Oso planning to go pro
It appears that one of our fellow Jesuit schools is in a serious financial crisis. Wheeling Jesuit has declared a "financial exigency" and is fighting for survival. I've heard that all scholarship athletes have been advised that their scholarships will not be renewed.I've read plenty suggesting that there may be a lot of smaller schools closing in the coming decade or so. I've had several friends and family members attend Wheeling, and a friend was on their BoT until a year or two ago. It'd be a shame if WJU has to close its doors, but it seems pretty widely accepted in academia that some schools are going to close.
One of the reasons why some of us are concerned we need to up our game a bit in terms of who we are attracting as students, because they become donors at some point. I'd feel better having more and more dentists, lawyers, doctors, other professionals helping to foot the bills. That isn't a popular opinion necessarily, but it should be a consideration as we look at plans for the next 25 to 50 years.
Perhaps we should focus on getting the dentists, lawyers and doctors we already have to donate.
When I did fund raising for my Catholic High School I was suprised how little came from the so-called professionals. We did much better from the lower classes, retired civil servants like former firemen. Also from successful self made businessmen who we might call entrepreneurial types. Construction contractors, trucking company operators, and successful single people significantly beat the Dr.'s, and Lawyers. These universities go where the money is, the trick is to go where the heart is. And the windfalls always come from unexpected places, God's will so to speak.
I would expect this at the high school level, curious of the same on the college level.
They're too busy sitting on scoop to donate
I've given modest amounts over the years to my high school in response to donation requests in honor of people who meant a lot to me as a youngster.I don't give to them regularly though because they had some really serious problems when I was there that were swept under the rug and hope we would not notice the big wad in the middle of the floor.
Yep. The college of Nursing has gotten a couple of 7-figure donations from alums who were never wealthy (imagine how poorly nurses were paid in the mid-20th century), but lived conservatively and left a nice chunk of their estate to the school.And they certainly weren't on the phone with Joe True every day demanding stuff in return.
I'd feel better having more and more dentists, lawyers, doctors, other professionals helping to foot the bills.
Foot the bills? MU is competing for charitable cash with every nonprofit under the sun. Some of these causes really do need help footing the bills -- especially in an era of Charity Navigator where an increasing trend of people wanting to see their money really making an impact. It's easy to see the impact of endowing a professor or naming a college. Harder to see what difference a smaller donation makes. Marquette's endowment is pushing $700mm and tuition is north of $40k. I know that opex isn't funded by drawing down the endowment, nor does everyone pay the rack rate... but what's the value proposition for donors who aren't making it rain?
I'll donate to MU when my net worth is in the 7 figures, until then, which is probably still decades away, they'll have to get by without me. The whole model for higher education is completely f*cked. Unlimited government loans and exponentially increasing tuition. If some schools have to close, fine. The current system is broken.
It would seem to me that the more schools close the more "pick of the litter" that the remaining schools have which by nature of supply and demand would increase tuition even more.
It looks like Wheeling Jesuit will keep the doors open for at least one more year. There's not a lot in there that inspires much confidence. I would think that many students would be looking to transfer as soon as a viable option presented itself. I know that if one of my kids was there, we'd certainly be exploring that option.