Bradley faculty looking at moving athletics to D3

[Wilbery]

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.

[Da Coach]

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.

[JMM28]

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.

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.

[Wilbery]

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/2023-10-31/bradley-university-faculty-warn-of-irreversible-damage-to-institution-if-academic-cuts-proceed?fbclid=IwAR2QrqfvefOURtFTbn2jWfq9UM2wvC-7xYcrwEGhfWNwnxWnARFKzFZY2XM

[JMM28]

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/2023-10-31/bradley-university-faculty-warn-of-irreversible-damage-to-institution-if-academic-cuts-proceed?fbclid=IwAR2QrqfvefOURtFTbn2jWfq9UM2wvC-7xYcrwEGhfWNwnxWnARFKzFZY2XM

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.

[bradleyfan124]

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.

Amen!!

[Fetz86]

They should get rid of the un-needed DEI VP position. That would free up some money.

Yes, first cut for sure. Any DEI budget.

[algotrader]

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.

Yeah this is very surprising to me as well. Actuarial Science and Statistics are a bit concerning to me too.

There are only 35 Computer Science graduates per year, are they going to cut the CS program as well? Having a diploma from a university that doesn't even offer a math degree is embarrassing.

Why is Art History not on the cutting board? Is Global Supply Chain Management really raking in the bucks? Human Resource Management is a big yikes, that is going to be largely but not entirely automated in the coming decades. What about Military Science, Painting, Photography (also a big AI risk here), Sculpture, or Television Arts?

[yoda]

Letter in PJS regarding Standifird's mess- https://www.pjstar.com/story/opinion...n/71619706007/

but in actuality, this mess was began with the so-called "Greatest President in Bradley's History", Joanne Glasser, when she
cost Bradley some $40-50 million in massive Athletic Department losses, ridiculous salaries for nincompoops like Mike Cross & herself, and all the needless lawsuits that dragged on for years that her choice of attorneys couldn't present any decent defense for. Not to mention huge losses in revenue that dried up from lost donations like the $3 million from Puterbaugh, the $10 million from Robert Turner, & the multiple millions from the other Board members who she ran off (Hersey, McGough, etc), and the unprecedented loss of the long-time, loyal fans base causing average attendance to plummet from 10-11K down to 3-4K under her reign. (do a search on this site for a thread titled "Fund Raising")

[Da Coach]

Yeah, I saw that laughable letter to the editor. They are demanding that Standifird resign immediately. As if that would somehow magically solve the financial problems at BU.
And the maybe the most negative effect Glasser had was her changes to the way Bradley was promoted and how they recruited students.
I am not defending President Standifird, but as far as I can see, almost none of the current problems are his fault, and he is dealing with them the best way possible to avoid more serious issues or a total shutdown.
If the professors have a gripe, they should address the Board of Trustees, not the failing PJ Star editorial page.

[NashvilleBU]

President Standifer needs to go. Nothing good has happened since he’s taken over.

I’ve not heard one good thing about him and seems to pass all blame on others. No real leadership or accountability…probably why the facility voted no confidence on him.

[houstonbrave]

Oh good lord-he is making difficult cuts that should have happened years ago, but that rarely happens anywhere. You can’t offer majors that a very few students want

[ollienanyes]

President Standifer needs to go. Nothing good has happened since he’s taken over.

I’ve not heard one good thing about him and seems to pass all blame on others. No real leadership or accountability…probably why the facility voted no confidence on him.

All I will say in public is that making cuts in academia is hard. One can say "gee, department X has few majors" and make huge cuts to department X, when in fact most of that department's load is service courses for other majors. You have to leave departments with enough professors to carry out their service duties, even if their major has been cut. This is the major reason the faculty committee wanted to go slower; it is too easy to make bad decisions when they are made in haste.

[Dub]

With all the choices out there for college selection, awareness and regional/national exposure is critical. Our mens bball team is what provides a lionshare of that. No D1 mens hoops could spell real trouble unless replaced with something that makes a splash.

[NashvilleBU]

All I will say in public is that making cuts in academia is hard. One can say "gee, department X has few majors" and make huge cuts to department X, when in fact most of that department's load is service courses for other majors. You have to leave departments with enough professors to carry out their service duties, even if their major has been cut. This is the major reason the faculty committee wanted to go slower; it is too easy to make bad decisions when they are made in haste.

I completely agree. Most universities have too much fat and need to trim these majors and positions (even tenured professors)/administrators that add no value like with most private businesses. However, I hear Standifer fired some top admissions reps which has created some discontent with the staff and the president…

52k a year for BU full tuition and room and board is the major issue. Most 1 year jobs after college don’t pay more than 50-60k a year….the ROI is starting to not make sense and student are starting to look at other avenues or cheaper public schools.