Cutting from the Athletics budget would be inconsistent with Lane’s statements made previously. I have no knowledge of the current situation.
Lane, whose son is a wide receiver on the Texas A&M football team, also said he would emphasize athletics as a recruitment tool. He referenced Saluki men’s basketball coach Bryan Mullins' 2007 run in the NCAA Tournament, and said winning streaks like that come with positive exposure. “That’s what we want. We want to be winners. We want to win championships,” he said. “That helps with enrollment. That helps with our profile of the university.”
Cutting the budget may not be a choice he wants to make. No revenue last year, low enrollment, and already high debt may force his hand.
I’m not defending Austin Lane, but there’s a decent possibility he didn’t know how big the debt was when he took this job and he also didn’t realize that prior administrations didn’t deal with the debt. Some made it worse, in fact.
One thing many folks may not know that needs to be public knowledge. The chancellor is trying to gut the athletic department! 3 Million cut in the budget this year. 3 million next year. Austin Lane is the problem here. He believes we should be funded at SWAC funding levels not Vallley funding levels. He is coming off as this great guy but behind the scenes, at least to this point is wanting to gut the athletic budget. Liz was fighting at every turn to try and prevent that. Now, I am not saying Liz was ever the best fit for that job. Frankly , I don't think she was, but in her defense she was trying to keep the ship afloat while Lane is trying to gut it. Ask someone in athletics off the recored .
Is revenue that big out of athletics? Look at the SIU balance sheets if you want your answer.
The Saluki Way debt is a millstone around the neck of SIU. Basically everyone looking at the finances predicted this at the building of Saluki Way. Now people are expecting academics to shoulder the load of athletics? That’s putting the cart before the horse.
Enrollment going down is because academics is going in the gutter. Now to be honest I was never a big supporter of Jarnigan or Lane, but ultimately even someone like Mahony who has an extensive record in college athletics, who by all means should be a supporter of intercollegiate athletics here… if he doesn’t see a way out, that means the debt load is bad.
tl;dr we’re in trouble.
And acedemics is going in the gutter why? Anyone want to take a stab at that 800 lb. gorilla?
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
James Madison
The biggest academic cuts happened due to the budgets cuts the state imposed from 2015 to 2018. Those seriously hurt enrollment. That’s the period SIU had their biggest exodus of qualified professors. That’s when academics took the biggest hit.
I have no direct knowledge of the situation, but all budgets are under the knife.
What I do have direct knowledge of is that the chancellor was directly helping Coach Hill land some big grad transfers this past summer. That doesn't sound like someone trying to gut athletics.
Let it play out. Support your team.
I pay a lot of attention to SIU departments. I think it's safe to say that tenured professors did not leave SIU. There are still many, many excellent professors and researchers on campus. Academics is not the problem as much as poor recruitment and salesmanship. The mass comm building finally was approved for a major and badly needed redo and then the pandemic hit. Not sure where that stands now.
Truth is, the campus and facilities in many ways are much nicer than they were in 1978 when there were 24,000 students.
Unfortunately, there is still an anti-student attitude among some idiots on campus. Tonight I witnessed Rosie the Riveter giving out wholesale parking tickets to marching band members who were practicing and parking in a huge, largely empty parking lot near the track at 7:30PM. Talk about a lot of pissed off students. Don't blame them. If I was them, I would refuse to show up for the football game until the idiots in the parking division drop every one of those tickets. Giving out tickets for parking head out instead of in in an enormous, mostly empty parking lot!
Those parking lot bandits are a stain on the university. Always have been. Nothing but pirates and parasites.
I think it's safe to say that tenured professors did not leave SIU. There are still many, many excellent professors and researchers on campus. Academics is not the problem as much as poor recruitment and salesmanship. The mass comm building finally was approved for a major and badly needed redo and then the pandemic hit. Not sure where that stands now.
Truth is, the campus and facilities in many ways are much nicer than they were in 1978 when there were 24,000 students.
Unfortunately, there is still an anti-student attitude among some idiots on campus. Tonight I witnessed Rosie the Riveter giving out wholesale parking tickets to marching band members who were practicing and parking in a huge, largely empty parking lot near the track at 7:30PM. Talk about a lot of pissed off students. Don't blame them. If I was them, I would refuse to show up for the football game until the idiots in the parking division drop every one of those tickets. Giving out tickets for parking head out instead of in in an enormous, mostly empty parking lot!
1. I must have access to different numbers because from what I see a lot of talented people left when SIU simply couldn't salary match other places. Per the SIUC Faculty Association, the average salary for SIU professors increased only 2% over the last ten years, which is way less than the rate of inflation for that period. Poor recruitment and salesmanship is an issue, but that eventually did affect tenured faculty.
2. There's still a large deferred maintenance backlog IIRC. I'm trying to find that number but that will take time.
3. The Parking Clowns absolutely don't do SIU any favors. Parking in general needs to be free for students and visitors in red lots. Blue lots should still be faculty first, obviously. I think anyone in the community that frequently visits campus and lives in Southern Illinois should be able to either get a red sticker for free or have it covered as part of their alumni dues. It should be a perk of supporting SIU in my opinion.
I think it's safe to say that tenured professors did not leave SIU. There are still many, many excellent professors and researchers on campus. Academics is not the problem as much as poor recruitment and salesmanship. The mass comm building finally was approved for a major and badly needed redo and then the pandemic hit. Not sure where that stands now.
Truth is, the campus and facilities in many ways are much nicer than they were in 1978 when there were 24,000 students.
Unfortunately, there is still an anti-student attitude among some idiots on campus. Tonight I witnessed Rosie the Riveter giving out wholesale parking tickets to marching band members who were practicing and parking in a huge, largely empty parking lot near the track at 7:30PM. Talk about a lot of pissed off students. Don't blame them. If I was them, I would refuse to show up for the football game until the idiots in the parking division drop every one of those tickets. Giving out tickets for parking head out instead of in in an enormous, mostly empty parking lot!
1. I must have access to different numbers because from what I see a lot of talented people left when SIU simply couldn't salary match other places. Per the SIUC Faculty Association, the average salary for SIU professors increased only 2% over the last ten years, which is way less than the rate of inflation for that period. Poor recruitment and salesmanship is an issue, but that eventually did affect tenured faculty.
2. There's still a large deferred maintenance backlog IIRC. I'm trying to find that number but that will take time.
3. The Parking Clowns absolutely don't do SIU any favors. Parking in general needs to be free for students and visitors in red lots. Blue lots should still be faculty first, obviously. I think anyone in the community that frequently visits campus and lives in Southern Illinois should be able to either get a red sticker for free or have it covered as part of their alumni dues. It should be a perk of supporting SIU in my opinion.
I'm not saying nobody left, but I have perused the faculty lists of many departments and there are still a lot of quality people and a lot of long-term faculty members. It is more difficult to get tenured at universities than it used to be. They all designate certain positions as "non tenure-track" as a way of hiring PhDs without having to pay them much. Those positions probably have a lot of turnover. Lower salary offers also aren't going to be as attractive to really good candidates in high demand fields.
@Mr_Woogers the Comm building entered the design phase earlier this year. As far as I know it is still coming. SIU and the state never move quickly so I have no idea when they’ll actually begin construction.
I don't get much information out this way about SIU and it's innerworkings and, therefore, I have nothing to offer on the health of the University.
But, as to the quick succession of ADs of late, I competed under three different Athletic Directors during my four years as a Saluki...Donald Boydston, Bill Brown (interim) and Doug Weaver. I might have been naive at the time, but I noticed little to no difference in SIU Athletics.
https://twitter.com/THefferman/status/1437902592827330568
Although this was noted in another thread, probably worth posting here as well. Whether related to the oddly timed Jarnigan dismissal or not, this has all been pretty weird.
In my opinion SIU needs to show a semblance of transparency about what's gone down here, particularly with the abrupt AD termination. Yeah, there are things they can't legally say, but there are things they can say to at least give people a general idea of WTF is going on.
An absence of communication is sketchy and ineffective at calming the waters.
I don’t think they are legally allowed to say anything. I’d rather them remain silent to ensure they don’t have to pay remaining salaries. We will find out later. I assume the soccer coach getting put on leave is related to Liz’s dismissal, but hopefully Todd has put together some FOI requests.
I don’t think they are legally allowed to say anything. I’d rather them remain silent to ensure they don’t have to pay remaining salaries. We will find out later. I assume the soccer coach getting put on leave is related to Liz’s dismissal, but hopefully Todd has put together some FOI requests.
Respectfully disagree with your first sentence.
For example, if sluggish fundraising were the main reason, the chancellor could, without disparaging Jarnigan, comment along the lines of "Going forward, as an athletic department, we will redouble our fundraising efforts to allow our teams to have the resources they need to compete for championships," or touch on the Saluki Way debt challenges and what the impact is to the department, etc.
And the same holds true if there was another main factor that prompted the move ... you can talk around things without running into legal/contractual issues.
Leaving your fan base entirely in the dark about such a major move is not the way to go, IMO.
They can absolutely say something -- they'd rather keep their dirty laundry and intrigue private, even though this is a state institution last time I looked. More secretive than Vlad!
Need a few freedom of information requests.
At the very least, they could say something like "LJ was fired for cause" or
"Williams was put on leave because we haven't scored a goal in a month."
or
"Williams was put on leave because he wouldn't stop showering with the team"
I'll be really surprised if these are not related.
