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Father biondi - vote of no confidence


3Bill

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"Under Biondi, the university "has now become a place of tyranny," said Timothy Lomperis, a political science professor, who rallied for the vote."

"A faculty survey done by the arts and sciences faculty found that more than 75 percent were considering leaving SLU because of the uncertainty over tenure. The survey also found that more than 80 percent of faculty feared some sort of retaliation if they spoke up about the issue."

Wow.

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If the atmosphere at SLU among the staff is really this bad then Biondi may be in trouble. Having been a top school system leader I can tell you that in order to stay in power you need at least 2 of 3 groups supporting you - staff, parents/student, the governing board. Right now I am not sure where Biondi falls - he clearly has lost the staff and from some earlier articles it looks like some of the students are not behind him. The governing board while they may be behind him in public who knows what is being said behind closed doors. It won't take long for the board to start crumbling once the money starts to dry up via lower enrollment and lower donations. The shame of this whole situation is that this is all Biondi's doing - he kept poking the sleeping dog and just because it did not wake up right away he thought he could do whatever he wanted to it - times change and people finally get their fill. The quieter Biondi is the more likely something is brewing - can he recover? - who knows since we really do not have a full view of what is happening but I can tell you this - when a situation will not quiet down but keeps bubbling then it is not good for the person in charge.

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Traveling back in time to "the situation" ---- just using it as a time stamp but nothing more ---- I had heard then there was huge unrest that was continuing to grow amongst the students with Biondi back then. This came from a student who has since graduated. And this person was a presidential scholarship award-winner for four years at SLU. In other words, not a dummy. For whatever that's worth.

The guy is not liked for many different reasons by many different groups.

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Traveling back in time to "the situation" ---- just using it as a time stamp but nothing more ---- I had heard then there was huge unrest that was continuing to grow amongst the students with Biondi back then.

He was not well liked by the students when I was at SLU, and I graduated 15 years ago. (Holy sh--, I graduated from college 15 years ago.)

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He was not well liked by the students when I was at SLU, and I graduated 15 years ago. (Holy sh--, I graduated from college 15 years ago.)

I graduated in 1993 and Fr. Biondi was not all that well-liked by the students then either. At the same time, the students don't really have a chance to get to know this President or any President. Obviously, some have a warmer personality than others. Some are/would be more visible than others. Obviously, these qualities are not strengths of Fr. Biondi. At the same time, I would sure not want to limit our choice of Presidents to only those with warm personalities who are visible but not very good behind the scenes at running and improving the University. Fr. Biondi was done some really, really good things for the University behind the scenes and with our major donors. He has literally transformed the campus and has to be one of the best "bricks & mortar" Presidents in the country. The growth of SLU's endowment under his tenure is equally impressive. At some point, though, things get stale and new leadership is needed - and needed now. Hopefully, our next President will be better at rebuilding the faculty, administration and curiculum than buildings, greenspace, fountains and statues.

IMO, the students will follow. The faculty, though, is the core of any university and departures of the favorite teachers will sway the students and the governing Board.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can't speak to the validity of these numbers, but this is on the Facebook page:

http://powerpoint.of...+the+University

Those are very interesting statistics and certainly don't paint a good picture. That being said, most of them directly relate to the fact that SLU's endowment is inadequate compared to all the comparable universities. A larger endowment, which would likely be a result of increased alumni giving, could be used to increase faculty pay and reduce the cost of SLU tuition and debt load for graduates.

To me, each page basically says the same thing: increase the endowment materially and many things will also improve.

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At quick glance, some of the facts and figures are incorrect. Also the way he presented some of the data and drew conclusions seems to be a bit off.

The retention rate is not 85%. It's at 88%. And if he wanted to accurately present the data behind this statistic, he would mention that 88% is actually very high for any institution.

Also, after giving data for endowments, he summarized by saying that institutions like Georgetown etc are now "aspirant" schools. No, not just now, they always have been aspirant schools, regardless of what their endowment looked like.

Seems someone should have done a bit more research and presented both sides of the coin a bit more.

I'm still on the fence about this whole thing, but I'm much more willing to listen/read when the information is presented fairly

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At quick glance, some of the facts and figures are incorrect. Also the way he presented some of the data and drew conclusions seems to be a bit off.

The retention rate is not 85%. It's at 88%. And if he wanted to accurately present the data behind this statistic, he would mention that 88% is actually very high for any institution.

Also, after giving data for endowments, he summarized by saying that institutions like Georgetown etc are now "aspirant" schools. No, not just now, they always have been aspirant schools, regardless of what their endowment looked like.

Seems someone should have done a bit more research and presented both sides of the coin a bit more.

I'm still on the fence about this whole thing, but I'm much more willing to listen/read when the information is presented fairly

Solid. Thanks for clarifying. I had no idea on the numbers.

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At quick glance, some of the facts and figures are incorrect. Also the way he presented some of the data and drew conclusions seems to be a bit off.

The retention rate is not 85%. It's at 88%. And if he wanted to accurately present the data behind this statistic, he would mention that 88% is actually very high for any institution.

Also, after giving data for endowments, he summarized by saying that institutions like Georgetown etc are now "aspirant" schools. No, not just now, they always have been aspirant schools, regardless of what their endowment looked like.

Seems someone should have done a bit more research and presented both sides of the coin a bit more.

I'm still on the fence about this whole thing, but I'm much more willing to listen/read when the information is presented fairly

I'm in the same boat as you. I have my issues with Father B, but I think a vote of no confidence seems like an overreaction, especially when the administration has already listened to the faculty and taken away the proposal.

Also, though, 25 years at the head of any institution is a long time. It's probably time for Father B to look at moving on. I think the best thing he can do is set up a solid transition plan.He's done terrific things for the school, but the rankings have been stagnant or even falling the past few years. Maybe this is as high as he can take us, and we need someone new to get us over the hump that is the Top 50.

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I think it is important to note that the growth of an endowment comes from several sources, notably alumni contributions but also investment returns. SLU's endowment had very poor performance in both the tech wreck of the early 2000's and the credit crisis (2008-2009). While I haven't checked in a couple of years, the last time I did the structure of how it was managed was very poor. For a very long time there was no Chief Investment Officer and per the Powerpoint referenced above it is currently managed by the CFO. A CFO's skill set and role in an organization are very different than a CIO's. There have been attempts off and on to hire a CIO but the compensation package offered was significantly below market, even for the midwest and St. Louis. I would put this down as a major failure of the current administration and a great detriment to the university. This could very easily be outsourced if SLU doesn't want to invest in the appropriate infrastructure to do it in house.

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I think it is important to note that the growth of an endowment comes from several sources, notably alumni contributions but also investment returns. SLU's endowment had very poor performance in both the tech wreck of the early 2000's and the credit crisis (2008-2009). While I haven't checked in a couple of years, the last time I did the structure of how it was managed was very poor. For a very long time there was no Chief Investment Officer and per the Powerpoint referenced above it is currently managed by the CFO. A CFO's skill set and role in an organization are very different than a CIO's. There have been attempts off and on to hire a CIO but the compensation package offered was significantly below market, even for the midwest and St. Louis. I would put this down as a major failure of the current administration and a great detriment to the university. This could very easily be outsourced if SLU doesn't want to invest in the appropriate infrastructure to do it in house.

Inaccurate. A simple search on the Internet shows that SLU has a CIO and management of the endowment is primarily outsourced.

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I understand the issue of endowments but as someone said the size of the endowment fund is a function of giving and why do people give? They give because they believe or sense they are getting something of value for their funds. When institutions do not bring in enough gifts it usually is a result of people not feeling/thinking this is happening. An unsettled atmosphere also adds to this lack of giving. Increased national attention through research developments, academic awards, and athletic success all lead to a sense of accomplishment and a willingness to have people give. Frankly, my giving recently to SLU has primarily been in the area of athletics so if the school lets this fall of the table then honestly I will stop giving. I am not sure what Biondi has done with the current endowment funds but at the least he should have it back to prerecession totals by now. My point is a good leader focuses on all areas that may bring value to the institution. From what I have heard from others it seems as if Biondi is wanting to stay until the 200th celebration and he may very well be given the chance but in the mean time he needs to focus on repairing relationships and making sure he is mining gifts from all areas.

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I am going to very respectfully disagree with you. The university historically used outside managers which is different than a consultant whose responsibility is greater in scope than managing a single sleeve of assets. If they are using a consultant, I applaud the decision and will happily shut up. And traditionally the CIO role at SLU was assigned to the Treasurer. Different skillset. I think the university can do better than they have historically, hopefully they are taking steps in that direction. SLU has a significant amount of assets in the endowment and has for a number of years. I would like to see them manage it well to the benefit of the university. I think we can agree on that.

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