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Post by sbu79 on Jul 2, 2014 20:53:16 GMT -5
Do you folks think this guy is sincere? I just don't feel it.
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Post by firstdev on Jul 2, 2014 21:22:50 GMT -5
PSU-McKeesport and PSU- Bradford operate independently within the PS system, they are not linked to State College in any way. Every campus prepares its own annual budget, hires faculty and staff and procures materials and supplies. Hilbert is a two year college on a aging Buffalo area suburban campus with outmoded infrastructure, with very limited endowment funds on hand. Bluntly put, this is a personal rescue operation without any benefit for the SBU community. A merger would be a huge financial and operational burden on our community. A burden we do not desire or need, especially after our President's letter outlining extreme austerity measures. Time to move on and concentrate on our own house, instead of wasting university funds on chasing merger fantasies. Our rental of space at Hilbert for MBA and grad ED programs is all we need, thank you very much.
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Post by Pinnum on Jul 2, 2014 21:41:44 GMT -5
I am far removed from campus and day to day operations. Trying to be objective here, I think the lady has done a creditable job given the circumstances and hand that she was dealt by the renown Doctor Wickenheiser. If you start from a weak position which she did, it takes an awfully long time to dig yourself out of the hole that she started in. If you feel that she is doing a poor job, I would suggest other internal channels to raise your displeasure and grievances and not utilize a basketball message board to air your concerns. You clearly have a defined position of poor performance based on her body of work, I'm sure the Board of Directors is an appropriate place to channel your concerns. By the way, I have no position nor information other than personal observations, so save your rants for someplace else. Keep in mind that part of the issue at hand is finances and Sister doesn't accept a salary. Bringing in a new President would cost at least $400k (if looking for leadership outside the Church) or the equivalent of what about 30 average students pay in net tuition. You can't simply claim the ledger needs more on the revenue side and then advocate for more expenses too. Edit to note: Duquesne pays their President about three quarters of a million dollars a year and LeMoyne College pays half a million. While I don't have the inside info of the Board of Trustees, from the outside looking in, I think SBU is in good hands with the current administration.
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Post by Pinnum on Jul 2, 2014 21:48:41 GMT -5
Hilbert is a two year college You do realize that is not correct, right?
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Post by 123Rob on Jul 2, 2014 22:00:36 GMT -5
Aaah, more healthy discourse about our beloved Gulag of Indoctrination.
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Post by schmidtface on Jul 2, 2014 22:05:25 GMT -5
Wow this is hard to hear... I was really expecting an improvement in enrollment for 2014. There seemed to be more tours and attendance at recruiting events and people were really impressed by the new business building. The renovation of Rob/Fal and the new boilers also pointed to the University being on an uptrend. Clearly these comments from 'maggie' show there is no improvement in enrollment. This is bad, the professors are already paid very low salaries comparatively. Low funds will also negatively impact student life. It leaves me with a few questions...
What will be cut first if the University is desperate? Certainly some sports/club teams would be on the block. Basketball is untouchable but everything else is fair game. I'm sure some of the liberal arts majors would be cut as well.
And 2nd, who the ef is running the university's endowment? Last I checked it returned something like 1% in 2012, not sure about 2013 but I'm sure it's just as terrible! Like ****** I know you can't takes lots of risks with the endowment but come on! You almost have to try to do as poorly as our endowment has been doing. Endowments at other schools have been sky rocketing along with with market.
Wish I could help more, but I will donate what I can for the professors sake. I hope recent graduates do the same!
Oh and yeah no way the merger will be beneficial to SBU.
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Friar
Junior Member
Posts: 309
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Post by Friar on Jul 2, 2014 22:06:24 GMT -5
The fact SBU is experiencing some financial bumps is old news. This has been rumored for months. Sister Margaret is formally stating the university is in an austerity mode. There are two reasons for this. First, a lower than expected freshman enrollment for the last few years. It was expected that the university would experience a "bump" after the Bonnies made it to the NCAA. Simply put, this did not happen.
Secondly, the lackluster economy did not help. Students and their families chose other options, not Bonas. We all know the economy has been a way to slow recovery. You can't blame Sister Margaret for the economic problems in our country.
I support Sister Margaret in her endeavors in "righting the ship." She feels terrible about this. The university is investing in the campus with improvements in the dorms, the new business building and playing fields. There is no easy fix.
With regard to the proposed merger between SBU and Hilbert the university is simply exploring all it's options. We need to wait for the studies to be released before we can make any judgements. I have many questions on this topic and remain skeptical. However other colleges are going through similar studies. BTW, grants have been received to cover the costs of the studies as well as legal fees. Hopefully all grant money will defray all costs but I can't say for certain it will.
We all love Bonas. If we want to make the situation better I would recommend forwarding any positive constructive feedback to the university. I am sure they will consider any reasonable suggestion. Also, we should all do what we can to support the best Franciscan university in the world. Help out with recruiting, donate or if you have any soon to be college students send them to Bonas. I am doing my part. My son will enter his junior year and my daughter is enrolled as a freshman.
Sister Margaret is a remarkable woman with a great reputation. Should some changes be made at the university? Yes, and I believe they will be happening soon. Some have already started.
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clubber
Sophomore Member
Posts: 242
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Post by clubber on Jul 2, 2014 22:13:06 GMT -5
First Dev, Hilbert is a 4 year college not a 2 year. They offer programs that we don't like Forensic Science 4 + 1 program. One of the few schools that offer that major and others that SBU doesn't. They play a Div. III athletic schedule. I took a look at Hilbert's Campus video and it is very nice looking campus, maybe someone who has actually been there can share some thoughts on the Facilities. Fordham(Manhattan) is not independent from the Bronx campus. And a friend transferred from PS-McKeesport to State College after one year, so how independent are they?
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Post by Pinnum on Jul 2, 2014 22:15:51 GMT -5
And 2nd, who the ef is running the university's endowment? Last I checked it returned something like 1% in 2012, not sure about 2013 but I'm sure it's just as terrible! Like ****** I know you can't takes lots of risks with the endowment but come on! You almost have to try to do as poorly as our endowment has been doing. Endowments at other schools have been sky rocketing along with with market. I think you're citing year to year market value. This is not an indication of endowment performance. People often misattribute large gains to endowments when it is really fundraising that made for the significant gains and not market returns. If there is a $100M endowment and the next year it is at $110M a lot of people will say the endowment had a great return but if there were also $9M in new contrubutions to the endowment it would have made for a terrible market return. I have not reviewed the endowment so I don't know for sure, but I would imagine, due to the comments about credit rating in the memo that started this thread that the school is reluctant to borrow and as a result has probably drawn from the endowment for capital expenditures like the dorm renovations, business building, and new athletic field. (Note: it is common to pay for these things from the endowment when you have donations promised that will be coming in to cover the expense)
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Post by fjs64 on Jul 2, 2014 23:12:52 GMT -5
I don't believe anything was taken from the endowment to pay for the Fields project. I was at the groundbreaking ceremony....it was stated that the Fields project was broken into 2 parts....the part for the softball team was deferred until the funds were available.......my assumption based on the words was that the funds for the first phase were available and committed.......and the 2nd phase would not be started until the money was available.
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Post by bbb on Jul 3, 2014 4:26:36 GMT -5
Contents aside, in my opinion Sr. Margaret's letter is very poorly written. Funny that the first word you post to the board, to complain about something poorly written, is a grammatical error.
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Post by firstdev on Jul 3, 2014 7:04:44 GMT -5
Welcome 1973, we need more folks like you who are committed to Bonas and are not afraid to objectively review Sr. Margaret and her Fort Duquesne cliche.
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Post by firstdev on Jul 3, 2014 8:06:09 GMT -5
Sr. Margaret's salary is paid to her order OSF, if my recollection of financial events of the last decade is correct. She does not personally receive the salary. It is still a substantial university expense. So her tenure can not be objectively evaluated because...............................
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Post by thesenator on Jul 3, 2014 8:20:06 GMT -5
Wow this is hard to hear... I was really expecting an improvement in enrollment for 2014. There seemed to be more tours and attendance at recruiting events and people were really impressed by the new business building. The renovation of Rob/Fal and the new boilers also pointed to the University being on an uptrend. Clearly these comments from 'maggie' show there is no improvement in enrollment. This is bad, the professors are already paid very low salaries comparatively. Low funds will also negatively impact student life. It leaves me with a few questions... What will be cut first if the University is desperate? Certainly some sports/club teams would be on the block. Basketball is untouchable but everything else is fair game. I'm sure some of the liberal arts majors would be cut as well. And 2nd, who the ef is running the university's endowment? Last I checked it returned something like 1% in 2012, not sure about 2013 but I'm sure it's just as terrible! Like ****** I know you can't takes lots of risks with the endowment but come on! You almost have to try to do as poorly as our endowment has been doing. Endowments at other schools have been sky rocketing along with with market. Wish I could help more, but I will donate what I can for the professors sake. I hope recent graduates do the same! Oh and yeah no way the merger will be beneficial to SBU. unless i am mistaken, bonas has the minimum amount of teams (14) needed to maintain membership in the a-10, so cutting any of those teams would not be possible...club teams, on the other hand, i suppose would be a possibility...but how much of an impact would that have?...would it be possible to establish a particular endowment solely for the purpose of funding employee raises in salary?...for those on this board who know more about these kind of things-would that be a wise, prudent course of action?...
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Post by class70 on Jul 3, 2014 8:22:49 GMT -5
I too have no knowledge of contributions or expenditures by the SBU endowment and don't even know whether the data cited above apply to the 2012 fiscal or calendar year. For reference, however, the total return of the S&P 500 in calendar 2012 was 16%. Total return in the 12 months ending 6/30/2012 was a more modest 5.45%. Whoever manages it would have to be a crazy cowboy if he had all of it in stocks. Bonds too were in a bull market, however, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury falling from 3% in June 2011 to 1.98% in December and trending lower to 1.62% in 6/11 and ending at 1.72% in December 2012. The last five years have been phenomenal for investors. Unfortunately, many university endowments have underperformed because the events of 2007-2009 have convinced them (wrongly) that they should take an overly conservative approach to portfolio management.
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