Commonwealth faculty were offered 10% bonus buyouts last fiscal year, and last week asked directly if there was a plan in place to begin closing some of the 19 commonwealth campuses. Admin did not give a direct answer.
The Pennsylvania state system (which does not include PSU, Temple, or Pitt) is on the ropes. The commonwealth campuses are losing students. From here in PA, it seems like the two systems are playing chicken, seeing which one will give up first, leaving the other to survive more readily. The state legislature is notoriously stingy with any funding at all. (at least in the sense of percentage of budget)
The other question is if Penn State were to close 6 or 7 of the smallest commonwealth campuses, would it even help? Or be counterproductive? The new enrollment benchmarks for UP have resulted in a noticeable diminishment of experience â we have huge apartment buildings going up almost literally on every empty available space, and while the apartments are nice, they arenât anywhere near campus and the bus system is cutting routes, not adding them. Not to mention, it is driving up the cost of rent and that exacerbates the staffing shortages (many staff canât afford to live very close)
Itâs as much the fault of alumni as it is the university. They want âeliteâ , not just âgreatâ, and donate accordingly. I donât like it, but they have decades of data indicating that gifts track the football record.
Football and athletics money is an entirely separate funding stream, apparently. Thatâs always been the answer to why they can afford private tutors, tech, NiL coordinators, dieticians, separate cafeteria, etc for football students but my film major had to buy lightbulbs himself, and Advisors have 100+ students each.
Penn State athletics is self funding, and receives no money from the Commonwealth of PA, or its taxpayers. (But I get the optics of a $3M DC arenât great to some.)
So, what Penn State pays its football coaches has nothing to do with the viability of the satellite campuses. For any profs who are upset about the new DCâs salary, well, if they are at that level of relative standing in their profession, Iâm sure they can go get a new job.
PA does have some public college rationalization to do. Decision making seems so siloed, with PSU satellite campuses and PASSHE campuses and no one really willing to take charge. I get itâs a complicated issue as some of those campuses are important to their local communities, among other reasons.
Iâll voice the unpopular opinion and donât mind saying it as a PSU alumâŠitâs time for colleges and universities to get out of the business of minor league / semiprofessional sports and return to their primary mission of education and research.
This whole thing has gotten completely out of hand.
I respect that opinion. Once players start getting paid this year (up to 22% of revenues or so directly from PSU plus the damages piece of the house vs ncaa settlement), I think more people will feel the same. OTOH that money might keep some kids in college longer, especially male basketball players.
I didnât say it would keep the top athletes in longer. This level of detailed NCAA talk is off topic here, Iâm sure you can contribute to any of the NCAA threads that are ongoing.
? You could make this argument about lots and lots of fields. CEO of a hospital chain is making 7 figures while RN salaries are frozen and the critical care nurse/patient ratio keeps going up. Should they just suck it up without pointing out the disparity?
Sometimes the salary decisions reflect societyâs values and we donât like what that says about us. So we tell folks to just go get a new job. But the message is still clear.
Again, PSU athletics is self funding. That money canât instead go to save the PSU satellite campuses. And like I said above, the optics are bad, regardless. (your example is different because CEO $ could be reallocated for other staff)
Let me articulate what I see as a major problem with the model taking shape.
If universities are paying athletes to play football theyâre doing so to get a piece of the massive revenue, yes? And the argument is that this money and name recognition will further the educational and research goals of the university.
But what happens when the paid student athlete says they donât want to attend class, at all? Will the university force them? Or maybe the star QB just refuses to do schoolwork, will the University fail him? At what point does he fail out? Or will he be passed regardless? Because we need Johnny QB to win the big game and get that sweet revenue.
All of this clouds academic integrity. If Johnny QB gets passed with no work, doesnât that devalue those students that did the work?
My opinion is to get rid of all it or stop the charade of calling them students. Because I donât see how academic integrity (the core value of a university) is maintained in this model.
Iâll add to your fine post- itâs not just degrading the degree of the kids who did the work. Itâs cheating the ones who did NOT do the work out of a college education. What favor have you done an athlete who has no education to fall back on for a professional type track once the inevitable injuries, disabilities, or just plain age prevent him (and her, but the helmet sports are mostly him) from playing professionally?
The stories about the âformerly famousâ athletes who went pro are very, very sad in many cases.
IMO yes. But this is happening now at some schools, itâs nothing new. And many of the student-athletes are already getting paid in the form of scholarships and NIL money.
Will be interesting if the courts deem student athletes as employees.
Meaning steering some of those athletes into the easiest and lowest workload majors and general education courses? At least in theory, that option is available to all students, including those majoring in parties and beer tasting.
The NiL has made it a regular request of prospects â so high school seniors â to have a fee for visits to a game or campus. So Div I schools are now asking alum to contribute not just to ticket sales, or membership clubs to get tickets, but also to NiL funds to pay 18 yr olds to visit, to land prospects. And alumni are apparently only too happy to do so.
Now we see the effect â your kid doesnât even have to choose that school, they can make money visiting. Div 3 are not allowed scholarships, I have never understood that. But yes, we are creating our own topic here
But what is new is the following now real scenario:
professor earns 100k annually
NIL football player earns 1 million annually
âŠand the following hypothetical scenario is longer so hypothetical:
player doesnât do classwork and at risk of failing
failing puts playerâs NIL money at risk because of academic ineligibility
player doesnât care, becauseâŠ.
player confronts / colludes / cajoles professor over massive income disparity and conflict of interest regarding academic integrity arises
I see nothing good from this environment unless we now agree that academic and research institutionsâ first priority are to sports and sports above all else.
I know this got off topic and Iâll stop now. This really has become a sore spot for me and to be clear, I attended every game when I was at University Park. So I guess I contributed to the problem.
Wrt to college sports, that for sure is a hornetâs nest. I donât think weâll see reform soon but I may be too cynical. Definitely OT though. So letâs keep to the subject at hand.
Nevertheless it doesnât impact Commonwealth campuses or PASSHE.
Hopefully the legislature will sit all representatives (admin, faculty, students) from PSU, Pitt, Temple, Main and branch reps plus each PASSHE together and get them to re organize in a more rational way so that each region, mountain, and valley remains supported&irrigated by higher education institutions but without a small branch and a PASSHE (or a PSU branch and a Pitt Branch!) competing against each other.
I can say with absolute certainty that even âbigâ PSU athletes canât cut academic corners. They have something called âthe Taj Mahalâ with private tutors and gosh darn it theyâll do what it takes to get that C but they wonât just get it without work. (Freshmen have 2 hours of mandatory study hall with tutors every day, and other athletes can be assigned if their grades are at C-level).
As for majors:
The PGA-supported/accredited Professional Golf Management major is restricted to varsity athletes or students with a specific national level.
There are easier easier majors for athletes, in HHD/Tourism&recreation.
But some athletes are in Schreyer, too.
