Fr. Biondi on the Hotseat

[billikenmetz]

I guess we need all the money we can get for the BiondiDome...

http://www.unewsonline.com/media/paper953/...unewsonline.com

This makes me sad to be affiliated with SLU if this is the case.

[billiken_roy]

so slu should just give away tuition and room and board to 140 students? at approxiamately $40k per student per year, the math says that would be $5.6 million dollars! i could understand some benevolence by slu, but the real question is why didnt the schools the students came from coordinate this upfront? if the kids didnt want to pay it, they should have transferred to a cheaper school.

[billikenmetz]

Roy, your math is sound but your logic isn't. These students that attended a sister Jesuit school in New Orleans were displaced because of Hurricane Katrina and sought to continue their education at SLU or other Jesuit colleges around the country and to have SLU affix our price tag on these students makes us look as bad as FEMA. I feel horrible that our President can have the testicular prowess (or balls, if you will) to do that to these kids, who obviously thought that the compassion of a school under the auspices of the teachings of Saint Ignatius would be provided to them as well. Shame on Fr. Biondi. I would like to vote No Confidence in our University President.

[bonwich]

"While SLU was not the only university to charge tuition to refugee students, it was the only Jesuit school to do so."

If, in fact, no Jesuit school save SLU charged any Loyola student tuition (which sounds implausible, but given the Jesuit tradition, is possible), we look like complete frauds in claiming to have the goal of being "the finest Catholic university in America." SLU PR strikes again.

P.S. It was only one semester, so it's not $40K/per. Beyond that, even $20K would represent foregone revenue, not cost to the U. Aside from room and board, the marginal cost to SLU arguably approached zero, since all they were basically doing was adding 700 individual class enrollments to already-booked classes.

[billiken_roy]

your thinking is noble, but it doesnt pay the bills. if we were talking about 10 or 12 kids, i would be all with you. but 10X that is over 5 million dollars and is a lot of charity.

[billikenmetz]

I agree with you, Bonwich. 100%. We do look like frauds and it's just another classic example of SLU doing anything in its power to pick the pockets of students. With this and the "graduation tax," I for one will be putting a "return to sender" stamp on any piece of Alumni Donor literature that comes my way for the next five years or so. I've given too much of my money to BiondiDome.

[billikenmetz]

Roy, forget SLU taking a hit in its books and/or Endowment. Take a look at the banners around SLU and what does it say, "AMDG," "Men and Women For Others," etc. The arrogance of Biondi to keep these hypocritical banners up around campus disgusts me. At a time of crisis for these students, we threw our hands up and said, "follow me," and the existing student body at SLU welcomed LNO students with open arms, but Biondi had his ever-present wallet open as well to collect. Under his lead, the University has grown leaps and bounds but this could tarnish his legacy and I hope it does.

[SLUDrew]

Is that what you call "compassionate conservatism?" We all knew that phrase was a complete oxymoron from the beginning. Thanks for expemplifying the point.

Please tell me you are not as cold as your posts make you sound.

[Billiken Rich]

Kind of like progressive liberalism?

[DoctorB]

It might help if we read the article. Let's get the facts straight.

I may be wrong but it is not $5 million we are talking about. It sounds like SLU overcharged above and beyond the Loyola tuition, correct? So it is much less than that. Multiply approximately $2000 times the number of students from Loyola--yes, still quite a lot of money, but not 5 mill.

That does not make what happened just or moral. It sounds like students, at least one of whom is quoted directly, were given wrong or deceptive information: that they would not be charged more than Loyola tuition. That is the issue. If they were told this, of course, then it is simply wrong: morally and probably legally.

I believe that the UNews will be looking into this episode and we can expect some coverage by their reporters in the next week or 2.

[cheeseman]

In the effort of fairness, this article was written from one side - I would like to hear both sides of this arguement before throwing stones. I have to tell you that while a part of me feels sorry for what happened to everyone in New Orleans another part says - hey sh** happens. New Orleans and everyone associated with it has been under the impression that they have a right to being on the dole from everyone and I am not sure that is right. The other question I have is why would anyone think that they could transfer schools and go there for free for whatever the reason? I was puzzled by this when I read the article months ago about all the kids going all over the place. The truth is those kids should have gone home and enrolled at the local public college/junior college. I think I also read that the colleges in New Orleans kept the money the students had prepaid - if that is true then why not release it and give it to the schools who took the kids in.

[gister]

Continuing that thought, the article is from the student government organization. If this is a legitimate claim, why isn't Loyola University (from which I have my MBA, by the way) involved directly to help sort this out. What is the official position of that University and how was it involved in the process last fall? Have those students who feel they have been wronged gone to the officials at Loyola for help in getting this straightened out.

I agree, I don't think we are getting the whole story at this point.

[moytoy12]

Yes. That's exactly what slu should do (and your mathematical assumptions are wrong per the article).

[billiken_roy]

for 5.4 million dollars? i guess i am. sorry.

like i said, if cost was a problem, the kids should have went elsewhere. i know of two kids my son went to grade school with that were loyola of new orleans students. after learning the deal at slu they went to loyola of chicago. their choice. i didnt hear the parents complaining.

[billiken_roy]

he has always been viewed as a hard cold calculating businessman that saved the school and took it to a level never dreamed of prior to his arrival. i dont see where another cold calcuating business decision changes that.

[courtside]

I would be interested in getting some sort of a list of schools that too in kids...then have that list broken down into Catholic schools.....and showing me numbers of students and who charged what to whom......etc....

[bonwich]

More errors here, Roy. (And you still haven't pointed out why your math is right and mine is wrong in what I still think is a gross overstatement on your part of the true cost to SLU).

> that saved the school

No, that would be Father Fitz. Biondi accelerated the endowment, but the financial turnaround was already in process, if not achieved, when he arrived.

> and took it to a level never dreamed of prior to his arrival.

That's probably true. But he shouldn't be given credit for stuff he didn't do.

And both of the above are somewhat irrelevant in the current discussion, because the fact remains (unless you have evidence otherwise): SLU was the only Jesuit university to charge tuition to the Loyola kids.

[Sheltiedave]

Dr. B is right, from how I read the article.

I understood the intent was students could attend any Jesuit university, and would be billed at the Loyola rate, which was about $10K/semester, AND THEN the money would be sent to Loyola to help with their recovery efforts to get the school back on their feet.

I would be a little miffed if Saint Louis was the only Jesuit institution to renege and charge the differential above the going Loyola rate, as it could be reasonable that some students would suffer additional hardship from an unexpected bill.

The decision not to turf the tuition collected back to Loyola probably was not made by Biondi, but rather by beancounters in the administration. It is inane to hold Biondi responsible for every decision made on the campus, and this at first blush seems to be one of those cases where Biondi was not personally involved.

[Major Majerus]

Here's what happened at Loyola; their fall semester was shot. Still, they had the fixed costs of running a large university, which are huge. Imagine SLU being shut down for a semester and foregoing all of the tuition paid; even refunding it...which, of course, requires the ongoing services of a paid staff and the associated plant requirement. Were all the teachers and support employees fired or asked to forego their salaries for that semester? Unlikely. That's a good reason why a private insitution would like to have the type of help offered by other Jesuit institutions. SLU, of course, did not have to shut down and had all of its fixed costs covered, so it could, at the least, offer to accept the students at its marginal cost. They have a school of accounting, and such calculations could have been done in a day. I don't think the students should profit from the catastrophe, but think SLU should extend a helping hand to Loyola.

[moytoy12]

"It is inane to hold Biondi responsible for every decision made on the campus, and this at first blush seems to be one of those cases where Biondi was not personally involved."

Agreed that Biondi shouldn't be held responsible for every decision, but you don't think he was involved in this decision? A decision that deviated from every other jesuit university, according to the story? In my book, Biondi should be held responsible for not being involved in such a decision, if that is the case. You think the underlings were just like, "ah, fuggetaboutit, Larry don't need to know about no decision where we differ from every other jesuit university that is offering help to a fellow jesuit institution struck by natural disaster of gigantic proportions"?

[DoctorB]

Also, for those of you on the outside, I can tell you that students from New Orleans were assigned to our classes later than usual, and often (in my case this happened) were assigned autocratically even though the course was closed (i.e. full to capacity) and there were other SLU students turned down for the class. this happened to any number of my colleagues (usually it requires a professor's permission to enter a full class, but not last semester). What this means is those students from New Orleans were getting some special privileges that other SLU students were not; it also means that I and many other SLU teachers were given additional work to do, for no more compensation. No big deal on that, I am not complaining. But please remember that SLU faculty were doing a lot of additional work last semester due to this influx of students from the south.

Most of tuition moneys go to paying salaries to staff and faculty, at SLU and elsewhere. We were doing the teaching and the Loyola faculty were getting the salary. Again, no complaints-- I just hope that our benevolence in doing so does not provide some windfall profits to the SLU budget. It should be charitable, and certainly in my own case I considered it so. I would hope that a similar arrangement might be made for me, should some hideous natural (or unnatural and man-made) disaster befall our university, and classes were suspended for a semester.

[Sheltiedave]

Moytoy, if the Loyola president were gravely concerned, it would not be difficult to make a personal phone call to Larry to get the issue resolved. The Jesuits normally are quite capable of defining and resolving such issues.

Rarely have I seen Biondi stand down an administration decision, and it is a very rare case for a Jesuit university president to not grant a request from another university president.

[billiken_roy]

joe my only point was that he has no reputation as a benifactor. it is all as a business man. thus, how can this seemingly selfish act tarnish his legacy? it is what it is.

as to the math, if it is a lesser amount, fine. if you all find something where originally father biondi indeed promised free tuition and room and board to these students, then i see the point. otherwise, i just dont see the problem. if someone wants a deal, you dont negoitiate after the fact. it should have been agreed to upfront.

[billiken_roy]

i must have missed the fact about "reneging". or was it assumed? anyone that would assume such is a fool and shouldnt be in the business. and sorry if the fact that a university is a "business" but it is.

[billikenmetz]

Someone look back to April 2005 and the graduation tax??? Student approval of Biondi dropped to March 2006 numbers of Prez Bush...there was a sit-in in the halls of DuBourg and we got him to back down on the tax. I think the student body should do the same for this issue. Biondi should take off the Roman Collar and put on a tie if he's all business and not pro-compassion for the kids whose lives were changed forever when the President Bush-caused Hurricane hit town....(I'm a GOP guy all the way, so that is a satirical statement on my part...two merging tropical fronts caused Hurricane Katrina, you dummy!)