E. Gordon Gee (President West Virginia U.)

[DaddyBigBucks]

I have read a lot in this thread on the campaign to raise funds in the billions of dollars range and its importance to the university, which I would have thought could fund itself from revenues it generates in any given year.

What do we need this money for and what do we do with it?

Research, teaching and scholarships; basically the business of being a university.

Some of the money raised pays for these things directly; some of it establishes endowments which pay for these things on an ongoing basis.

That is vastly over-simplified, especially the last bit. It should do for this forum though.

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

He took a really hard shot at priests - and while he may have thought it applied only to administrators at Notre Dame it could easily be construed to have a much broader context - either way, it's inappropriate.

Further, had he not stepped down it would have certainly been a talking point when Kelly visited St. X, LaSalle, Elder, Moeller, St. Ed's and St. I. Those are folks you don't want to piss off for long term recruiting purposes- especially in a state where recruiting wars with ND and Michigan are heating up.

Finally, it also exhibits a lack of history - Michigan vetoed Notre Dame out of the Big Ten in the 20s and again in the 50s. Add that Schembechler is on record more than once saying that Big 10 schools should not schedule ND.

His comments clearly show that he was talking about a specific group of people who all happen to be priests. If they're looking for something to get offended over, then they'll see it as offensive. If they're looking at it the way it was said, the only people who should be offended are the specific priests at ND who make it such a pain in the ass to deal with them when it comes to athletics. And those people are intended to be offended......that's the point. If they didn't want to be offended, they shouldn't have been such pains in the ass about all of it.

Guess what, though. They knew they were being pains in the ass and they didn't care, because they were making tons of money by being the greedy assholes they are. They didn't care that they were being assholes. So they're not allowed to care that they're being called out now. And they don't.

 

[Bleed S & G]

I don't understand why more people don't understand this.

Because they get a sound bite and now are "informed"

 

[BIATCHabutuka]

Endowed scholarship money for undergraduate and graduate students, endowed funds to bring in post-docs, endowed professorships and chairs, endowed research funds, library funds, new buildings and so on.

Quality costs money whether you're trying to attract a high school student with a 33 ACT, a pre-eminent historian or a cancer researcher.

https://www.giveto.osu.edu/igive/onlinegiving/

Totally understand the need to recruit talent. Not sure there is any actual incremental cost to allowing in top students on scholarship though.

The endowment like a big number but total annual tuition is probably in the range of a billion a year I guess.

I worry about leaving a pile of money in any account though. The Congressional Revenue Hunters are desperate for cash and all the nation's University endowments add up to a large figure worth 'protecting' by swapping them for treasuries or bailing them in on the student loan crisis.

I think I would rather see us spend this on the University immediately instead of accumulate the funds for a rainy day. We should be able to finance the University out of current revenue. Not that there is anything wrong with having a buffer and who would turn down free donations anyway (donations which are often restricted in use and sometimes only allow the interest to be spent). Nobody is forced to give.

I'd be curious as to how large the buffer is compared to the annual budget and how large the annual budget is compared to annual revenues (do we generate free cash from operations?).

Not sure why we would need to keep more than 2 or 3 years budget in reserve. Wouldn't surprise me if we have negative working capital as an enterprise honestly which would eliminate the need for any buffer.

 

[BayBuck]

http://www.osu.edu/giving/guide-to-giving/endowments/about.html

Endowments are used to fund scholarships, fellowships, faculty and research, new facilities, projects and programs, libraries, etc., in perpetuity.

http://controller.osu.edu/acc/2012_fin_rpt.pdf

2012 financial report shows a net operating loss of $500M (page 26), $2B current assets including $600M cash

 

[BIATCHabutuka]

http://www.osu.edu/giving/guide-to-giving/endowments/about.html

Endowments are used to fund scholarships, fellowships, faculty and research, new facilities, projects and programs, libraries, etc., in perpetuity.

http://controller.osu.edu/acc/2012_fin_rpt.pdf

2012 financial report shows a net operating loss of $500M (page 26 & 33)

Haven't looked at the link yet, but holy shit we lost a half a billion? I would have bet any amount of money we had negative working capital and could fund ourselves through revenue with ease.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

His comments clearly show that he was talking about a specific group of people who all happen to be priests. If they're looking for something to get offended over, then they'll see it as offensive. If they're looking at it the way it was said, the only people who should be offended are the specific priests at ND who make it such a pain in the ass to deal with them when it comes to athletics. And those people are intended to be offended......that's the point. If they didn't want to be offended, they shouldn't have been such pains in the ass about all of it.

Guess what, though. They knew they were being pains in the ass and they didn't care, because they were making tons of money by being the greedy assholes they are. They didn't care that they were being assholes. So they're not allowed to care that they're being called out now. And they don't.

But they wouldn't be the Notre Dame that we know and loathe were they as rational about it as you describe.

Notre Dame wants to suck the life out of their "conference" taking but giving nothing.......and be loved for it.

Should they suck it dry, they want the option--like any good parasite--to move onto the next host..........and applauded for it.

Notre Dame wants to cover up rape by their players and negligent manslaughter by their coach..........and still tell everyone that they are better and more moral than all the other football factories in America.

Notre Dame wants to reject the Big Ten over the almost unanimous vote of their own faculty in 1999...............and then hold a press conference where they literally say that they rejected the BIG because they're too good academically.

Notre Dame is a scummy, self-entitled, self-important, reckless, parasitic and destructive institution.............but they expect to play the victim whenever anyone points it out, and they're exceptionally good at it.

Not recognizing that last point was Gee's downfall.

 

[BIATCHabutuka]

http://controller.osu.edu/acc/2012_fin_rpt.pdf

2012 financial report shows a net operating loss of $500M (page 26), $2B current assets including $600M cash

first off, damn good link.

did a quick scan of the financials and it isn't as bad as it sounded at first. of the half a billion dollar operating loss, half of that is a non cash depreciation and then we had other non operating revenues to put us ahead of the reaper.

second, had no idea how huge the university hospital was compared to the university itself. the hospital is worth triple what the rest of the university is. wow.

after looking at all this a couple of billion in reserves isn't much honestly.

as a manager or in this case a board of trustees member (i am not obviously, just playing here) i would still look into the labor expense much closer but wouldn't fuck with the hospital at all, that is the golden goose. the academic mission is second in all honesty. wouldn't surprise me that there are 100 people in the hospital system pulling down more than the university president, or maybe even Urban Meyer.

 

[Diego-Bucks]

I seriously wouldn't have a problem with Zimpher. What she was able to accomplish at Juggalo Clown College was just short of miraculous. Of course, the juggalos all loathed her because she whacked Huggins, but their hatred is a recommendation in my book.

I'm not sure she's much of a fundraiser though, and in the midst of a 2.5B campaign that ability is going to be paramount.

I'm trying to look into the progress on the $2.5 bn campaign; seems that tOSU has made it to ~$1.5 bn? Or is that not accurate? Source

Just curious how much more effort the new president has to put in to get the other $1.0 bn in the target time-frame (I have no idea what the target schedule currently is). Not trying to say how difficult the rest of the campaign will be, but perhaps the legwork on the campaign (e.g., initial donations and advertising the campaign) was mostly accomplished under Gee. A part of me wonders how much of that campaign is going to immediate costs on research and infrastructure improvements vs. increasing the long-term endowment.

 

[BayBuck]

Haven't looked at the link yet, but holy [Mark May] we lost a half a billion? I would have bet any amount of money we had negative working capital and could fund ourselves through revenue with ease.

Well, that's before "non-operating revenues" including state funds and "gifts-current use", etc.

second, had no idea how huge the university hospital was compared to the university itself. the hospital is worth triple what the rest of the university is. wow.

And that's even before the new hospital complex has been completed and opened!

 

[OSUK]

I thought he would survive this because 1) he always survived before 2) he has been worth about 2.5 Billion to the university.

I guess the goose that layed the golden eggs layed too many verbal eggs.

I can't tell you the name of the president of any other BIG school, and I would have to think hard to think of the name of one in the whole country. Normally, we don't know who these people are - unless there are some really bad things going on at a school. The fact that everyone knew who the president at Ohio State is was probably not a good thing.

 

[BayBuck]

Just heard another name come up: is Ed Ray too old to bring back? (He's only a year younger than Gee.) 10 years in charge of an other OSU, 5 years as tOSU provost before that, 30+ years as OSU econ prof including 15 as department chair. Looks like an effective fundraiser out west, also recent chairman of the NCAA Executive Committee.

 

[buckeyegrad]

Just heard another name come up: is Ed Ray too old to bring back? (He's only a year younger than Gee.) 10 years in charge of an other OSU, 5 years as tOSU provost before that, 30+ years as OSU econ prof including 15 as department chair. Looks like an effective fundraiser out west, also recent chairman of the NCAA Executive Committee.

I think Ed Ray would be a good choice if he would be interested in serving at least 5 years before retirement (typically, the minimum you want out of a President). I really liked him when he was at tOSU as provost and I've heard good things about his from a friend of mine who is faculty at Oregon State.

 

[cincibuck]

Ever thus to Fredo, John.

While it could be a rug belonging to Millett, I prefer to believe this to be a picture of a Vietnam vet leaving a "Welcome Home" message to Jane Fonda.

 

[cincibuck]

Totally understand the need to recruit talent. Not sure there is any actual incremental cost to allowing in top students on scholarship though.

The endowment like a big number but total annual tuition is probably in the range of a billion a year I guess.

I worry about leaving a pile of money in any account though. The Congressional Revenue Hunters are desperate for cash and all the nation's University endowments add up to a large figure worth 'protecting' by swapping them for treasuries or bailing them in on the student loan crisis.

In the past the revenue hunters were more interested in retirement funds -STRS - PERS and UPRS (or whatever the hell the fund for retired professors is) Plus most of the richest universities are private.

I think I would rather see us spend this on the University immediately instead of accumulate the funds for a rainy day. We should be able to finance the University out of current revenue. Not that there is anything wrong with having a buffer and who would turn down free donations anyway (donations which are often restricted in use and sometimes only allow the interest to be spent). Nobody is forced to give.

I'd be curious as to how large the buffer is compared to the annual budget and how large the annual budget is compared to annual revenues (do we generate free cash from operations?).

Not sure why we would need to keep more than 2 or 3 years budget in reserve. Wouldn't surprise me if we have negative working capital as an enterprise honestly which would eliminate the need for any buffer.

Endowment funds are also a hedge by higher education against the financial whims of state governments and the ups and downs of the market. An endowment fund can be used to fill gaps between what political forces think a professor should be paid and what the market believes.