TheChosenOne Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 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. What you describe is exactly what SLU has whatever title you want to give that relationship. Internally SLU is definitely not positioned to handle this and your comment regarding the CIO and treasurer being the same person is also accurate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BACKHANDtheRICAN Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 Can't speak to the validity of these numbers, but this is on the Facebook page: http://powerpoint.of...+the+University Wow. I just shredded my degree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastsidejoe Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 Wow. I just shredded my degree. didn't know you had a degree. Wow, that is a surprise. Thought you dropped out. I bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonwich Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 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. With all due respect, please cite your source and explain how it contradicts the data cited by Professor McLaughlin, which, as he notes, comes from SLU itself (see Table 3.10). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpartanBilliken Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 With all due respect, please cite your source and explain how it contradicts the data cited by Professor McLaughlin, which, as he notes, comes from SLU itself (see Table 3.10). ... come on now bonwich. you do realize that report is from from 2010-2011? and the 84-85% figure is from '08 and '09. The retention rate this year is at 88% this year. How do I know? Because I work for the office that tracks this data at SLU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpartanBilliken Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 and even still... the national average is down around 65%, so again, our retention rate is not bad... could it be better? Heck yes, it could. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 14% is a piss-poor alumni giving rate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonwich Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 ... come on now bonwich. you do realize that report is from from 2010-2011? and the 84-85% figure is from '08 and '09. The retention rate this year is at 88% this year. How do I know? Because I work for the office that tracks this data at SLU. That would explain the discrepancy, but the 2011-2012 report wasn't released until Oct. 11 of this year -- and even it shows an 86% rate, not 88%. From the facts available publicly at the time he did his research, his statement in the slide show is correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 I had to do some statistical work on endowments this summer (this is not my usual work but I was asked to do it for the local college) and some of the universities mentioned in the SLU slide deck were also in the comparison work I had data for. I can confirm 3 of the universities listed have the correct endowment changes. One odd thing is that endowment changes are expressed in overall percent changes when most finance whizzes would use a CAGR (compound annual growth rate). Also, I noticed that Wash U. was in some of the peer comparisons and not in others. I can add that their endowment changes have been relatively poor as well but higher than SLU's in that period. The lowest in the group I had to analyse was Emory U. in Atlanta and they had worse endowment changes than SLU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 14% is a piss-poor alumni giving rate. -it sure seems like it is low, do we know an avg for Jesuit schools? all institutions? if we are way below other Jesuit schools and i was a Trustee i would have to ask why this was happening, that would be an interesting explanation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 I had to do some statistical work on endowments this summer (this is not my usual work but I was asked to do it for the local college) and some of the universities mentioned in the SLU slide deck were also in the comparison work I had data for. I can confirm 3 of the universities listed have the correct endowment changes. One odd thing is that endowment changes are expressed in overall percent changes when most finance whizzes would use a CAGR (compound annual growth rate). Also, I noticed that Wash U. was in some of the peer comparisons and not in others. I can add that their endowment changes have been relatively poor as well but higher than SLU's in that period. The lowest in the group I had to analyse was Emory U. in Atlanta and they had worse endowment changes than SLU. -any idea on avg % of alumns that donate? esp from other Jesuit schools? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonwich Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 and even still... the national average is down around 65%, so again, our retention rate is not bad... could it be better? Heck yes, it could. The national average is only a meaningful data point when presented with the national standard deviation, especially in the context of our stated "Top 50" goal. (Also, in looking back at the slideshow, he clearly states that his cited "not above 85%" statistic was as of October 2011, which, as noted, was the latest publicly available data when he did the research.) And in the context of data presentation in that slide show, US News has our 4-year moving average retention rate at 85%, which does, in fact, put us tied at 111th (with Mizzou and Loyola-Chicago, among others). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpartanBilliken Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 That would explain the discrepancy, but the 2011-2012 report wasn't released until Oct. 11 of this year -- and even it shows an 86% rate, not 88%. From the facts available publicly at the time he did his research, his statement in the slide show is correct. That I can understand, and unfortunately, I'm not sure why it takes so gdamn long to publish this report (not my office's responsibility). But even still, that 86% is from 2010. So yes, he's working with what he has available, but I'm sure a call to our office would have answered the same question and he would have been able to publish more accurate #'s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slufan13 Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 Either way SLU isn't as good as it should be and isn't getting any closer to top 50. That's all I really need to know. Also I'm worried about graduating this year. At this pace my degree won't mean as much 5 years from now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiseAndGrind Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 Either way SLU isn't as good as it should be and isn't getting any closer to top 50. That's all I really need to know. Also I'm worried about graduating this year. At this pace my degree won't mean as much 5 years from now. Exactly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 -it sure seems like it is low, do we know an avg for Jesuit schools? all institutions? if we are way below other Jesuit schools and i was a Trustee i would have to ask why this was happening, that would be an interesting explanation I just did a quick check of the most recent U.S. News rankings, and it looks like alumni giving information is no longer available (or at least easy to find). I did find a 2010 ranking that includes alumni giving rates: Wash U. - 35% Notre Dame - 50% Georgetown - 28% Boston College - 23% Fordham - 22% Marquette - 18% SLU was 16% in 2010 Sweater Vests - 23% Loyola Chicago - 10% San Francisco - 10% Duquesne - 14% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiseAndGrind Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 I just did a quick check of the most recent U.S. News rankings, and it looks like alumni giving information is no longer available (or at least easy to find). I did find a 2010 ranking that includes alumni giving rates: Wash U. - 35% Notre Dame - 50% Georgetown - 28% Boston College - 23% Fordham - 22% Marquette - 18% SLU was 16% in 2010 Sweater Vests - 23% Loyola Chicago - 10% San Francisco - 10% Duquesne - 14% They would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB73 Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 It's Biondi. He put in some lawns, benches, and fountains. Wow. Chaifetz goes up, we got lucky with some big donors, we have been plannng an on campus arena for 50 yrs. Like you-know-who claiming HE got OBL. Majerus coming here was a lucky fluke, wanted a Jesuit school for his sunset job, close as possible to Milwaukee, did not want to coach in Big 6 conferences, Biondi did not pay, alumni did. A few people like him, but most do not, and there is failure galore at SLU. And he does NOT like athletics. He needs to go... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clock_Tower Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 It's Biondi. He put in some lawns, benches, and fountains. Wow. Chaifetz goes up, we got lucky with some big donors, we have been plannng an on campus arena for 50 yrs. Like you-know-who claiming HE got OBL. Majerus coming here was a lucky fluke, wanted a Jesuit school for his sunset job, close as possible to Milwaukee, did not want to coach in Big 6 conferences, Biondi did not pay, alumni did. A few people like him, but most do not, and there is failure galore at SLU. And he does NOT like athletics. He needs to go... All true. But at the same time, SLU's campus was in a state of total disrepair prior to the 1980's. I was there. I started walking the SLU campus in 1990. Fr Bionid became President 3 years earlier. Prior to 1987, West Pine (the street) was closed off, the Rec Center completed but not much else. Fr. Biondi then completely rebuilt the campus which included the purchase/transformation of buildings/temples into new dorms and university/classroom buildings, closing off public streets passing through the middle of campus, the acquisition of property and after, the building of new student housing and classroom buildings, removal of abandoned and dangerous buildings (though I still blame him for getting rid of Clarke!!), bringing the soccer team back to campus (first with turf and then with grass), the removal of surface parking lots -- including the "elevated" surface parking lot paved over the prior building foundation off Grand and replacing the same with two (2) parking garages, green space, etc. All of this was then topped off with Chaifetz. Similar improvements have been made to every building serving every department including the Med School and Madrid campus. All the while, Fr. Biondi took the endowment from almost nothing to something good prior to the recent market crash. No, Fr. Biondi has been a wonderful bricks & mortar President and fantastic fundraiser and deserves our praise and thanks. A true friend of the sports program? No. A President who has done well? Yes. A university in need of change after 25 years? Yes. IMO, our next President needs to less bricks and mortar and more of a student-faculty relationship-building guy to rebuild the academics at SLU while fundraising like crazy. As to the percentage rate of alumni donations, let's just say that SLU has found a way to nickel and dime and piss off nearly every student during their time as a student. Most alumni remember their own personal stories and choose not to donate. Donations are a reflection of how you were made to feel while at school. And after you graduate, the sports program keeps you coming back, thinking about the school, buying a sweatshirt/hat, speaking well about your alma mater and being proud of your school (see Notre Dame football, etc.). Slick advertising and a professional fundraising blitz can only do so much in that you either have a warm spot in her heart for SLU or you don't based upon your student experience. IMO, 16% still remember the negative but are able to put that aside, remember the bigger picture and donate accordingly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 -clock is right here not just twice a day but at all times of the day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cowboy Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 I just did a quick check of the most recent U.S. News rankings, and it looks like alumni giving information is no longer available (or at least easy to find). I did find a 2010 ranking that includes alumni giving rates: Wash U. - 35% Notre Dame - 50% Georgetown - 28% Boston College - 23% Fordham - 22% Marquette - 18% SLU was 16% in 2010 Sweater Vests - 23% Loyola Chicago - 10% San Francisco - 10% Duquesne - 14% -what a range, i guess some could find comfort that we are only 2 points behind marq but how in the world can we be 5 points behind svu is not good -better than some, worse than others and not where i would hope or expect but i understand at least part of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB73 Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 All true. But at the same time, SLU's campus was in a state of total disrepair prior to the 1980's. I was there. I started walking the SLU campus in 1990. Fr Bionid became President 3 years earlier. Prior to 1987, West Pine (the street) was closed off, the Rec Center completed but not much else. Fr. Biondi then completely rebuilt the campus which included the purchase/transformation of buildings/temples into new dorms and university/classroom buildings, closing off public streets passing through the middle of campus, the acquisition of property and after, the building of new student housing and classroom buildings, removal of abandoned and dangerous buildings (though I still blame him for getting rid of Clarke!!), bringing the soccer team back to campus (first with turf and then with grass), the removal of surface parking lots -- including the "elevated" surface parking lot paved over the prior building foundation off Grand and replacing the same with two (2) parking garages, green space, etc. All of this was then topped off with Chaifetz. Similar improvements have been made to every building serving every department including the Med School and Madrid campus. All the while, Fr. Biondi took the endowment from almost nothing to something good prior to the recent market crash. No, Fr. Biondi has been a wonderful bricks & mortar President and fantastic fundraiser and deserves our praise and thanks. A true friend of the sports program? No. A President who has done well? Yes. A university in need of change after 25 years? Yes. IMO, our next President needs to less bricks and mortar and more of a student-faculty relationship-building guy to rebuild the academics at SLU while fundraising like crazy. As to the percentage rate of alumni donations, let's just say that SLU has found a way to nickel and dime and piss off nearly every student during their time as a student. Most alumni remember their own personal stories and choose not to donate. Donations are a reflection of how you were made to feel while at school. And after you graduate, the sports program keeps you coming back, thinking about the school, buying a sweatshirt/hat, speaking well about your alma mater and being proud of your school (see Notre Dame football, etc.). Slick advertising and a professional fundraising blitz can only do so much in that you either have a warm spot in her heart for SLU or you don't based upon your student experience. IMO, 16% still remember the negative but are able to put that aside, remember the bigger picture and donate accordingly. I agree but my point is that any reasonble administrator would have had the common sense to upgrade the campus at that point in time. This did not take a genius to figure out and execute. It was much needed. What, do nothing til 2012? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clock_Tower Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 I agree but my point is that any reasonble administrator would have had the common sense to upgrade the campus at that point in time. This did not take a genius to figure out and execute. It was much needed. What, do nothing til 2012? What are you talking about? Do nothing until 2012? Fr. Biondi sure deserves his share of criticism but to marginalize 25 years of his true accomplishments and then to state that "any reasonable" administrator would have done the same is just plain wrong. Most administrators keep the status quo. Fr. Biondi has done the complete opposite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moytoy12 Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 What are you talking about? Do nothing until 2012? Fr. Biondi sure deserves his share of criticism but to marginalize 25 years of his true accomplishments and then to state that "any reasonable" administrator would have done the same is just plain wrong. Most administrators keep the status quo. Fr. Biondi has done the complete opposite. Agree. I'm no big supporter of FB, but It's easy to play monday morning QB with his decisions. It's possible that another administrator would have thought maintaining the commuter nature of the school was the "obvious" route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheChosenOne Posted October 30, 2012 Share Posted October 30, 2012 More good publicity for Biondi and Saint Louis University... http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/critics-of-st-louis-university-leaders-rally-on-campus/article_83645206-6766-51be-a657-ec5109126f66.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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