Kennedy vs donors... again?

[UNDBIZ]

At this point I'd like to see Kennedy break the REA's stranglehold on the athletic department and then leave. He has trimmed a lot of fat and set UND up with a more solid foundation with a good strategic plan for the future, but I've lost faith that he can implement that strategic plan. It'd be great if he took Shivers with him when he leaves, because that guy isn't worth 1/3 his salary 

[UNDBIZ]

51 minutes ago, Siouxperman8 said:

Serious question.  What did he do that got you to that point and what would you have done differently?  

I see his allowing a remote chief of staff decision as really bad but that only happened recently.  

Budgets were cut, employees were laid off, and some of those employees might post here....

[Siouxperfan7]

Boy do I wish we had a mega donor more like Steve Scheel instead of Kris Engelstad McGarry.

 

[Old Fella]

2 hours ago, Siouxperfan7 said:

So you applaud when millionaire heiresses try to use their money and power to influence public institutions? Wow!!  So those with the money have the power to control everything.  there are countries in the world you can move too that are run like that.  But I am guessing you wouldn't like that life too much.

Also, lease provide examples of how Kennedy has "pissed the money away" in regards to alumni donations?  (Salaries commuting expenses to UNd employees don't fall under alumni donation spending)

 

 

Kennedy has already inflicted damage to UND that will take years to change.  If it takes action action like this to get rid of him before he does irrepairable damage I'm all for it.  An example of the damage:

Between Kennedy and Schafer they were able to completly decimate the athletic department.

[talksalot83]

15 minutes ago, UNDBIZ said:

Budgets were cut, employees were laid off, and some of those employees might post here....

Budgets cuts are part of it. There's more to it than that. It feels disingenuous to think budget cuts wouldn't/can't/shouldn't matter to some people. It was not/is not the only reason for my decision.

[Old Fella]

3 hours ago, The Sicatoka said:

Eco-maniac? He doesn't come off as a tree-hugger to me. 

What I do see are two egomaniacs at work. 

I'm Scandinavian

[UNDBIZ]

Just now, talksalot83 said:

Budgets cuts are part of it. There's more to it than that. It feels disingenuous to think budget cuts wouldn't/can't/shouldn't matter to some people. It was not/is not the only reason for my decision.

Budget cuts absolutely do and should matter to people.  It was a tough situation and I'm sure everyone has opinions on a "better way" they could have been done.

[talksalot83]

Just now, UNDBIZ said:

Budget cuts absolutely do and should matter to people.  It was a tough situation and I'm sure everyone has opinions on a "better way" they could have been done.

You're correct. Everybody has a different take. Folks have to decide what's right for their wallet. I have friends who lost their jobs. If they donated; which I don't know if those people did or not. I couldn't blame them if they ended their donations.

I want to make it clear; I'm not implying that my donations were amazing or even worth the time to defend; really. All I really wanted to say is that I don't think Kennedy has simply alienated Kris. Hopefully, for UND, they are able to bring something special to the college experience and can get new donors who will support Kennedy's vision. 

[darell1976]

5 minutes ago, UNDBIZ said:

Budget cuts absolutely do and should matter to people.  It was a tough situation and I'm sure everyone has opinions on a "better way" they could have been done.

People see the governor cutting budgets for all universities and colleges but what makes people mad is seeing how NDSU handled it without cutting athletics compared to UND axing sport after sport even though UND had more sports than NDSU especially one costing millions of dollars without a huge crowd or a lot of revenue. 

[talksalot83]

My last position was at NDSU (two years). During that time, there were cuts. NDSU was in a better position than UND was financially. If we ignore athletics, NDSU did their budget cuts different than UND did. It's a tale of two different leaderships; whether you like Bresciani or not (and there's plenty not to like). NDSU definitely eliminated staff and made cuts, but not in the same way UND downsized. I emphasize that they were in different financial places. UND made a cut before NDSU had to think about their first cuts.

[The Sicatoka]

Folks, Kennedy was a CFO of a multinational corporation and had a rep as a 'budget fixer'. 

NDUS knew tough budget were ahead when he was interviewed and hired. 

If you don't understand why he (a former 'fixer') was brought in you don't understand refactoring budgets in tough revenue times. 

[The Sicatoka]

19 minutes ago, darell1976 said:

People see the governor cutting budgets for all universities and colleges but what makes people mad is seeing how NDSU handled it without cutting athletics compared to UND axing sport after sport even though UND had more sports than NDSU especially one costing millions of dollars without a huge crowd or a lot of revenue. 

Ask (recently released from NDSU WBB and daughter of an all-time great NDSU player) Sarah Jacobson that question.

She, unprompted, in a chat with Jack Michaels, brought up 'resources' being applied (or not) to NDSU WBB. There's a link somewhere in the Summit WBB thread. 

[The Sicatoka]

31 minutes ago, Old Fella said:

I'm Scandinavian

I'm sorry. 

[Nodak78]

32 minutes ago, Old Fella said:

I'm Scandinavian

Swede I'm sure.  lol

[Old Fella]

2 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

Folks, Kennedy was a CFO of a multinational corporation and had a rep as a 'budget fixer'. 

NDUS knew tough budget were ahead when he was interviewed and hired. 

If you don't understand why he (a former 'fixer') was brought in you don't understand refactoring budgets in tough revenue times. 

 

1 minute ago, Nodak78 said:

Swede I'm sure.  lol

Thanks for not accussing me of being Norwedgen.

Received an F- in spelling.

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

16 minutes ago, Old Fella said:

 

Thanks for not accussing me of being Norwedgen.

Received an F- in spelling.

Theze ink copps get to workd up over speling and gramar, posterz understand the gest off you're post. Your do n fine, after all its a mesage baord?

[petey23]

1 hour ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Another related thought: Why don't we cultivate relationships with other potential donors (i.e. former athletes, families of former athletes and so on)? There are many successful people who went to school here and probably would give if we reach out to them. We need more revenue streams than just season tickets, 50/50 raffles and the Champion's Club or we'll be wallowing in mediocrity and obscurity for the foreseeable future.

Pretty sure we have people on the payroll that already do that. How effective they are is up for debate.

[jdub27]

43 minutes ago, talksalot83 said:

My last position was at NDSU (two years). During that time, there were cuts. NDSU was in a better position than UND was financially. If we ignore athletics, NDSU did their budget cuts different than UND did. It's a tale of two different leaderships; whether you like Bresciani or not (and there's plenty not to like). NDSU definitely eliminated staff and made cuts, but not in the same way UND downsized. I emphasize that they were in different financial places. UND made a cut before NDSU had to think about their first cuts.

Along with getting a lot less ink for their cuts, some of them and the methods used were questionable and are going to come back to roost if there isn't an uptick in allocated money in the next biennium or two. I don't think they were or are overall in a much different place financially than you're implying (especially if you exclude women's hockey from the athletic department) but they did take different approaches. One is a more sustainable on long-term. The other is better short-term, but rely on recent trends reversing.

[The Sicatoka]

10 minutes ago, jdub27 said:

One is a more sustainable on long-term. The other is better short-term, but rely on recent trends reversing.

So you're saying UND bit the bullet today and NDSU kicked the can down the road. 

[jdub27]

2 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

So you're saying UND bit the bullet today and NDSU kicked the can down the road. 

With how little coverage some of the NDSU cuts go, there isn't anything public to confirm that. However, I've heard a few different people describe certain decisions that way. Time will tell, possibly.

[UNDBIZ]

NDSU also went though a lot of budget pain in the early Bresciani years (again, mostly unreported).  That did seem to set them up a little better for the 2016/17 cuts.  UND's budget woes were 15 years in the making.

[darell1976]

52 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

Ask (recently released from NDSU WBB and daughter of an all-time great NDSU player) Sarah Jacobson that question.

She, unprompted, in a chat with Jack Michaels, brought up 'resources' being applied (or not) to NDSU WBB. There's a link somewhere in the Summit WBB thread. 

NDSU doesn’t care about WBB especially after Amy Ruley left. It’s football and only football at the cow palace. Kinda sounds familiar at another school.

[talksalot83]

I can't speak for the entirety of NDSU, only from my experience, but what I was always told when I asked my area leadership was that NDSU was more stable. However, that was mostly right after UND made its first round of cuts. There were many concerns during NDSU's first round (which would have been UND's second round). My area didn't lose any people; however, if NDSU needed to make more cuts, we would have probably lost staff. We did make cuts in other ways, though, just not people. There was talk about losing full-time employees and filling their jobs with student employees when and where possible. I have a tendency to believe NDSU was slightly better off in some ways. 

In my opinion, UND and NDSU are going to become less like each other as institutions. For good or for bad; I don't know. As someone who spent about 7 years (two degrees, student employee all those years) at UND and a couple years working for NDSU. Major programming is, obviously, different but seven years ago you probably could have gone to NDSU or UND for typical major and gotten a similar degree and experience. UND has been pushing more online programs and class offerings; when I worked at NDSU, they didn't even come close to those offerings. I have no idea what the strategic plan is for NDSU, but it feels like they're trying to maintain a traditional college. UND is, in some ways, moving forward from that. And that started before Kennedy.

I should probably want to hate NDSU given my alma mater, but I had a great group of people in my office and the students were just as talented as folks I knew in college.

I hope no higher education institution has to go through any more drastic budget cuts. Anyway, that's probably more than anything anyone wanted to know and semi off-topic.

[talksalot83]

12 minutes ago, UNDBIZ said:

NDSU also went though a lot of budget pain in the early Bresciani years (again, mostly unreported).  That did seem to set them up a little better for the 2016/17 cuts.  UND's budget woes were 15 years in the making.

When I was a student, there were several times where I was like, "I'm not sure this is a good financial idea." I expressed concerns, but usually to be shot down by staff/administration. Some of those people are still there in much higher positions so...

Anybody know if the parking ramp is breaking even yet, 'cause it wasn't in 2016 as far as I was told??

[nodak651]

 

1 hour ago, talksalot83 said:

My last position was at NDSU (two years). During that time, there were cuts. NDSU was in a better position than UND was financially. If we ignore athletics, NDSU did their budget cuts different than UND did. It's a tale of two different leaderships; whether you like Bresciani or not (and there's plenty not to like). NDSU definitely eliminated staff and made cuts, but not in the same way UND downsized. I emphasize that they were in different financial places. UND made a cut before NDSU had to think about their first cuts.

1.  You blame Kennedy for the !@#$ hand he was dealt as he arrived here
2.  Kennedy makes meaningful, long term cuts
3.  UND is better positioned for the future (improves !@#$ hand)
4.  You are mad at Kennedy