(04-21-2020 09:10 PM)Dwight Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 08:09 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  They're using the virus as an excuse to do what they knew they were going to do anyhow but now they won't have to take the flack for mismanagement. Bet.

I think this is right in a number of ways. The University administration is assuming worst case and using that assumption to justify giving faculty the choice of either taking a 20% pay cut or facing massive layoffs. On the one hand, faculty can't complain too bitterly since they are far from the only ones who will suffer financially due to coronavirus. On the other hand, the administration is making use of coronavirus in a cynical way.

Yep, but, were this coronavirus to not happen, this all wouldn't have gone on for another few years at least. This has expedited a lot of corrections in a lot of industries/markets, higher ed is probably going to be the heaviest hit because they were the furthest away from stable.

Looking at profiles of other schools in comparison to Urbana, there are three who are very close to seeing the same fate in Ohio IMO. Bluffton, Malone, and Antioch are going to struggle to stay afloat big time, as none have any unencumbered money to support a drop in revenue from enrollment that will most certainly come. Hell, Lourdes Administration just informed all of their coaches that they MUST recruit 5 more athletes in every team or face potential cuts. That's not a great sign, especially considering how over-recruited all of their teams are already.

(04-22-2020 08:04 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 09:10 PM)Dwight Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 08:09 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  They're using the virus as an excuse to do what they knew they were going to do anyhow but now they won't have to take the flack for mismanagement. Bet.

I think this is right in a number of ways. The University administration is assuming worst case and using that assumption to justify giving faculty the choice of either taking a 20% pay cut or facing massive layoffs. On the one hand, faculty can't complain too bitterly since they are far from the only ones who will suffer financially due to coronavirus. On the other hand, the administration is making use of coronavirus in a cynical way.

Yep, but, were this coronavirus to not happen, this all wouldn't have gone on for another few years at least. This has expedited a lot of corrections in a lot of industries/markets, higher ed is probably going to be the heaviest hit because they were the furthest away from stable.

Looking at profiles of other schools in comparison to Urbana, there are three who are very close to seeing the same fate in Ohio IMO. Bluffton, Malone, and Antioch are going to struggle to stay afloat big time, as none have any unencumbered money to support a drop in revenue from enrollment that will most certainly come. Hell, Lourdes Administration just informed all of their coaches that they MUST recruit 5 more athletes in every team or face potential cuts. That's not a great sign, especially considering how over-recruited all of their teams are already.

Many of these smaller schools are under scrutiny because athletics is how they've been keeping their enrollment numbers is a theory I've seen posed. As I posted originally, I thought Lourdes was going off course with the uptick in athletics but perhaps that is what is being taught in Small University Administration 101. I doubt it is only the universities.

(04-22-2020 09:06 AM)eastisbest Wrote:  

(04-22-2020 08:04 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 09:10 PM)Dwight Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 08:09 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  They're using the virus as an excuse to do what they knew they were going to do anyhow but now they won't have to take the flack for mismanagement. Bet.

I think this is right in a number of ways. The University administration is assuming worst case and using that assumption to justify giving faculty the choice of either taking a 20% pay cut or facing massive layoffs. On the one hand, faculty can't complain too bitterly since they are far from the only ones who will suffer financially due to coronavirus. On the other hand, the administration is making use of coronavirus in a cynical way.

Yep, but, were this coronavirus to not happen, this all wouldn't have gone on for another few years at least. This has expedited a lot of corrections in a lot of industries/markets, higher ed is probably going to be the heaviest hit because they were the furthest away from stable.

Looking at profiles of other schools in comparison to Urbana, there are three who are very close to seeing the same fate in Ohio IMO. Bluffton, Malone, and Antioch are going to struggle to stay afloat big time, as none have any unencumbered money to support a drop in revenue from enrollment that will most certainly come. Hell, Lourdes Administration just informed all of their coaches that they MUST recruit 5 more athletes in every team or face potential cuts. That's not a great sign, especially considering how over-recruited all of their teams are already.

Many of these smaller schools are under scrutiny because athletics is how they've been keeping their enrollment numbers is a theory I've seen posed. As I posted originally, I thought Lourdes was going off course with the uptick in athletics but perhaps that is what is being taught in Small University Administration 101. I doubt it is only the universities.

Yeah, clearly they're using athletics to TRY to buoy enrollment, and have been for years, which I guess makes sense...if you float that out to people who don't want to stop playing but aren't good enough to play at a competitive level, some will take you up on it for whatever it costs them. The fact that Lourdes threw that out to all 24 sports means to me that they're incredibly worried about their ability to stay afloat. If every team brought in 5 more people at reduced costs, that would basically account for right around 10% of their total enrollment at the University. The fact that they're trying to do that now, in April, with deposit date coming up and no way to actually scout players, means to me that this is a shoot the moon scenario.

Hell, right around 40% of their enrollment is tied to athletics teams right now, which is insane to me...especially for a department that almost certainly runs at a 90%+ loss every year. All of that bundled together with them having an almost non-existent endowment (~$9M per last report to the state in 2019, which likely wouldn't cover expenses for more than a few months at this rate) and very little financial support from their sponsoring body all just bundles together into a terrible situation. I hate to see a longstanding institution like that in our hometown have issues like this, but the writing is certainly on the wall.

Siena Heights is in a similar situation, and it has always been interesting to me that two small private schools could survive in the same small city (Adrian) for as long as they have. I would assume you'll see some mergers in the area, with Siena/Adrian and Heidelberg/Tiffin looking at the possibility at this point.

(04-22-2020 09:32 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(04-22-2020 09:06 AM)eastisbest Wrote:  

(04-22-2020 08:04 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 09:10 PM)Dwight Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 08:09 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  They're using the virus as an excuse to do what they knew they were going to do anyhow but now they won't have to take the flack for mismanagement. Bet.

I think this is right in a number of ways. The University administration is assuming worst case and using that assumption to justify giving faculty the choice of either taking a 20% pay cut or facing massive layoffs. On the one hand, faculty can't complain too bitterly since they are far from the only ones who will suffer financially due to coronavirus. On the other hand, the administration is making use of coronavirus in a cynical way.

Yep, but, were this coronavirus to not happen, this all wouldn't have gone on for another few years at least. This has expedited a lot of corrections in a lot of industries/markets, higher ed is probably going to be the heaviest hit because they were the furthest away from stable.

Looking at profiles of other schools in comparison to Urbana, there are three who are very close to seeing the same fate in Ohio IMO. Bluffton, Malone, and Antioch are going to struggle to stay afloat big time, as none have any unencumbered money to support a drop in revenue from enrollment that will most certainly come. Hell, Lourdes Administration just informed all of their coaches that they MUST recruit 5 more athletes in every team or face potential cuts. That's not a great sign, especially considering how over-recruited all of their teams are already.

Many of these smaller schools are under scrutiny because athletics is how they've been keeping their enrollment numbers is a theory I've seen posed. As I posted originally, I thought Lourdes was going off course with the uptick in athletics but perhaps that is what is being taught in Small University Administration 101. I doubt it is only the universities.

Yeah, clearly they're using athletics to TRY to buoy enrollment, and have been for years, which I guess makes sense...if you float that out to people who don't want to stop playing but aren't good enough to play at a competitive level, some will take you up on it for whatever it costs them. The fact that Lourdes threw that out to all 24 sports means to me that they're incredibly worried about their ability to stay afloat. If every team brought in 5 more people at reduced costs, that would basically account for right around 10% of their total enrollment at the University. The fact that they're trying to do that now, in April, with deposit date coming up and no way to actually scout players, means to me that this is a shoot the moon scenario.

Hell, right around 40% of their enrollment is tied to athletics teams right now, which is insane to me...especially for a department that almost certainly runs at a 90%+ loss every year. All of that bundled together with them having an almost non-existent endowment (~$9M per last report to the state in 2019, which likely wouldn't cover expenses for more than a few months at this rate) and very little financial support from their sponsoring body all just bundles together into a terrible situation. I hate to see a longstanding institution like that in our hometown have issues like this, but the writing is certainly on the wall.

Siena Heights is in a similar situation, and it has always been interesting to me that two small private schools could survive in the same small city (Adrian) for as long as they have. I would assume you'll see some mergers in the area, with Siena/Adrian and Heidelberg/Tiffin looking at the possibility at this point.

DIII schools have been adding new sports for decades just to get the tuition.

(04-22-2020 10:02 AM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  

(04-22-2020 09:32 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(04-22-2020 09:06 AM)eastisbest Wrote:  

(04-22-2020 08:04 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 09:10 PM)Dwight Wrote:  I think this is right in a number of ways. The University administration is assuming worst case and using that assumption to justify giving faculty the choice of either taking a 20% pay cut or facing massive layoffs. On the one hand, faculty can't complain too bitterly since they are far from the only ones who will suffer financially due to coronavirus. On the other hand, the administration is making use of coronavirus in a cynical way.

Yep, but, were this coronavirus to not happen, this all wouldn't have gone on for another few years at least. This has expedited a lot of corrections in a lot of industries/markets, higher ed is probably going to be the heaviest hit because they were the furthest away from stable.

Looking at profiles of other schools in comparison to Urbana, there are three who are very close to seeing the same fate in Ohio IMO. Bluffton, Malone, and Antioch are going to struggle to stay afloat big time, as none have any unencumbered money to support a drop in revenue from enrollment that will most certainly come. Hell, Lourdes Administration just informed all of their coaches that they MUST recruit 5 more athletes in every team or face potential cuts. That's not a great sign, especially considering how over-recruited all of their teams are already.

Many of these smaller schools are under scrutiny because athletics is how they've been keeping their enrollment numbers is a theory I've seen posed. As I posted originally, I thought Lourdes was going off course with the uptick in athletics but perhaps that is what is being taught in Small University Administration 101. I doubt it is only the universities.

Yeah, clearly they're using athletics to TRY to buoy enrollment, and have been for years, which I guess makes sense...if you float that out to people who don't want to stop playing but aren't good enough to play at a competitive level, some will take you up on it for whatever it costs them. The fact that Lourdes threw that out to all 24 sports means to me that they're incredibly worried about their ability to stay afloat. If every team brought in 5 more people at reduced costs, that would basically account for right around 10% of their total enrollment at the University. The fact that they're trying to do that now, in April, with deposit date coming up and no way to actually scout players, means to me that this is a shoot the moon scenario.

Hell, right around 40% of their enrollment is tied to athletics teams right now, which is insane to me...especially for a department that almost certainly runs at a 90%+ loss every year. All of that bundled together with them having an almost non-existent endowment (~$9M per last report to the state in 2019, which likely wouldn't cover expenses for more than a few months at this rate) and very little financial support from their sponsoring body all just bundles together into a terrible situation. I hate to see a longstanding institution like that in our hometown have issues like this, but the writing is certainly on the wall.

Siena Heights is in a similar situation, and it has always been interesting to me that two small private schools could survive in the same small city (Adrian) for as long as they have. I would assume you'll see some mergers in the area, with Siena/Adrian and Heidelberg/Tiffin looking at the possibility at this point.

DIII schools have been adding new sports for decades just to get the tuition.

Agreed, but schools like Lourdes, which didn't even have sports a decade ago moving from 0 to 24 sports is a more modern trend and one that is indicative of a lack of institutional health overall. That's more desperation than strategy IMO.

I believe Lourdes is an NAIA institution and can thus offer full sports scholarships vs DIII which can offer only non athletic scholarships to potential athletes.

(04-22-2020 02:42 PM)IamN2daRockets! Wrote:  I believe Lourdes is an NAIA institution and can thus offer full sports scholarships vs DIII which can offer only non athletic scholarships to potential athletes.

DIII may be "non scholarship", but they don't have any problems recruiting the kids they want.

(04-22-2020 02:42 PM)IamN2daRockets! Wrote:  I believe Lourdes is an NAIA institution and can thus offer full sports scholarships vs DIII which can offer only non athletic scholarships to potential athletes.

And? Those students will then be paying nothing to the institutions...which is why it is unsustainable. Now those students are not getting full rides as I'm sure Lourdes wouldn't be that stupid, but they're still coming at a significant discount.

(04-22-2020 03:52 PM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(04-22-2020 02:42 PM)IamN2daRockets! Wrote:  I believe Lourdes is an NAIA institution and can thus offer full sports scholarships vs DIII which can offer only non athletic scholarships to potential athletes.

And? Those students will then be paying nothing to the institutions...which is why it is unsustainable. Now those students are not getting full rides as I'm sure Lourdes wouldn't be that stupid, but they're still coming at a significant discount.

The context of the conversation was that small colleges were using athletics to boost student numbers and &. I believe he was making the (legit) point that Lourdes wouldn't have that advantage so not their motivation in building an athletics program.

I mentioned Lourdes was NAIA just for record keeping purposes. Some NAIA powers do give full basketball scholarships. A significant percentage of DIII enrollees play sports at the smaller schools. Eliminate sports at DIII and costs go down significantly and also possibly enrollment. The conundrum is obvious.

Go Rockets