Marquette Faces Pushback on Faculty Cuts

[Coleman]

If he’s expected to entertain at his house, then a house with some size is going to be required. And they aren’t going to want him living in Brookfield. So a decent north shore house?  Yeah it will cost that.

Why does he need to entertain at his home? The entire top floor of the AMU is a massive presidential suite for schmoozing.

[#UnleashSean]

the type of student MU is going to be attracting aren't interested in two years of community college.

Sigh, one of the most outdated concepts ever. 

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Sigh, one of the most outdated concepts ever. 

Look, I know that's not the path you took.  But honestly, the two year college jumping to a four year college was more popular a generation ago than it is now.  This is the exact reason why the two year UW schools were merged into the four year schools a couple of years ago.

The premise they were built upon - go local cheaper than transfer to a four year program - wasn't happening as much any longer.  Their business model wasn't sustainable.

[warriorchick]

Why does he need to entertain at his home? The entire top floor of the AMU is a massive presidential suite for schmoozing.

My guess is that he was given a below-market-rate mortgage, and the spread on that is considered income to Lovell.  And a $1 million+ house is more that affordable for someone on his salary.  It doesn't matter whether he entertains there or not.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

My guess is that he was given a below-market-rate mortgage, and the spread on that is considered income to Lovell.  And a $1 million+ house is more that affordable for someone on his salary.  It doesn't matter whether he entertains there or not.

^^^^^^^^^ a better conclusion than mine.

[Billy Hoyle]

Sigh, one of the most outdated concepts ever. 

I’m not talking academics. I’m talking about someone who wants the four year private college experience; living in the dorms, small classes, clubs, community, etc. 

[Eldon]

Professors and staff of Jesuit schools uniting together:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/12/01/workers-and-student-groups-across-jesuit-colleges-form-alliance-protest-cuts-people

Marquette, Canisius, John Carroll University (Cleveland) all getting hammered by budget shortfalls, cuts, etc.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

New Haven Register had this story yesterday.  Even Yale had more than 10% not show up this fall.

Enrollment slips at private colleges
Yale has seen 11.4% dip, UB 18.4% due to effects of pandemic, fewer kids of age
By Linda Conner Lambeck

Private colleges like Yale, right, are bleeding students, according to preliminary data recently released by the state to Connecticut Hearst Media.
Arnold Gold / Hearst Conn. Media file photo
nhregister.com/college-tracker


Public colleges are not the only ones losing students during the pandemic.

Private colleges — some of them at least — are also bleeding students according to preliminary data recently released by the state to Connecticut Hearst Media.

The state’s total loss of higher education students is not known because some institutions — Goodwin University in East Hartford among them —have yet to submit their enrollment tallies to the state. Last fall, Goodwin’s total enrollment stood at 3,297 students.

But like the public Connecticut State College and University system which has seen enrollment slip, factors such as COVID-19 and a dwindling pipeline of college-aged students have led to a decline in several institutions.

When the final tally is in, enrollment for its 15 private nonprofit colleges is predicted to be down about 4 percent overall, according to Jennifer Widness, president of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges.

“Connecticut’s independent colleges, like our public counterparts, are certainly facing significant financial pressures due to COVID-19,” Widness said. “We have significant reductions in room and board revenue due to students opting to learn remotely and efforts to de-densify our dorms as well as incredibly costly re-opening costs, especially related testing.”

While many steps have been taken to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, Widness said the lasting impact will be reflected in budget reductions and belt tightening.

Officials: Drop was expected

For this year, the biggest enrollment declines among the privates were seen at Yale University in New Haven and the University of Bridgeport.

UB, which is in the midst of being acquired by two other private institutions, lost 934 students this fall, bringing its total enrollment to 4,155 — an 18.4 percent drop.

Interim President Stephen Healey said the drop was not unexpected and actually factored into its 2020-21 budget.

“It did not shock us,” Healey said. “We feel like it’s stabilized now.”

Most of the decline, he said, was in graduate and international students. Fewer students are living on campus because of COVID-19.

“This year we had a number of students come, check in and then realize they did not feel comfortable and they didn’t stay on campus,” Healey said.

At Yale, one of the most prestigious schools in the nation, fall enrollment stood at 12,060, a decline of 1,549 students from the previous fall.

The 11.4 percent decline is blamed largely on new and continuing undergraduates opting to take a temporary leave of absence or postponing their matriculation, according to the Yale Undergraduate Admissions Office.

The entire sophomore class was not invited to move back onto campus and Yale provided all continuing students the option to take a semester-long or year-long leave of absence, and all incoming students the option to postpone matriculation for one year.

About 20 percent of Yale’s incoming first-years opted to take a gap year. In a normal year that would have been about 3 to 4 percent.

Yale officials say the large numbers holding off will not have a negative impact on those applying to be part of Yale’s Class of 2025.

“University leadership has approved a plan to offer admission to the same number of students in this coming cycle as in a typical year,” said Karen Peart, a Yale spokeswoman. “This year’s first-year class was smaller than usual. Next year’s class will be larger.”

The shift, she said, won’t worsen the odds for this year’s high school seniors to get admitted to the Ivy League school.

Also coming in with fewer students this fall were Connecticut College in New London, Mitchell College Wesleyan University in Middletown, the University of Hartford, the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford and Albertus Mag-nus College in New Haven.

Combined, those institutions have lost 752 students.

Pandemic trend busters

Other privates bucked the trend and saw modest gains.

Both Fairfield University and neighboring Sacred Heart University saw increases, along with Quinnipiac University in Ham-den, the University of New Haven, Post University in Waterbury and even the tiny Paier College in Ham-den, which is planning on absorbing UB’s arts programs by next year.

Paier, a for-profit institution, went from 89 to 128 students. Paier and Goodwin are in the process of taking over the University of Bridgeport.

Goodwin President Mark Scheinberg said that when Goodwin’s fall numbers are posted he expects them to be close to, if not slightly higher than, last fall, despite the COVID-19 crisis.

New Haven went up 2.5 percent to 6,961 students. It might have been more if international student enrollment hadn’t continued to plummet, said Greg Eichhorn, vice president of enrollment and student success at UNH.

“We had a great fall,” Eichhorn said. “We had a great freshman class, way above our goal and our retention rates went up.”

All that, despite virtual open houses and a multitude of social distancing restrictions. Eichhorn said it is hard to say how much it benefited from the transition going on at UB. There were some transfers but not huge numbers, Eichhorn said.

At Fairfield, the 3.1 percent increase might have been even higher were it not for COVID-19. Still, Corry Unis, vice president of strategic enrollment, said the gains, which brought total enrollment to 5,513, were due to a purposeful marketing strategy and increasing retention.

The percentage of freshmen returning for sophomore year is 92 percent.

“That is a high water mark for us,” Unis said.

The increased retention came despite first-year students having to leave the campus abruptly in March to finish the year taking classes online.

Going forward, Unis said the residual COVID-19 impact will play out in giving families more opportunities to visit the campus remotely.

“I think we will always have a virtual presence but I think as soon as it’s safe .... on-campus visits will get the priority,” Unis said. “There is never going to be a substitute for fit and making that emotional connection.”

At Sacred Heart, meanwhile, James Barquinero, a senior vice president for enrollment, attributes the powerful “word of mouth” from alumni and current students, among other things, for the enrollment growth — a 1.5 percent overall increase to 9,313 students.

COVID-19, Barquinero said, has made the campus community stronger.

“This unity harnessed our collective spirit to provide the safest learning and living environment for our students,” Barquinero said.

[dgies9156]

Marquette's enrollment and budget problems are real. They've got to get a handle on it quickly, or they'll be not relevant very quickly.

Budget cuts in any organization are tough. But you have to do so looking at revenue opportunities (i.e., business and engineering are safe) and simply reviewing programs that don't offer much. Every college has 'em and every professors of advanced tiddly winks knows he or she is on a bubble that may someday burst.

You can talk about revenue all day, but the problem is that either Marquette matches offers from large state universities, such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana etc., or risk losing quality students that would benefit from a Marquette education.

Marquette's mission is to challenge, to teach people to think and to educate consistent with the philosophy of the Jesuits. Sadly, with the diminishment of Catholicism in our nation and world, the marketplace value of what's special about Marquette also will diminish.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Marquette's mission is to challenge, to teach people to think and to educate consistent with the philosophy of the Jesuits. Sadly, with the diminishment of Catholicism in our nation and world, the marketplace value of what's special about Marquette also will diminish.

I just don't agree with this.  What is special about a Marquette education isn't limited to Catholics and the teaching of Catholicism.  The fact that over 40% of the students don't identify as Catholic show that there definitely is a marketplace.

Marquette's issues IMO are more due to a lack of consistent long-term strategic planning, and short term financial planning, more than its identity.  Its identity is a strength that should be leaned into and embraced.

[GooooMarquette]

I just don't agree with this.  What is special about a Marquette education isn't limited to Catholics and the teaching of Catholicism.  The fact that over 40% of the students don't identify as Catholic show that there definitely is a marketplace.

Marquette's issues IMO are more due to a lack of consistent long-term strategic planning, and short term financial planning, more than its identity.  Its identity is a strength that should be leaned into and embraced.

I agree that MU (or any school) needs to identify and lean heavily into its identity, but first MU needs to figure out what that is. If 'Catholicism' isn't MU's identity, what is?

I don't know the answer, but my guess is it would benefit from emphasizing the programs where it is most widely known highly ranked.

[4everwarriors]

Heer's hopin' MU duzant morph inta Concordia University, hey?

[MUfan12]

If 'Catholicism' isn't MU's identity, what is?

MU, and I'm sure a lot of the other Jesuit schools, are facing a real issue with this. It may not be Catholicism per se, but the Jesuit way of educating has been a major part of their identity since their founding. I don't know how much the market values the core curriculum, and those departments have become a financial anchor. My fear is that MU loses that core identity. At that point, the biggest differentiating factor between MU and a state school is cost, and that doesn't work in MU's favor.

I don't know what the answer is. But I do know Lovell is gonna have to get his hands dirty on this, something he's not willing to do. He'd rather plan capital projects he'll never have money for.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I agree that MU (or any school) needs to identify and lean heavily into its identity, but first MU needs to figure out what that is. If 'Catholicism' isn't MU's identity, what is?

I don't know the answer, but my guess is it would benefit from emphasizing the programs where it is most widely known highly ranked.

I didn't say that Catholicism isn't part of its identity.  It most certainly is.  But that isn't just about the specific teaching of Catholic dogma, nor is it simply for Catholics. 

Creighton has a cool page on this.

https://www.creighton.edu/about/what-jesuit-education

And I agree that MU should emphasize on the programs it succeeds in.  Engineering, business, etc.  But leaders in those industries will tell you they just don't want people with those skills.  They want people who can think.  Can write.  Can communicate.  Can think about the world at large.  All of that is wrapped up in a traditional liberal arts core cirriculum that MU provides and what should differentiate Marquette from its competitors.

[Warrior2008]

I agree that MU (or any school) needs to identify and lean heavily into its identity, but first MU needs to figure out what that is. If 'Catholicism' isn't MU's identity, what is?

I don't know the answer, but my guess is it would benefit from emphasizing the programs where it is most widely known highly ranked.

I agree.  To me, its not an issue of removing the core curriculum or the Jesuit identity, but rather focusing on the programs that are successful in attracting students and producing successful alums.   

Marquette might be a non-profit, but its still a business with a bottom line.  And like businesses all over the country, people are forced to adapt to the realities at hand.  Whether the humanities programs want to acknowledge it or not, there are market forces and demographic shifts shrinking the pool of people willing to spend $50k+ a year for college.  The pandemic only put that into hyper drive.  You can widen the net as much as you want as some have proposed, but people will still scoff at that dollar amount without a reasonable return on investment(i.e. a salary after graduation).  Some programs at Marquette(Engineering, Health Sciences, Business, Nursing) have that ROI while still teaching the required core curriculum, Marquette would be wise to grow those programs where they see fit.

[dgies9156]

MU, and I'm sure a lot of the other Jesuit schools, are facing a real issue with this. It may not be Catholicism per se, but the Jesuit way of educating has been a major part of their identity since their founding. I don't know how much the market values the core curriculum, and those departments have become a financial anchor. My fear is that MU loses that core identity. At that point, the biggest differentiating factor between MU and a state school is cost, and that doesn't work in MU's favor.

To  suggest that Marquette is anything but a Roman Catholic institution would be to change its mission, basic philosophy and approach to education in such a way as to make Marquette unrecognizable to those of us who matriculated there in before 2000. Roman Catholic teaching is the core of everything Marquette is and transcends Philosophy and Theology.

Sure, the University has had its problems when the secular and Catholic elements of its mission collide. Those are well-known and have been thorns in the side of more than a few administrators in recent years. And, of course, there are the purists who think Marquette won't be Catholic enough until it becomes Vatican West.

Marquette's Catholic Mission is evident in everything it does. From the marketing during our basketball games -- which shows folks at Mass, in class and men and women doing real life things for others -- to educational requirements for ethics and morals built into law and other undergraduate classes, Marquette is about fulfilling Jesus' command to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. Even the BLM patches and the anti-racism efforts are tied to that simple, profound commandment Jesus gave us.

The problem, as I intoned earlier, is that with Mass attendance falling and religious affiliation dropping off the charts among the high school set, will there be a place for Marquette, as well as for other religious-based institutions in the decades ahead? We're headed for another baby-bust anyway, but if Marquette becomes a college in which it competes based on Engineering, Business, Law, Nursing and Physical Therapy, it can't compete against the Big 10 schools, all of whom have massive state support for their mission. I certainly don't think this is unique to Marquette and I'll bet that even Notre Dame will face some of this same problem as religious practice diminishes.

As a final thought, I've been a strident supporter of Marquette as long as I can remember. I'm grateful they were there for me when I was college-age and am appreciative of the fact not only that Marquette encouraged "life long learning," but made the effort to work with who we all are and were to mold people who make a difference. That is Marquette's difference and it does come from the precepts of Roman Catholicism.

[Hards Alumni]

Respectfully disagree.  As a non-Catholic, I never felt that Marquette was overtly Catholic during my attendance.  My room mate went to church on Sundays (or at night sometimes), but I never stepped foot in Gesu until two years ago.  I never felt like religion was pushed on me outside of being required to take my two Theology classes.  I think the Catholic angle works more on the older generations than it does the current generations.  I never understand it when people say that they have, "strong Catholic ideals" because I didn't grow up with those ideals... but at the same time, those ideals are part of my personal ideology.  I didn't need religion to learn to be a good person.

I had RC, Jewish, and Muslim classmates while at Marquette, as well as people like myself who don't agree with organized religion.  I am grateful that Marquette never attempted to alienate people from other faiths, nor was there a strong attempt to proselytize the 'others' towards RC.  I'm not suggesting that Marquette become secular, but I think the RC angle is a selling point to wealthy parents who write checks.  I certainly didn't attend MU for religious reasons.  I attended because it is a respected school that produces strong alumni and offers high rates of job placements.

[mu_hilltopper]

Respectfully disagree.  As a non-Catholic, I never felt that Marquette was overtly Catholic during my attendance. .  I never felt like religion was pushed on me outside of being required to take my two Theology classes.  I think the Catholic angle works more on the older generations than it does the current generations. 

Same here.  I never found my four years at MU to have any strong religious aspect to it at all.  It was an option some availed themselves of.  A few classes, yes. 

Other than that, with the exception of a few girls in my circle of friends .. zero close friends were religious, zero friends went to mass.   

I recognize that there were people who did, sure.   My wife and some of her friends, yes.

I imagine that's been the trend for 25+ years now.

[MUBurrow]

Marquette's Catholic Mission is evident in everything it does. From the marketing during our basketball games -- which shows folks at Mass, in class and men and women doing real life things for others -- to educational requirements for ethics and morals built into law and other undergraduate classes, Marquette is about fulfilling Jesus' command to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. Even the BLM patches and the anti-racism efforts are tied to that simple, profound commandment Jesus gave us.
...
As a final thought, I've been a strident supporter of Marquette as long as I can remember. I'm grateful they were there for me when I was college-age and am appreciative of the fact not only that Marquette encouraged "life long learning," but made the effort to work with who we all are and were to mold people who make a difference. That is Marquette's difference and it does come from the precepts of Roman Catholicism.

I think these two paragraphs are really the key here. And in short, get you a school that can do both. Anecdotally, it feels like MU must satisfy its donor base's desire for a Catholic identity on one hand, while acknolwedging that the value of that identity in today's marketplace is much lower than it was.  If you project the image a disproportionate number of your donors want, you are shooting yourself in the foot to compete for the students you want to matriculate today, who you are hoping will be your donor base 20-30 years for now. But yet you can't make the infrastructural and other investments without the funds supplied by the donors.  Can be a tough needle to thread.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

"How can a Catholic school have a Pride week?" is a question I have been asked more than once.

I would like to point out the priest wearing the rainbow colored button, but that only starts a whole different conversation.

[dgies9156]

Respectfully disagree.  As a non-Catholic, I never felt that Marquette was overtly Catholic during my attendance.  My room mate went to church on Sundays (or at night sometimes), but I never stepped foot in Gesu until two years ago.  I never felt like religion was pushed on me outside of being required to take my two Theology classes.  I think the Catholic angle works more on the older generations than it does the current generations.  I never understand it when people say that they have, "strong Catholic ideals" because I didn't grow up with those ideals... but at the same time, those ideals are part of my personal ideology.  I didn't need religion to learn to be a good person.

I had RC, Jewish, and Muslim classmates while at Marquette, as well as people like myself who don't agree with organized religion.  I am grateful that Marquette never attempted to alienate people from other faiths, nor was there a strong attempt to proselytize the 'others' towards RC.  I'm not suggesting that Marquette become secular, but I think the RC angle is a selling point to wealthy parents who write checks.  I certainly didn't attend MU for religious reasons.  I attended because it is a respected school that produces strong alumni and offers high rates of job placements.

Much depends on how one defines what it means to be Roman Catholic. If it is evangelical you want and it's evangelical that defines commitment to a faith, Marquette aint it! Never has been. Never will be! Had Marquette taken an evangelical approach to the faith, I'd probably run for the Kettle Moraine as fast as my feet could take me. And I probably would not have stopped.  For I was raised in a large city that was effectively run by true evangelicals and the damage they did hindered the community for generations.

Marquette's approach to Roman Catholicism comes in the Great Commandment: Love God and Love thy Neighbor as thyself. It's why Protestants, Jews, Muslims, folks from eastern faiths and folks that have no religious beliefs can find a home at Marquette. The university's approach to conveying the Good News is somewhat clandestine -- more preaching through practice of God's teaching in daily life rather than Preaching about Practicing. The way the curriculum is structured is focused on implementing how we treat neighbors rather than screaming Catholic teaching. In fact, I recall a family debate when a sister announced she was taking a class called "Protestant Theological Thought." At a Catholic university no less!!

Mass is there if you want it -- and many people on campus do -- but nobody takes attendance nor do people look down on you if you don't go. That's part of recognizing that being Catholic means acceptance and not being judgmental. And, it means the gifts we have, the values we hold and the choices we make are guided by a set of teachings given to us by a power far greater than us whose love for us is unending. That's what I believe Marquette teaches. The whole mantra of "Be the Difference" is wrapped up in the concept that we're to love one another.

Brother Fluff, a Catholic University can and should have a Pride week! Just like we should believe Black Lives Matter! Our own Pope has raised serious questions about the way we treat gay and lesbian people on grounds we're all God's children. I know it makes a lot of people cringe, but Jesus didn't come among us to make the powers of the day comfortable! Nor does the current Pope!

[Disco Hippie]

How so?

I know a complaint people had about Pilarz is he “wanted MU to be Georgetown” and fellow grads who told me that, including some 3M’s, considered that a betrayal of MU’s ideals.

I IMO, I do think we need to lower admission rates and be more selective. We should be the top Jesuit school in the Midwest and top 5 nationally. We’ve slipped behind LMU, Santa Clara, and Gonzaga. Being ahead of LUC and SLU doesn’t excite me.

MU probably would have always been slightly behind LMU, Santa Clara and Gonzaga since their metrics are a tad below each but it wasn't apparent because all 3 of those schools were in the USNWR Regional University until a year ago.   Now that they, and several other similar schools have moved up to the National University category MU's ranking has slipped slightly as a result.  Since you mentioned Pilarz, I know one of his key goals, which he achieved when we was President, was to increase MU's Carnegie Classification from the lowest tier of Doctoral Universities to the 2nd highest category which is an R2 Doctoral University with "High Research Activity".  That was a significant achievement.  Not sure it's realistic for a school like Marquette to ever become an R1 institution without a medical school and other major graduate activity but that's ok.  Overall though I completely agree with Billy H. and Trump loves the BE's sentiment on this issue.  MU talks a big game about wanting to be a true "NATIONAL UNIVERSITY" but at the end of the day they're unwilling to do what it takes to become one because it means having to kow-tow to elitist snobs on the coasts.  They've made it clear they don't want those kinds of students and now they're paying the price.   From my vantage point, MU seems more interested in being a social service arm of the Catholic Church than a University.  Don't get me wrong, their mission is admirable, and I'm all for altruism, but MU wears their mission on their sleeve to a much greater extent than its Jesuit and other Catholic peer schools.  In short, they've taken their eye off of the academic ball so to speak and it's hurt them.

[Billy Hoyle]

Marquette's approach to Roman Catholicism comes in the Great Commandment: Love God and Love thy Neighbor as thyself. It's why Protestants, Jews, Muslims, folks from eastern faiths and folks that have no religious beliefs can find a home at Marquette. The university's approach to conveying the Good News is somewhat clandestine -- more preaching through practice of God's teaching in daily life rather than Preaching about Practicing. The way the curriculum is structured is focused on implementing how we treat neighbors rather than screaming Catholic teaching. In fact, I recall a family debate when a sister announced she was taking a class called "Protestant Theological Thought." At a Catholic university no less!!

Mass is there if you want it -- and many people on campus do -- but nobody takes attendance nor do people look down on you if you don't go. That's part of recognizing that being Catholic means acceptance and not being judgmental. And, it means the gifts we have, the values we hold and the choices we make are guided by a set of teachings given to us by a power far greater than us whose love for us is unending. That's what I believe Marquette teaches. The whole mantra of "Be the Difference" is wrapped up in the concept that we're to love one another.

Protestant Thought and Practice. The only Theo class in which I did not pull an A, and my grandfather was a pastor. Senioritis, man...

We also need to understand the Jesuit influence. The Society was created to educate and bring people back to the church after the Reformation.It also bases itself around the ideal of "Cura Personalis." It meant so much to my wife in shaping her values she has a tattoo of it. MU and other Jesuit schools are not going to be strict and dogmatic.  If a student wants that they can go to the University of Dallas or Ave Maria.

I had one dude on my floor who didn't want me attending the McCormick 10pm Mass because I was not Catholic, but he was certainly an outlier. I found Catholic students and faculty, especially Priests, open and welcoming. I wouldn't have made it though THEO 001 without the help of my prof, a Priest.

[Eldon]

MU probably would have always been slightly behind LMU, Santa Clara and Gonzaga since their metrics are a tad below each but it wasn't apparent because all 3 of those schools were in the USNWR Regional University until a year ago.   Now that they, and several other similar schools have moved up to the National University category MU's ranking has slipped slightly as a result.  Since you mentioned Pilarz, I know one of his key goals, which he achieved when we was President, was to increase MU's Carnegie Classification from the lowest tier of Doctoral Universities to the 2nd highest category which is an R2 Doctoral University with "High Research Activity".  That was a significant achievement.  Not sure it's realistic for a school like Marquette to ever become an R1 institution without a medical school and other major graduate activity but that's ok.  Overall though I completely agree with Billy H. and Trump loves the BE's sentiment on this issue.  MU talks a big game about wanting to be a true "NATIONAL UNIVERSITY" but at the end of the day they're unwilling to do what it takes to become one because it means having to kow-tow to elitist snobs on the coasts.  They've made it clear they don't want those kinds of students and now they're paying the price.   From my vantage point, MU seems more interested in being a social service arm of the Catholic Church than a University.  Don't get me wrong, their mission is admirable, and I'm all for altruism, but MU wears their mission on their sleeve to a much greater extent than its Jesuit and other Catholic peer schools.  In short, they've taken their eye off of the academic ball so to speak and it's hurt them.

Two quibbles.

1) Moving to a national university isn't necessarily a 'move up' per se. In fact, I know of schools that would specifically lament moving from a Regional University to a National University.

2) The East Coast is shrinking demographically, ie, among 18 year olds. It's not about kowtowing to snobs, but rather "why compete on the Eastern Seabord when it's shrinking AND there's a bunch of schools out there already?" Competing out there nowadays is doubly tough.

[Disco Hippie]

Two quibbles.

1) Moving to a national university isn't necessarily a 'move up' per se. In fact, I know of schools that would specifically lament moving from a Regional University to a National University.

2) The East Coast is shrinking demographically, ie, among 18 year olds. It's not about kowtowing to snobs, but rather "why compete on the Eastern Seabord when it's shrinking AND there's a bunch of schools out there already?" Competing out there nowadays is doubly tough.

Both Valid Points.  Wasn't referring to East Coast specifically, although it's still, and will remain for some time, the most densely populated part of the country.   There's also a lot of wealth concentration there and the Big 10 are extremely popular with students there, whose families gladly pay out of state tuition without batting an eye.  At the local Jesuit High School near where I live (Fairfield Prep), UW Madison is far more popular a destination than MU.  I believe 4 of their students matriculated there in the last class, and they haven't had 4 students matriculate to MU from there in the last 10 years.   Everyone in the MU community out there thinks there are so many great schools on the east coast how can MU compete?  What they don't realize, because they're not here, is how many students from the Northeast attend colleges in the Midwest. 

That said, I agree the West and perhaps South are where there's more opportunity and that's great too!   My broader point is, MU has the brand strength to compete for these students, they just don't think they do and that's what's so frustrating.   Pilarz was no fool.  He knew he could attract students from his former area to come to MU if the board let him, and had he been given the chance I think he would have made inroads on that but instead the board ran him out of town which is a shame.