In-state athletic budgets..

[fourthandshort]

lawson .. rough times for sure for several schools in your situation. What about the predident that was just pushed out ... I never rewad up on the details of that ouster. Was he part of the problem or just a victim of no win situation ??

A bit of both. He definitely shared some of the blame...didn't really give the "full story" about how things were here back to the legislature (essentially made it look like we were doing fine), made a lot of faculty angry with him about how he dealt with them and their union, etc. This last summer though, a group of locals and business owners banded together in a "Fire Jack" campaign to get him removed. This campaign was partially due to the decreasing enrollment and decreasing number of university employees (due to years of layoffs) hurting local sales and tax numbers, however it was also at least somewhat racially-motivated (Dr. Jack Thomas was WIU's first black president), because if it was really just about the economy, there's more people that should have been included in the campaign...both other members of the administration (some of whom are still at the university) and some of our local lawmakers (who have done very little in the way of fighting for our region to get state funding help).

At that point, Dr. Thomas "decided" it was "in everyone's best interest if he step down".

Our minority student population was angry about it because it looks like a big part of why he was forced out was because he was black.
Many other people are angry because he was able to negotiate a deal with the board that, on paper, looks pretty "cushy". The thing is though, because of the way it was handled, he could have had a legitimate cause to bring a lawsuit against the university. I'm not a legal expert, so I don't know if it'd be something like "hostile work environment" or "racial discrimination" or what...but it would have been legitimate. Even if he didn't win, it would have likely gone on for years and cost the university even more in legal fees and bad press than the "exit deal" ended up costing us.

Now, we have some of the people who caused the problem (or made it worse) gone, but there's still people who were a part of it who are still here. The new BOT and new Interim President all seem to be doing a great job (Interim President Abraham has been doing an AMAZING job of reaching out to the university and local community...going to events, talking to people...and listening to people), but that was only part of the problem. We'll have to see where enrollment goes next fall to see if they've been able to do enough to stop the "bleeding".

Tough situation ... thanks for recap !

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

lawson .. rough times for sure for several schools in your situation. What about the predident that was just pushed out ... I never rewad up on the details of that ouster. Was he part of the problem or just a victim of no win situation ??

A bit of both. He definitely shared some of the blame...didn't really give the "full story" about how things were here back to the legislature (essentially made it look like we were doing fine), made a lot of faculty angry with him about how he dealt with them and their union, etc. This last summer though, a group of locals and business owners banded together in a "Fire Jack" campaign to get him removed. This campaign was partially due to the decreasing enrollment and decreasing number of university employees (due to years of layoffs) hurting local sales and tax numbers, however it was also at least somewhat racially-motivated (Dr. Jack Thomas was WIU's first black president), because if it was really just about the economy, there's more people that should have been included in the campaign...both other members of the administration (some of whom are still at the university) and some of our local lawmakers (who have done very little in the way of fighting for our region to get state funding help).

At that point, Dr. Thomas "decided" it was "in everyone's best interest if he step down".

Our minority student population was angry about it because it looks like a big part of why he was forced out was because he was black.
Many other people are angry because he was able to negotiate a deal with the board that, on paper, looks pretty "cushy". The thing is though, because of the way it was handled, he could have had a legitimate cause to bring a lawsuit against the university. I'm not a legal expert, so I don't know if it'd be something like "hostile work environment" or "racial discrimination" or what...but it would have been legitimate. Even if he didn't win, it would have likely gone on for years and cost the university even more in legal fees and bad press than the "exit deal" ended up costing us.

Now, we have some of the people who caused the problem (or made it worse) gone, but there's still people who were a part of it who are still here. The new BOT and new Interim President all seem to be doing a great job (Interim President Abraham has been doing an AMAZING job of reaching out to the university and local community...going to events, talking to people...and listening to people), but that was only part of the problem. We'll have to see where enrollment goes next fall to see if they've been able to do enough to stop the "bleeding".

Factor in the Western's macro challenges of being in a small town, a shrinking population for the region, shifting student preferences towards unis located in more populated areas (even UIUC claims they are disadvantaged being located in a urbana champaign when competing for their target students) and a declining high school student population and there are some serious headwinds for WIU and many other unis.

This state should go to a completely blank drawing board and diagram how they would like their public university system to be in 25/50/100 years and begin to plan accordingly. Well thought out consolidation and other changes need to be made to fit the future educational needs. The new governor tossed a lot of funds recently towards capital improvements at many unis and it seems like a big chunk of that money could be wasted tax payer funds.

As for WIU football it seems as if the coaching turnover is coming home to roost? I believe they had a couple of poorly timed coaching changes too that had to hurt recruiting big time. Three different coaches in a five year period will have a lag on the team's performance but now would be the time for WIU to begin to perform poorly due to coaching changes. I'll bet the current coach is taking a lot of heat and he probably had weak classes in years 1,2 and 3 when he arrived ( assuming most programs have 5 years of players due to redshirting) and now those players are his upper classmen. Guessing WIU football will likely be challenged for a couple more seasons too?

As for this game ISU wins 35 - 10.

 

[MadBird]

I posted somewhere on another thread about what I called the "geo-political" aspect of the current state of state universities.

It will be hard to shut down WIU and SIU-C (and EIU to some degree) because the state cannot pull out resources from those geographical areas. Macomb and "Forgotonia", as that area sort of dubbed itself years ago, "needs" the resources provided by WIU, including something as simplistic and "throw-back" as educating teachers. Very much the same with Carbondale - they need the resources and jobs provided by a state institution. Politicians will not find it easy to pull out those resources, not to mention simply shuttering all the facilities they have there now.

There are many state universities in other states operating with a few thousand students, not trying to say these are high ranking, flourishing schools, but in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, (there's a Western New Mexico St. and Eastern New Mexico St. U for crissakes), these places exist and continue to exist and are scrutinized and measured for closure, but in the end, they continue because they serve voters and taxpayers and so forth.

You could easily make the case that Sangamon State (now UIS) and Governors State should have been closed years ago but they serve people and provide services and resources to the people in their area.

Now, will or should WIU continue as an FCS and DI member in all sports? That's another story and question. But I don't see the State of Illinois government pulling out of western or southern Illinois.