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Executive Leadership Change on the Hilltop

Bradley, among many schools, badly botched how it handled the pandemic years. Seeing the policies they put in place and how they were both restrictive and unfair to the student body could not have helped. I certainly wouldn't have sent my kids to BU in 2020 through 2022 based upon the required steps for enrollment and life on campus.
 
I'm an avid fan of Bradley basketball. I am not a fan of Standiford. He took full control when a relatively minor basketball issue arose, gag-ordered the entire staff, then threw a player (the best player Bradley’s had in a decade) under the bus, yanked his scholarship, and ran him off. Didn’t even bother to wait til the player was completely exonerated of the false charges
(except a minor team-rule curfew violation). Torpedoed 2 seasons.
Anyway, he’s now been in full charge for 3 1/2 years, so if a crisis appears now, you can’t hardly blame anyone but him. When Glasser created a massive enrollment decline, Roberts corrected it fully in the first year he was here.
BU continued with record freshman enrollment in 2016, 2017 & 2018 to completely recover from the Glasser debacle - https://www.pjstar.com/story/news/ed...g/20063277007/

Roberts retired in early 2020, the bad decisions during Covid were not his. They were Liberty & Standiford.
Also check an old thread on this forum titled “Bradley freshman enrollment”
Especially this --> LINK ... and again in 2017- LINK .... and again in 2018 - LINK
 
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yoda said:
I'm an avid fan of Bradley basketball. I am not a fan of Standiford. He took full control when a relatively minor basketball issue arose, gag-ordered the entire staff, then threw a player (the best player Bradley’s had in a decade) under the bus, yanked his scholarship, and ran him off. Didn’t even bother to wait til the player was completely exonerated of the false charges
(except a minor team-rule curfew violation). Torpedoed 2 seasons.
Anyway, he’s now been in full charge for 3 1/2 years, so if a crisis appears now, you can’t hardly blame anyone but him. When Glasser created a massive enrollment decline, Roberts corrected it fully in the first year he was here.
BU continued with record freshman enrollment in 2016, 2017 & 2018 to completely recover from the Glasser debacle - https://www.pjstar.com/story/news/ed...g/20063277007/

Roberts retired in early 2020, the bad decisions during Covid were not his. They were Liberty & Standiford.
Also check an old thread on this forum titled “Bradley freshman enrollment”
Especially this --> LINK ... and again in 2017- LINK .... and again in 2018 - LINK
Click to expand...

Thank you Yoda, I completely agree.
 
Both my wife and I attended BU in the 1980's. Peoria was no great shakes then, but it has gone downhill exponentially since then. Every time I go back, it looks more sad and depressing. When our daughter was looking at schools, I didn't even recommend it to her. It didn't help that even with both of us as alumni, there was very little financial aid coming from that.

Throw on top of that the miserable weather from late October into April (which is when students are there), the run-down areas and crime immediately off campus, and there is very little to recommend the place anymore. Oh, and it is in Illinois, which the grand governor of has just signed legislation to let illegal aliens apply to become police officers. If that alone doesn't speak volumes, I don't know what does.

And Sully's closed in 2013 and the last time I was there, it was still closed. Looking in the windows is like looking into a times capsule from the 1980's. Just saying.

It pains me to say this, but Bradley may be going to way of a number of small private universities in nowhere towns - bankruptcy and closing.
 
battlebasset said:
Both my wife and I attended BU in the 1980's. Peoria was no great shakes then, but it has gone downhill exponentially since then. Every time I go back, it looks more sad and depressing. When our daughter was looking at schools, I didn't even recommend it to her. It didn't help that even with both of us as alumni, there was very little financial aid coming from that.

Throw on top of that the miserable weather from late October into April (which is when students are there), the run-down areas and crime immediately off campus, and there is very little to recommend the place anymore. Oh, and it is in Illinois, which the grand governor of has just signed legislation to let illegal aliens apply to become police officers. If that alone doesn't speak volumes, I don't know what does.

And Sully's closed in 2013 and the last time I was there, it was still closed. Looking in the windows is like looking into a times capsule from the 1980's. Just saying.

It pains me to say this, but Bradley may be going to way of a number of small private universities in nowhere towns - bankruptcy and closing.
Click to expand...

It's a far cry away from bankruptcy. But I think overall the days of cheap money and debt enslavement of 18 yr olds is starting to wane. Colleges and Universities will need to adapt and it will be painful an consist of great change for many of them.
 
battlebasset said:
Both my wife and I attended BU in the 1980's. Peoria was no great shakes then, but it has gone downhill exponentially since then. Every time I go back, it looks more sad and depressing. When our daughter was looking at schools, I didn't even recommend it to her. It didn't help that even with both of us as alumni, there was very little financial aid coming from that.

Throw on top of that the miserable weather from late October into April (which is when students are there), the run-down areas and crime immediately off campus, and there is very little to recommend the place anymore. Oh, and it is in Illinois, which the grand governor of has just signed legislation to let illegal aliens apply to become police officers. If that alone doesn't speak volumes, I don't know what does.

And Sully's closed in 2013 and the last time I was there, it was still closed. Looking in the windows is like looking into a times capsule from the 1980's. Just saying.

It pains me to say this, but Bradley may be going to way of a number of small private universities in nowhere towns - bankruptcy and closing.
Click to expand...


This all gave me a good chuckle. Get serious. On all of this hogwash.
 
battlebasset said:
Both my wife and I attended BU in the 1980's. Peoria was no great shakes then, but it has gone downhill exponentially since then. Every time I go back, it looks more sad and depressing. When our daughter was looking at schools, I didn't even recommend it to her. It didn't help that even with both of us as alumni, there was very little financial aid coming from that.

Throw on top of that the miserable weather from late October into April (which is when students are there), the run-down areas and crime immediately off campus, and there is very little to recommend the place anymore. Oh, and it is in Illinois, which the grand governor of has just signed legislation to let illegal aliens apply to become police officers. If that alone doesn't speak volumes, I don't know what does.

And Sully's closed in 2013 and the last time I was there, it was still closed. Looking in the windows is like looking into a times capsule from the 1980's. Just saying.

It pains me to say this, but Bradley may be going to way of a number of small private universities in nowhere towns - bankruptcy and closing.
Click to expand...

with the right leadership it could thrive just like Creighton, Davidson or Richmond.

But completely failing on two of the last three hirings for leadership has been very costly, then doubling down and giving those horrible, failed leaders long term, bloated contracts and allowing them to make such horrid moves apparently without oversight. The single biggest key to the success Roberts had was to expand the Nursing degree program and promote it better to prospective enrollees. The increase in nursing students in 2016-2018 almost single handedly corrected the disaster in enrollment caused by Glasser. Then when Roberts left they slashed funding for the programs, made work conditions unbearable for the best faculty members, turned a blind eye towards further developments and improvements in the department, then axed the right people & brought in the wrong ones causing many of the remaining best people to look elsewhere.
 
They need to continue to expand the nursing department….but yes BU is becoming way too expensive (52k a year with room n board) when you most get a 40-60k a year job after school.

Should have hired Chuck Weaver instead of Standiford.
 
Or put some people on the board who care and aren’t just there to pad their resumes.
I have spoken to Board members who don’t know or care what’s really going on and just to get the meetings over quick by rubber stamping things. That led to massive disaster under JKG.
 
If while you’re looking into Sully’s you turn around you’ll see a sparkling OSF headquarters fresh off a $150 million renovation. Sully’s itself and the adjacent property is slated to be replaced by a $57 million hotel/apartment building.
 
Mikovio said:
If while you’re looking into Sully’s you turn around you’ll see a sparkling OSF headquarters fresh off a $150 million renovation. Sully’s itself and the adjacent property is slated to be replaced by a $57 million hotel/apartment building.
Click to expand...

The project Mikovio is referring to was approved by the Peoria City Council last February. It is now up to the developer to acquire the properties, and begin development.
Here is an article with more info-
https://www.pjstar.com/story/news/l...approved-here-are-the-key-points/69904919007/
 
JMM28 said:
This all gave me a good chuckle. Get serious. On all of this hogwash.
Click to expand...

Other than my last sentence, which was the only part that wasn't my personal observations and experience, what was the hogwash part?

Don't misunderstand. I hope I'm wrong. But also just got this on August 1, perhaps some on this board did as well from the "Bradley Connect" email about the current budget shortfall:

These challenges have compounded to create a budget shortfall of $13 million for fiscal year 2023, which is nearly 10% of Bradley University’s overall operating budget. That 10% budget deficit is projected to continue into future years if no measures are taken.

Sounds like they are taking it fairly serious, and cuts are coming. If it's hogwash, please open your checkbook and let them know they have nothing to worry about. Because obviously not enough people have.
 
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I don’t know the ratio of administrators to students at Bradley and teaching faculty, but most schools and government institutions are overloaded with administrative staffing. Look at Stanford University. They have 16,000 administers to 17,000 students and 2300 faculty. That’s according to Wall Street Journal.
 
molar50 said:
I don’t know the ratio of administrators to students at Bradley and teaching faculty, but most schools and government institutions are overloaded with administrative staffing. Look at Stanford University. They have 16,000 administers to 17,000 students and 2300 faculty. That’s according to Wall Street Journal.
Click to expand...

speaking of unnecessary administrators...
did you know that Joanne Glasser had someone on her staff whose job & responsibility it was to dig for, scour & read message board posts daily (even hourly), to identify those that were considered hostile or negative towards her administration or her actions, then to try to identify the poster responsible and confront them - even threaten them. I am pretty sure even the administrators of this message board were called into their executive offices and scolded & threatened - am I right? I am pretty sure that's a lousy use of Bradley's well-paid personnel. I was even present at a Bradley event once when I heard AD Mike Cross ask Dave Reynolds if he knew the identity of a certain message board poster.
 
algotrader said:
No kidding, one of the worst takes I've ever read on this board. "Bradley is going to close!" :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Mocking battlebasset’s post isn’t an argument. If you disagree with someone, then it’s much more productive to point out something they’ve said that you disagree with and provide your counter-argument.

Anyone can roll their eyes at someone’s statement, but it takes much more effort and intelligence to have a disagreement with polite discussion. This would just be my recommendation.
 
Bradley has over $300 million endowment and just made big cuts to tackle this $13 million loss so talking about bankruptcy is plain ridiculous.
 
Tommy said:
Mocking battlebasset’s post isn’t an argument. If you disagree with someone, then it’s much more productive to point out something they’ve said that you disagree with and provide your counter-argument.

Anyone can roll their eyes at someone’s statement, but it takes much more effort and intelligence to have a disagreement with polite discussion. This would just be my recommendation.
Click to expand...

Well said Tommy!!!
 
Standiford came to Bradley during the summer of Covid and I believe he did his best, especially under the circumstances. He has stated that all private universities and colleges are going to be stressed financially and some will close. Also, some state schools are suffering and will either adjust or close. They are changing the people responsible for enrollment and asking alumni for ideas for direction in programs and goals for the university. These are challenging times for most schools of higher education, but I’m optimistic for the future of Bradley. I believe that Standiford is better than our last 3 presidents, Roberts, Glasser, and Brodsky. John Brazil was our last good president.
 
Just my take on the situation:

Every college is going to struggle in the coming decade with enrollment dropping. Colleges have basically had an open checkbook for decades with the way student loans are, thus leading the massive inflation in tuition. Now younger people aren't just blindly going to college anymore because it is "the thing to do after high school". A lot of people have gotten degrees and found out that it hasn't really helped their careers. There are plenty of good paying jobs out there that don't require degrees.

I think Bradley and most other D1 schools will be survive with budget cuts, but it is the small liberal arts colleges that are going to suffer the most or close.
 
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