UNI's Budget Tightening Continues

[Kyle]

Solid thread about an opinion piece with exactly zero references to cuts in the UNI athletic department. Heck the article doesn't even bring up the UNI athletic department or UNI basketball.

What is the UNIs strategic plan?

Are they sustaining or increasing income via State/Federal government?
Are they sustaining or increasing income via tuition?
Are they sustaining or increasing income via non-academic programs?
Are they sustaining or increasing income via donors?

Are they cutting academic budgets?
Are they cutting athletic budgets?

How does any of this affect MBB?

AD Strategic Plan: Move toward a private fund model. Most of the athletic departments in the MVC are funded through a student fees model. Dannen isn't a big believer in shifting the financial responsibility to the students, so he is making the necessary cuts to non-revenue sports while furiously raising money to endow scholarships.

State/Federal Government: Decreasing by $3 million or 2% in 2012. Every year the legislature passes a different budget so future years are not certain.

Tuition: Sustaining. Both the president and board of regents are concerned about increasing student loan debt. They are not a big fan of increasing tuition to offset the budget cuts.

Non Academic Programs: I guess I don't know what you mean by non-academic. Athletics? Fine Arts? If you mean research grants and other related income sources, I would say sustaining, but this is not a significant source of income at UNI. We are not a research institution, nor do we pretend to be.

Donors: Increasing, big time. UNI recently started a fundraising campaign called Imagine the Impact. So far UNI alums have donated $132 million (details Here). For a school the size of UNI this is a staggering number and shows UNI Alums have some deep pockets. Dannen is also doing a great job raising funds for the athletic department. It only took him 24 hours to raise $7 million to pay for Ben's new 10 year contract after beating Kansas.

Cutting Academic Budgets: Yes. The president is closing price lab school, the UNI museum, outsourcing printing, and cutting about 50 small academic programs. This is going to bridge the $5 million dollar budget gap for the 2012 fiscal year. The total UNI budget is about $150 million.

Cutting Athletic Budgets: Not sure. No announcements have been made for this year, so I'm optimistic. Our athletic department knows it needs to work toward becoming self sufficient and has made huge strides the past three years by increasing revenue and decreasing expenses. This year alone the football team will bring in $1M just by playing two FBS teams (Iowa and Wisconsin) which is almost unheard of for in FCS football.

Basketball: Not a big impact IMO. Basketball is self sustaining. Dannen isn't going to mess with the one sport in his department currently making money.

[Kyle]

For those interested in checking out a database for NCAA Institution financial support.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/ ... nances.htm

It breaks down the revenue sources for each athletic department.

Not every school in the MVC is listed, but of those that are, here are the student fees collected. As you can see, UNI just does not believe in shifting the financial burden to the students.

MVC Schools (% of total budget):

Illinois State: $7,900,000 (51%)
Indiana State: $5,247,776 (52%)
SIU–Carbondale: $5,028,000 (40%)
Wichita State: $2,328,419 (14%)
UNI: $1,212,500 (7%)
MSU: $0 (is this true?)

Other Mid-Majors:

Ohio: $16,460,250 (68%)
Old Dominion: $23,662,377 (73%)
VCU: $12,492,158 (77%)
Winthrop: $5,252,466 (47%)
Wisconsin Milwaukee: $4,298,446 (45%)
Western Kentucky: $6,437,652 (28%)
Memphis: $7,666,067 (19%)
Appalachian State: $8,089,752 (51%)

[beatingrillz]

MSU has no student fees although a 40 dollar per semester or just about 2 mil per year is being discussed as well is a $160 per semester or 7.5 mil per year.

[pafan]

It wouldn't surprise me if lots of schools were at $0 on student fees. I'm actually surprised InSU's number is that high. Last summer, the Indiana Legislature forbade Indiana University from raising its student fees as part of an ongoing spat between the IU trustees and Indiana politicians. I guess politicians aren't equal opportunity.

[DoubleJayAlum]

I can't believe panther99 has not posted in this thread. Every time I've brought up the UNI financial situation, he has immediately responded with a Baghdad Bob sort of "All is well!" post. Now, yet another newspaper article about further cutbacks at UNI and he is nowhere to be seen?

As to the whole fees/no fees discussion, who really cares? There is no right or wrong way to fund the school and its programs. All that matters is that the plan is sustainable. Obviously, counting on a never ending stream of money from the state does not appear to be sustainable in Iowa.

Which school is in the worst financial shape: UNI, SIU, MSU or InSU?

[unipanther99]

I can't believe panther99 has not posted in this thread. Every time I've brought up the UNI financial situation, he has immediately responded with a Baghdad Bob sort of "All is well!" post. Now, yet another newspaper article about further cutbacks at UNI and he is nowhere to be seen?

As to the whole fees/no fees discussion, who really cares? There is no right or wrong way to fund the school and its programs. All that matters is that the plan is sustainable. Obviously, counting on a never ending stream of money from the state does not appear to be sustainable in Iowa.

Which school is in the worst financial shape: UNI, SIU, MSU or InSU?

There is no bombing going on! (duck)

Really though, nothing new here. This is the same stuff that we all talked about a few weeks ago. The $500K cut to athletics was expected and the department had been planning for it. What has everyone worked up this time is the cut to academics. The faculty are up in arms over the announced cuts to some really small academic programs. The strategic plan seems to be focusing on and strengthening what UNI does well (education, business, accounting, and some other areas).

As for athletics... Nobody has posted Mr. Gartner's Part II:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/articl ... od|mostcom
Regents or Legislature should tell U of I, ISU to share athletic funds

Hawkeyes everywhere are up in arms over the thought of "revenue sharing."

[achrist70]

Personally I can not find a reason why UNI is not increasing student fees. Students already get into all athletic games for free, increasing student fees by $100-200 per student a year would generate enough to deal with most if not all finacial problems in the UNI athletic department.

I mean ODU gets more money from student fees than the entire UNI athletic budget.

[uniftw]

Personally I can not find a reason why UNI is not increasing student fees. Students already get into all athletic games for free, increasing student fees by $100-200 per student a year would generate enough to deal with most if not all finacial problems in the UNI athletic department.

I mean ODU gets more money from student fees than the entire UNI athletic budget.

No student is going to turn down UNI admission because of an extra 100-200 a year in fees. This discussion was had on panthernation about a month ago, and someone (who is only on the board to be a DB) brought up a point to counter "100 wouldn't keep students away". He mentioned, "Why not 100 a year in fees to save the museum and lab schools". I was okay with it. $300 a year to save things important to UNI is a freaking bargain.

[Wufan]

Thanks to all those that posted answers to my questions.

1. I think it's great that the strategic plan is to strengthen things that UNI is good at and things that are important to the stake-holders in UNI.

2. If I were in charge, I would add student fees as well. The fees could then be divided between athletics/academics as the stake-holders saw fit. If that means so goes the teacher lab or away goes whatever sport then so be it. It would definately strengthen the Universtiy as a whole. You can't spend what you don't got.

[Kyle]

I can't believe panther99 has not posted in this thread. Every time I've brought up the UNI financial situation, he has immediately responded with a Baghdad Bob sort of "All is well!" post. Now, yet another newspaper article about further cutbacks at UNI and he is nowhere to be seen?

As to the whole fees/no fees discussion, who really cares? There is no right or wrong way to fund the school and its programs. All that matters is that the plan is sustainable. Obviously, counting on a never ending stream of money from the state does not appear to be sustainable in Iowa.

Which school is in the worst financial shape: UNI, SIU, MSU or InSU?

Did you even read the article? What further cutbacks are you talking about?