Re: Any updates on the coaching staff?
Student government has long fought, harder than any other fight, against student fee increases of even a penny. I get not wanting to add more to student debt, but we could completely "cut off" general fund money in a few short years with a relatively simple fix.
The BOR has mandated to President Nook that increasing enrollment is very high on the list of things to do, if not number 1. I agree. UNI needs to get to 15K, minimum. If we could find a way to push to 20K it would be even better, but let's focus on 15,000.
Right now UNI students pay about $160 per year in athletic fees. That simple math is the 1.9m in fees divided by 12,000 students enrolled. Adding 3,000 more students, at the same fee structure, takes us to 2.4m in fees. That's not a huge number, but it's a start.
Now, at 15,000 students if we moved to $400 (still a pretty damn low student fee compared to every other university in D1) we would have generated $6,000,000 in revenue. That is an extra 4.1 million over what we are generating now. Getting to $6,000,000 in student fees gets us off of general fund money completely, which is currently about $4,300,000. It also doesn't really move us up, or down, in terms of % subsidized either, which is nice.
That doesn't increase our budget, but it would give our athletic department the ability to go "Look, our university is paying for itself which is what you always wanted. Now back the hell off of all of your threats and start helping us in ways we need the help." Potentially allocating that $4.3m into the academic side. That would make them happy and would potentially open up some university money for athletics.
UNI enrollment has dropped pretty hard the last decade. We absolutely need to get enrollment to a minimum of 15,000 to start to "increase" university health, though.
A better comp would be Illinois State. They are a very, very, similar institution. The most recent numbers have them at 9.8m in student fees. That breaks down to about $500 at student. They have increased their enrollment, massively, over the last decade or so. They are now over 21,000 students. Not only are they increasing enrollment, they are attracting better students in the process. They are adding about 400-500 more students every year the last half decade to decade. The state of Illinois is broke, and about to start shutting universities down. Illinois State is about the only one not worried. They've been strategically building for a while. They are almost exactly the model we need to take.
Based on what I'm reading, Nook is wanting a similar approach. He seems to be very pro-athletics and has said that the university will grow through, and because of athletics. I won't be shocked to see a student fee increase debated/enacted in the next year or two. Especially if/when WSU leaves the Valley. I would believe Nook/Harris would be doing everything they can to look at new homes as well. That will mean an increased budget and student fees will need to play a big part in that in some fashion.
Originally posted by achrist70
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The BOR has mandated to President Nook that increasing enrollment is very high on the list of things to do, if not number 1. I agree. UNI needs to get to 15K, minimum. If we could find a way to push to 20K it would be even better, but let's focus on 15,000.
Right now UNI students pay about $160 per year in athletic fees. That simple math is the 1.9m in fees divided by 12,000 students enrolled. Adding 3,000 more students, at the same fee structure, takes us to 2.4m in fees. That's not a huge number, but it's a start.
Now, at 15,000 students if we moved to $400 (still a pretty damn low student fee compared to every other university in D1) we would have generated $6,000,000 in revenue. That is an extra 4.1 million over what we are generating now. Getting to $6,000,000 in student fees gets us off of general fund money completely, which is currently about $4,300,000. It also doesn't really move us up, or down, in terms of % subsidized either, which is nice.
That doesn't increase our budget, but it would give our athletic department the ability to go "Look, our university is paying for itself which is what you always wanted. Now back the hell off of all of your threats and start helping us in ways we need the help." Potentially allocating that $4.3m into the academic side. That would make them happy and would potentially open up some university money for athletics.
UNI enrollment has dropped pretty hard the last decade. We absolutely need to get enrollment to a minimum of 15,000 to start to "increase" university health, though.
A better comp would be Illinois State. They are a very, very, similar institution. The most recent numbers have them at 9.8m in student fees. That breaks down to about $500 at student. They have increased their enrollment, massively, over the last decade or so. They are now over 21,000 students. Not only are they increasing enrollment, they are attracting better students in the process. They are adding about 400-500 more students every year the last half decade to decade. The state of Illinois is broke, and about to start shutting universities down. Illinois State is about the only one not worried. They've been strategically building for a while. They are almost exactly the model we need to take.
Based on what I'm reading, Nook is wanting a similar approach. He seems to be very pro-athletics and has said that the university will grow through, and because of athletics. I won't be shocked to see a student fee increase debated/enacted in the next year or two. Especially if/when WSU leaves the Valley. I would believe Nook/Harris would be doing everything they can to look at new homes as well. That will mean an increased budget and student fees will need to play a big part in that in some fashion.
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