3/25/2013: Let’s help UO’s VPFA (and former athletic department chief financial officer) Jamie Moffitt find the money to pay for the faculty raises in the Lariviere plan. Every 1% raise for the faculty (TTF and NTTF) costs UO about $910K. Add in the variable benefit costs and it’s about $1.15M.
Sharon Rudnick has asked the faculty for suggestions on where to find the money. Here’s one. Pat Kilkenny’s baseball program cost UO millions in fixed costs – we still owe about $5 million on a balloon loan for his PK Park. We’re stuck with that “gift”. But, according to the official AD data posted at GoDucks.com, this year’s variable costs for baseball will be almost $2.2 million:
while revenue is only projected at $385K:
So drop baseball and we’d certainly save $1.8 million next year, enough for a 1.6% raise for the faculty. But that’s ignoring their share of the $52M in athletics department “administrative expenses”. Prorate that on the basis of baseball’s share of variable costs, $2.1M/$30M=7%, and get another $3.5M. Let’s be real conservative and call it $4.6 million in savings total. That’s enough to pay for the 4% merit pool the union is calling for in 2014-15.
Thinking about Title 9 compliance? Drop baseball and we could drop Kilkenny’s competitive cheerleading program too. That would save another $800K plus admin expenses – enough to cut tuition by about $100 for every in-state student.
It seems like a good time for just about everything to be on the table. Is the IAC looking at this, too? Is anyone (other than UOM) actually taking up these issue seriously?
What are they doing with next year’s 6.9% Tuition increase?
Enjoyed your entry on dropping baseball.
Now that “competitive cheer” has been ruled to NOT be a sport ( http://abcnews.go.com/US/judge-cheerleading-sport-quinnipiac-university-squad-title-ix/story?id=11219913#.UVnxwFejR8E )
that certainly leaves the Title IX question looming even larger. If
cheer is not a sport, all the more reason to drop baseball, since that
leaves UO even further out of compliance with Title IX.
Kilkenny’s
decision to add “competitive cheer” rather than an ACTUAL women’s sport
such as gymnastics flouts the spirit of Title IX, even if it did meet
the letter of the law.
But now that it doesn’t…
Women’s crew. Nike even makes shoes for it: http://www.athleteps.com/2010/nike-rowing/