the surplus aid needed after merit awards and federal aid are added in would only cut roughly 35% of the $9M expense off...so you're still staring down a nice round $18M deficit every year.
No that's not what I am saying. Financial aid is just a way of financing tuition, it does not add any costs. There are minimal incremental costs to the university for a scholarship when you are only taking up additional seats for a class that is already on the curriculum. You don't add professors, don't add new classrooms or expand existing classroom sizes, don't buy additional desks, etc. etc. There is a big difference between costs and financial aid. The financial aid is funding the charges made by the university for the "market value" of a scholarship - they are not incremental costs.
I don't know if that addresses your post, because I don't know if I fully understand the reference to merit awards and federal aid to answer the point I was making about incremental costs to the university.
Probably not the best way to have a discussion on this topic using a bulletin board, but one of the problems with any government agency is that when you prop up income by charging out monies to other University departments is that it gives the false impression of increasing revenues and justifying increased spending in areas that are not necessary. The General Budget (or whatever it is called at UT) appears to be doing well while the Athletic Department takes the hits for the 85 scholarships (as an example) in football that are awarded. In reality, the incremental costs for tuition on those 85 scholarships out of a student base already being served of around 20,000 is going to be negligible. It's different for the costs of room and board. Most of those costs are real incremental costs incurred that will increase nearly linear to the number of scholarships filled (ie books, food, some portion of the dorm rooms, etc.)
To me, I make the decision on a cash on cash basis. What are the cash costs of additional scholarships, the costs for administering the sport (coaches, travel, equipment, etc.) and how much is offset from revenues from tickets, donations, fund raisers, etc.
And yes, my proposal would be to get rid of something in return for adding something. I understood your point about not expanding further - and I agree with that, unless there was a "white knight booster" that was willing to fund much of the additional costs. Say Wojo won the lottery and wanted to get wrestling back at UT...