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Bradley faculty looking at moving athletics to D3

Lots of faculty are jealous of the funding that goes to Athletics - it’s always been that way- nothing new

Few years ago when $20 million+ was disclosed as somewhat wasteful spending in Athletics by the former admin, she tried to hide it from the Board but got “caught” & several faculty fired off angry responses when their departments were instructed to cut costs & lay off to help balance the losses.
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sports-forums/basketball-fan-talk/27488-fund-raising#post462784
 
I’m a supporter of Bradley athletics, but I wonder how all of the following factors will play out. 1) significantly decreasing high school students from Illinois high schools. This is not unique to Bradley.
2) increasing costs of tuition causing many to reassess the value of college vs trade vocational school and the return of investment 3) How supportive the average student is toward paid college athletes, that enable some to transfer to the highest bidder. 4) How mid-majors compete economically vs big name programs. Answer is that they cannot and funding will all go to bigger programs. 5) Is the purpose of universities and colleges is to educate and prepare students to better their lives or is it to entertain fans, alums, and build professional sport teams?
I have enjoyed Bradley basketball and other sports, but I’m afraid of the forces of money and self interest by many parties.
 
I'd like to correct the headline: what *passed* was a University Senate resolution for admin to *study* the potential cost savings obtained by switching from D1 to D3. The vote in the Senate was close enough that there had to be an actual by hand count (these are usually voice vote) and the resolution passed very narrowly, after some debate.
 
Neither the Faculty Senate nor AAUP are unions. Bradley faculty are NOT required to join AAUP and all senate members are elected. An alternative approach might be to look at a cost benefit analysis for each vice president’s office. If the office does not bring in as money as it spends, consider elimination. In my opinion, the University is top heavy with administrative salaries.
 
There are a handful of academic types on that campus who haven't worked a day in their life and are worried that the jig is up is the short story.

The long story is that there are 30+ majors that have had no graduates the last few years. There is about double that amount of majors who have had single digit graduates in the last few years. Those majors are going bye bye and the bloated salaries of their professors that don't actually work. These are the same types that take sabbaticals at full pay to research their useless field of study. Gary Roberts was brought in to be the bad guy and cut these, but ultimately was ineffective across his entire leadership including that duty.

Athletics went through a pretty serious haircut about 5 or 6 years ago whenever Roberts came to town. There isn't any meat on the bone to cut anything athletics wise. And they won't be. Because athletics makes up less than 3% of the university's expenses annually.

The faculty dipshits used the 2021 tax return numbers to claim a 7.5 million subsidy to athletics. That is inflated due to the fact that year had $0 in ticket revenue for all sports thanks to the Governor. The real number is somewhere in the 5-6 million range which, again, is less than 3% of total university expenses. The $500,000-$1,000,000 to fund a major with zero graduates is probably the easier cut to be made.
 
JMM28 said:
...
The long story is that there are 30+ majors that have had no graduates the last few years. There is about double that amount of majors who have had single digit graduates in the last few years. Those majors are going bye bye and the bloated salaries of their professors that don't actually work....
Click to expand...

Bradley has just sent out a special notice from the President of the University- https://myemail.constantcontact.com...ncement.html?soid=1138556498486&aid=rdmRiZCU1 4Q

Bradley is making moves to address the shortfall for fiscal year 2024. [TABLE="border: 0, cellpadding: 0, cellspacing: 0"]
[TR]
[TD="align: left"]The following programs have been recommended for discontinuation:[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[TABLE="border: 0, cellpadding: 0, cellspacing: 0"]
[TR]
[TD="align: left"]
  • Actuarial Science (Mathematics)*
  • Apparel Production and Merchandising
  • Business Law
  • Ceramics
  • Entrepreneurship**
  • Family Consumer Science Education
  • Family Life Science
  • Hospitality Leadership
  • International Studies
  • Manufacturing Technology
  • Math Education
  • Pre-K – 12 Administration and Leadership
  • Printmaking
  • Professional Sales
  • Public Health Education
  • Religious Studies
  • Statistics
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[TABLE="border: 0, cellpadding: 0, cellspacing: 0"]
[TR]
[TD="align: left"]The following programs will no longer offer majors or concentrations, but will remain as service units, offering classes as part of the Bradley Core Curriculum or other courses as required by specific majors or concentrations:[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[TABLE="border: 0, cellpadding: 0, cellspacing: 0"]
[TR]
[TD="align: left"]
  • Economics
  • French
  • Mathematics
  • Philosophy
  • Physics
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
​Discontinuing these offerings directly impacts about 3.5% of the Bradley student population, and any students enrolled in these programs will be able to finish their degrees in their current major or program at Bradley University. Students who could be affected directly by program discontinuation will receive an additional communication from their college dean, pointing them toward the appropriate resources for questions and guidance.

All programs on the above list will have 30 days to respond to the consideration for discontinuation. Final program decisions will be made by President Standifird by the end of the calendar year.

During these transitions, there will regrettably be a reduction of jobs in some departments. Forty-seven currently occupied faculty positions are being eliminated, and 21 faculty positions are being eliminated through attrition. Bradley University is committed to helping the individuals in those positions with outplacement services and will exercise compassion and support throughout the process.

Bradley leadership recognizes these changes may create concerns among students, faculty, staff and the broader university community. Open communication, collaboration and shared responsibility will be prioritized as the campus community works together to address these challenges.
​
 
If Physics tanks then the quality of engineering degrees will suffer- hard to believe anyone wants a ME, CE, or EE with a weak background in physics.
 
yoda said:
If Physics tanks then the quality of engineering degrees will suffer- hard to believe anyone wants a ME, CE, or EE with a weak background in physics.
Click to expand...


[TD="align: left"]The following programs will no longer offer majors or concentrations, but will remain as service units, offering classes as part of the Bradley Core Curriculum or other courses as required by specific majors or concentrations:[/TD]

[TD="align: left"]
  • Economics
  • French
  • Mathematics
  • Philosophy
  • Physics
[/TD]
​
Click to expand...

They are not discontinuing the Physics program, and will continue to offer physics classes as above.
They are only considering ending Physics as a major. However, I am also surprised to see Physics, Mathematics, and Economics on the list of Majors being proposed to get cut.
 
If I remember correctly a couple of years ago there were 2 physics majors and one of them is now enrolled at Nebraska and plays basketball. I believe Physics has been on the chopping block for some time.
 
This is gut wrenching to read the comments and email. The Philosophy and Religious Studies department was my absolute favorite one to take classes with and discuss anything with after class. I was a finance major with economics and ethics as minors. So this affects a large portion of my degree path. Losing those professors would have had a large negative impact on my time at Bradley and I would have many less fond academic memories.

I also want to say that when I was at Bradley we calculated it was roughly a 3000 per year per student subsidy from our tuition to athletics. So if athletics is not self sufficient I definitely think that’s is where cuts are focused. A university is not a partnership between education and sports it should ALWAYS be education first. While I am a huge fan of Bradley basketball(being the only sport I regularly follow) under no circumstances do I think that cuts on the academic side should be made for the continued existence of a sports program.

I also hope they find the ability to make many many cuts to so many of the administrative staff since the professors they’re looking to cut are going to have a huge impact on the culture of the university.
 
For the record, the cuts proposed are only recommendations at this point. They come from an academic assessment that was conducted by a University Senate-elected faculty review committee, as well as Provost Walter Zakahi and the university deans. They used "detailed data sets, thorough audits and inquiries to help determine recommendations that aim to build a financially secure future here at Bradley". No cuts have been made yet.
The recommendations are now in the hands of the University President, and the programs on the list will have 30 days to respond to the consideration for discontinuation. Final program decisions will be made by President Standifird by the end of the calendar year.


​
 
Wilbery said:
This is gut wrenching to read the comments and email. The Philosophy and Religious Studies department was my absolute favorite one to take classes with and discuss anything with after class. I was a finance major with economics and ethics as minors. So this affects a large portion of my degree path. Losing those professors would have had a large negative impact on my time at Bradley and I would have many less fond academic memories.

I also want to say that when I was at Bradley we calculated it was roughly a 3000 per year per student subsidy from our tuition to athletics. So if athletics is not self sufficient I definitely think that’s is where cuts are focused. A university is not a partnership between education and sports it should ALWAYS be education first. While I am a huge fan of Bradley basketball(being the only sport I regularly follow) under no circumstances do I think that cuts on the academic side should be made for the continued existence of a sports program.

I also hope they find the ability to make many many cuts to so many of the administrative staff since the professors they’re looking to cut are going to have a huge impact on the culture of the university.
Click to expand...

There will still be philosophy classes and religious classes. Just not majors - which isn't going to be a lot different than right now because no one is majoring in those things at Bradley University.

Athletics has already taken as much of a haircut as possible. Your numbers are also way off. About 2% of overall university expense goes to athletics over the past handful of years. The rest of the money is self generated through donations, ticket sales, licensing, TV payouts, buy games, etc. Depending when you were a student, those numbers could be around 3% or about nothing when athletics was a cheaper venture.

They should get rid of the un-needed DEI VP position. That would free up some money. They could also get rid of the VP - Legal who lives in Wisconsin and works part time anyways. There are your admin cuts right there.
 
While there will still be classes they're looking to eliminate 48 tenured faculty positions which I imagine will heavily be focused on the cut majors. While an additional 21 tenure track positions won't be filled that are currently empty(the RLS and PHL department is already down a professor from retirements). I know they won't all be eliminated but the breath of topics covered won't be anywhere close to the same which will make the class options much more limited and be harder to expand upon.

Also I have no idea where you found the Athletics budget being 2-3% of total university spending. The below WCBU article mentions the athletics subsidy being 7.5 million dollars which is roughly 3-4% of the university budget, just for the subsidy alone not total athletics spending. Taking the enrollment of undergrad and grads at a total of 5,900 that means the subsidy is roughly 1200 dollars a student. I went to school when the Geno Ford buyout happened so I do not think that 3000 a student being outrageous. If I have some time I may dig into some 990s to see what they say about years past.

https://www.wcbu.org/local-news/202...FTbn2jWfq9UM2wvC-7xYcrwEGhfWNwnxWnARFKzFZY2XM
 
Wilbery said:
While there will still be classes they're looking to eliminate 48 tenured faculty positions which I imagine will heavily be focused on the cut majors. While an additional 21 tenure track positions won't be filled that are currently empty(the RLS and PHL department is already down a professor from retirements). I know they won't all be eliminated but the breath of topics covered won't be anywhere close to the same which will make the class options much more limited and be harder to expand upon.

Also I have no idea where you found the Athletics budget being 2-3% of total university spending. The below WCBU article mentions the athletics subsidy being 7.5 million dollars which is roughly 3-4% of the university budget, just for the subsidy alone not total athletics spending. Taking the enrollment of undergrad and grads at a total of 5,900 that means the subsidy is roughly 1200 dollars a student. I went to school when the Geno Ford buyout happened so I do not think that 3000 a student being outrageous. If I have some time I may dig into some 990s to see what they say about years past.

https://www.wcbu.org/local-news/202...FTbn2jWfq9UM2wvC-7xYcrwEGhfWNwnxWnARFKzFZY2XM
Click to expand...

The faculty intentionally used that for their hit piece because that number reflects the year that our atrocious governor didn't allow any ticket sales. That made a 1.3-1.5 million dollar difference. It was, at best, ignorant of factual information. I think it was more likely an intentional misleading of the issue to support their ridiculous idea.

I'll say again - no one was taking those classes so why pay some fat cat professor to sit around and teach 3 classes a year? 25% of the majors account for 75% of the students. This is simple mathematics.
 
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