UM athletics and budget cuts - article

[grizindabox]

PR....lets play a little game....how much money is spent in Missoula and Bozeman per home game?

Millions of dollars.

Now, let's continue the game. Identify yourself. Actually, I've been told who you are, but can't recall. Maybe it's in my emails or notes.

And how much money is spent annually in the State of Montana.....

 

[RABIDAWG]

:twisted: There's too much real estate involved to consolidate the hyphenated schools. If they did, maybe turn them into more much needed prison beds!

 

[BadlandsGrizFan]

PR....lets play a little game....how much money is spent in Missoula and Bozeman per home game?

Millions of dollars.

Now, let's continue the game. Identify yourself. Actually, I've been told who you are, but can't recall. Maybe it's in my emails or notes.

You keep notes about egriz??? That is terrifying

 

[HelenaHandBasket]

PR....lets play a little game....how much money is spent in Missoula and Bozeman per home game?

Millions of dollars.

Now, let's continue the game. Identify yourself. Actually, I've been told who you are, but can't recall. Maybe it's in my emails or notes.

You keep notes about egriz??? That is terrifying

Because the guy is a stalker.

 

[Grizbeer]

AllWeather....it appears that UM is in a crisis situation. Engstrom should be looking at increasing revenue and reducing expenses and maybe that is the case. If enrollment continues to drop, we will be a satellite campus.

Well, it's not a "crisis." No one has died.

But that's why I'm asking about increasing revenues. How? Tuition increases are the only feasible way to make up the current funding gaps, correct? Am I missing any other options?

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic... In any case, raising the price of something that people have shown they already don't want by not buying it usually isn't the best business model.

I agree dupuyer, especially since most of the enrollment issue is due to MSU investing in enrollment by spending far more, and far more per student on scholarships, grants and waivers. Raising tuition and cutting scholarships is probably the worst thing they can do. Enrollment increase are the only feasible way to increase funding, and they should be trying to get emergency authorization to spend endowment money to increase scholarships and recruiting to be on level or above MSU. Then the state funding will increase and solve the budget issue caused by low enrollment. At this point Engstrom would probably have to step down in order to get that authorization (or to increase contributions from donors to increase scholarships).

 

[AllWeatherFan]

You could raise tuition prices (especially in-state) and the cost of an education would still be a bargain at UM. All you have to do is compare the costs of similarly situated public and private schools in the region (including, but not limited to MSU).

UM will not be allowed to wait out the decline in enrollment in hopes that it reverses. If the funding gap remains, cuts will have to be made. The only way to reliably increase revenues to the extent needed to fill the funding gap is through tuition increases. The legislature won't be in session until 2017, so there can be no legislative fix until FY18 at the earliest.

 

[GrizzGriz]

As many have said it before; the resources and quality in effort being made by UM to recruit is embarrassing. I have a senior at UM and a senior in HS. The amount of contacts we have received from MSU, Carroll, Western and Rocky are way above anything we have received from UM. Way different than four years ago. We live in Idaho and maybe it is different for in state HS students, but that is our experience.

Earlier this year I emailed RE letting him know what we have experienced and asked why the sister of a current UM student was being out-recruited by four other Montana schools....never received a reply. :?

 

[Grizbeer]

You could raise tuition prices (especially in-state) and the cost of an education would still be a bargain at UM. All you have to do is compare the costs of similarly situated public and private schools in the region (including, but not limited to MSU).

UM will not be allowed to wait out the decline in enrollment in hopes that it reverses. If the funding gap remains, cuts will have to be made. The only way to reliably increase revenues to the extent needed to fill the funding gap is through tuition increases. The legislature won't be in session until 2017, so there can be no legislative fix until FY18 at the earliest.

the funding that the MUS allocated to the campuses was based on not increasing in-state tuition, so I don't think that is an option. Out of state tuition could be increased, but UM is already higher than MSU for out of state tuition. If the enrollment problem can't be solved than the only real solution is to cut funding and drop programs. And I don't see any legislative fix coming for UM - any increase in funding for UM will be matched by an increase in funding for MSU, which will use that money to be more aggressive in getting Montana students, continuing the enrollment trend, and creating the next wave of budget crisis for UM. The only solution for UM is to join the arms race in being aggressive in going after new students, and if that money comes from donors, the foundation, or cost savings from cutting coasts, it is the only way out of this for UM.

 

[Grizbeer]

As many have said it before; the resources and quality in effort being made by UM to recruit is embarrassing. I have a senior at UM and a senior in HS. The amount of contacts we have received from MSU, Carroll, Western and Rocky are way above anything we have received from UM. Way different than four years ago. We live in Idaho and maybe it is different for in state HS students, but that is our experience.

Earlier this year I emailed RE letting him know what we have experienced and asked why the sister of a current UM student was being out-recruited by four other Montana schools....never received a reply. :?

Same situation for in-state students.

 

[GrizLA]

I just received a letter from the UM Director of Annual Giving which sums up all the above and the many issues raised since the new President was "chosen". The first line says..."You recently received a holiday card from us along with a reply card to make a gift to the University of Montana. Unfortunately,an error was made on the donation card and the area to designate where your donations is applied was omitted".
This represents, in toto, what I think UM has become.

 

[UMGriz75]

I just received a letter from the UM Director of Annual Giving which sums up all the above and the many issues raised since the new President was "chosen". The first line says..."You recently received a holiday card from us along with a reply card to make a gift to the University of Montana. Unfortunately,an error was made on the donation card and the area to designate where your donations is applied was omitted".
This represents, in toto, what I think UM has become.

There is so much of this. I've recounted UM's hiring of a PR firm whose very first PR blast on behalf of UM went to great lengths to promote ... MSU. They had their universities mixed up, no one in Main Hall was in charge of approving the work or didn't do their job. There is no accountability in Main Hall. None.

When Engstrom announced it was "time for a change in leadership" is the singular astute moment of his career, ruined of course by picking the wrong men to fire, instead of resigning himself.

The last UM TV ad was just awful, and was the most-used. It is so ironic that many schools, as part of their television promotions, will use their major sport teams as part of the package to great success, if nothing else, adds color and excitement to the ads.

UM's last ad used a guy break dancing on a rock on Mt Sentinel, surrounded by knapweed. The vast gap between UM's advertising "potential," and what it actually does is more than "vast." It is incomprehensible. The ads are generic, not memorable, don't feature a UM "theme," don't exploit UM's distinctive features at all, seem embarrassed to feature the major sports, the coaches and players, and while they do seem adept at randomly walking around campus getting odd quotes from often very odd students, they don't actually feature any academic strengths at all.

When I use the word "generic," the choice of the word is not "generic" enough. It isn't just that there is no imagination behind these efforts, it is the fact that they are so perfunctory, and convey only the image of lack of excitement, lack of academic rigor, lack of sport enthusiasm, and lack of any good reason to attend the University of Montana. "Thrive" just doesn't cut it. Peggy Kuhr may be the least effective Grand VP in Charge of Vast Communications ever at UM, at the highest salary ever paid, doing the least amount of good. Indeed, doing harm. She seems predisposed, for her own political leanings, to be against using sports as a promotional tool but offers no substitutes. That's the job of the hired firms, you know.

But that is so representative of the kind of people Engstrom has surrounded himself with, and who are in charge of "the Mission" at the University of Montana; mostly non-entities at very high salaries.

 

[Griz Man]

But that is so representative of the kind of people Engstrom has surrounded himself with, and who are in charge of "the Mission" at the University of Montana; mostly non-entities at very high salaries.

I hope you're rattling some cages to get things changed! Did the facebook campaign get any traction?

 

[MissoulaMarinerFan]

Politicians like Dick Barrett need to demonstrate some leadership and instead of whining hat in hand about cutting funding to higher education or athletics, how about go tell those highschool diploma republicans that run the place its not 1950 any more. We can't all make a living farming daddy's ranch. The state needs educated young people. Great societies fund education, the arts and the damn roads. Tell them to double down on athletics, and how about $100 million for a medical arts department while you are at it? God forbid they have to tap the Coal Trust fund. We can cut a mediocre university until it's even less, or invest in it.

Yeah - well...the state isn't going to keep educated young people when they can move 1 or 2 states away and make more money doing the exact same thing....then the state wonders why they can't keep young educated folks in state.

The TLDR version - MT employers need to get rid of the old mind-set of, "well, I can pay you less, because look at how awesome it is to live in MT! That will make up the difference, right?"