Archive for February, 2015

Predictably, Rand Paul won the CPAC Straw Poll for the third straight year. That isn’t proof that Sen. Paul is a top tier candidate. It’s proof that he’s inherited his father’s supporters. By the time the South Carolina Primary rolls around, he’ll pretty much be an afterthought in the GOP presidential race. Here are the top 5 finishers:

Noticeably missing from the ranks of frontrunners is Chris Christie:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, considered a top-flight candidate since the 2012 presidential elections, finished last with 2.8 percent of the vote.

To put that in perspective, Christie finished behind such juggernauts as Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Rick Santorum.

The story, though, is Gov. Walker’s strong second-place finish. Nobody thought he’d dethrone Rand Paul as the straw poll winner. Finishing with 21% is impressive, though I can’t say it’s totally unexpected. Here’s what the Washington Times is reporting:

Mr. Walker saw the biggest surge in this year’s poll, rising from sixth place and 7 percent last year to reach 21.4 percent this year. That was nearly twice the 11.5 percent Mr. Cruz garnered, about the same as his showing last year.

This result is interesting:

When first and second choice preferences were combined, Mr. Paul and Mr. Walker were even closer, with 41.5 percent of respondents listing Mr. Paul as in their top two, and 40.8 percent listing Mr. Walker. Mr. Cruz and Mr. Carson trailed with little more than half that support.

Here’s another interesting tidbit of information:

It sounds like Jeb Bush’s supporters are taking CPAC pretty seriously this year. Emails provided to Slate show that backers of the former Florida governor are busing supporters from downtown Washington D.C. to CPAC in National Harbor, Maryland, and organizing to get them day passes into the event.

One of the emails that went out this morning was from Fritz Brogan, a former advance man for then-President George W. Bush who (per the Washington Post) co-hosted a fundraiser for Jeb’s Right to Rise PAC earlier this month. A Bush insider confirmed to Slate that Bush’s Right to Rise PAC is helping organize the transportation.

“We strongly recommend arriving as early as possible to get a seat,” wrote Brogan in an email sent to undisclosed recipients. “Our ‘Early Rise’ team will be there at 7:30am onward helping reserve seats- if you want to join the early team, let me know.” Brogan wrote that there were still available seats on buses leaving from K Street and Georgetown at noon on Friday to get to the event in time for Bush’s talk.

Two things are important about this. First, Jeb’s team went all-in to impress at CPAC with the hope of doing better than expected. That didn’t happen. The other important thing about this is that there aren’t many people from K Street and Georgetown available to vote in the New Hampshire or South Carolina primaries. If this lackluster finish doesn’t give Team Jeb some gray hairs, then they aren’t paying attention.

Technorati: Rand Paul, CPAC Straw Poll, Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Republicans, Election 2016

After reading this article, it’s impossible to connect the word competence with the title of high-ranking MnSCU administrator. Here’s why:

According to Sam Nelson, president of Minnesota State College Faculty-Ridgewater, the decision to take the vote followed eight years of efforts to improve communication with Allen. Union members feel Allen has been unresponsive to their concerns.

The vote passed overwhelmingly. About 140 faculty members were eligible to vote, 75 percent cast ballots, and 90 percent voted in favor, Nelson said.

That’s a pretty overwhelming result. Here’s the results of the faculty’s surveys:

This statement startled me:

1. President Allen demonstrates respect for faculty.

2007-08 = 2.22
2008-09 = 2.067
2011-12 = 2.38

This is the other statement that startled me:

3. President Allen demonstrates that he places appropriate value on the input of faculty in addressing college issues.

2007-08 = 1.98
2008-09 = 1.623
2011-12 = 1.86

Part of the collective bargaining agreement between MnSCU and the faculty is shared governance. Whether you agree with that principle or not, it’s part of a negotiated contract. That means these colleges’ presidents are obligated to that. Clearly, the vast majority of faculty at Ridgewater think that President Allen isn’t living up to their agreement.

This isn’t rare within MnSCU. At St. Cloud State, their monthly shared governance meeting is officially called Meet and Confer. For the last 2+ years, the SCSU Faculty Association have nicknamed the meetings Meet and Announce, as in they hold the meeting and President Potter announces the things he’s changed unilaterally.

Considering the fact that St. Cloud State has a $9,542,000 deficit this year that’s predicted to jump to more than $12,000,000 next year, perhaps President Potter should consider the possibility of actually listening to the FA’s ideas.

U of M President Eric Kaler’s new policy on reporting crime on the U of M campus is fairly straightforward:

The University of Minnesota plans to reduce the use of suspect descriptions, including race, in crime alerts sent to the campus community. President Eric Kaler described the new approach in an email sent to students, staff and faculty on Wednesday. Kaler said suspect descriptions will still be included when they help identify a potentially dangerous suspect, but that when the description is too general, the university will “note that only a limited description of the suspect(s) is available.”

If that sounds foolish to you, check this out:

The decision came after a dialogue about the issue on campus, which included a student-led occupation of Kaler’s office earlier this month.

I wouldn’t call it a dialogue as much as it’s President Kaler caving into the demands of some overly PC students:

Thirteen demonstrators were taken into custody Monday night after staging a sit-in at University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler’s Morrill Hall office to complain that the university is not committed enough to diversity.

The protest, organized by a group that calls itself “Whose Diversity?”, ended just before 8 p.m. Monday. A tweet from the Twitter account for Whose Diversity, @WhoseDiv, said all 13 were released by 4:37 a.m. Activist Tanja Andic said protesters believe that the university merely gives lip service to the idea of diversity on campus. “They talk about investment in diversity,” Andic said. “They talk about having it as something that benefits the university rather than something that is about basic ethics, and justice and serving everybody.”

That’s proof that the inmates are running the U of M asylum. It’s also proof that Kaler doesn’t have the spine to stand up for common sense. This tells me that President Kaler doesn’t have much in the way of common sense himself:

“We have heard from many in our community that the use of race in suspect descriptions in our Crime Alerts may unintentionally reinforce racist stereotypes of Black men, and other people of color, as criminals and threats,” Kaler wrote. “That in turn can create an oppressive climate for some members of our community, a climate of suspicion and hostility.”

That isn’t the worst news. This is:

Tori Hong, who helped organize the sit-in Feb. 9, called the decision a good first step. “We do think that it’s not enough, and that the university it still being somewhat superficial about it,” she said. “So we’re going to keep pushing the administration to think harder and keep engaging in these conversations.”

Ms. Hong thinks that this is just the first step. She’s probably right because President Kaler doesn’t seem to have the will to fight for common sense. The thought that the campus shouldn’t include a person’s race “when the description is too general” is foolish. It’s insulting that these student activists pushed President Kaler into this decision based on the thought that suspect descriptions “may unintentionally reinforce racist stereotypes of Black men.”

Technorati: Eric Kaler, University of Minnesota, Political Correctness, Crime Alerts

Judge Doty’s 16 page ruling in the NFLPA’s lawsuit on Adrian Peterson’s behalf against the NFL contains some bombshell statements. This part of Judge Doty’s ruling is particularly stinging:

Moreover, Henderson’s conclusion that the New Policy is consistent with the previous Policy is contradicted by the Commissioner’s own statements in which he acknowledged that the New Policy included “changes” to the Policy. See, e.g., id. Ex. 65, at 1 (“I made a mistake. I’m not satisfied with the process we went through, I’m not satisfied with the conclusions. And that’s why we came out last month and said: we’re going to make changes to our policies. We made changes to our discipline.”); see also id. Ex. 35, at 99:21-100:15.

At the heart of the NFL’s defense was that the Commissioner had great latitude in determining Adrian Peterson’s punishment.

Judge Doty’s ruling didn’t just criticize Commissioner Goodell. It criticized Henderson, too:

The NFLPA next argues that Henderson exceeded his authority by adjudicating the hypothetical question of whether Peterson’s discipline could be sustained under the previous Policy. The NFL responds that the NFLPA submitted that issue to Henderson. The record belies the NFL’s argument. The NFLPA submitted to Henderson “the pure legal issue” of whether the New Policy could be applied retroactively. NFLPA Ex. 122, 21:22-22:24; see also id. Ex. 20, at 4. Nothing in the record supports a finding that the NFLPA asked Henderson to determine whether the discipline imposed was consistent with the previous Policy.

In other words, Harold Henderson tried justifying his decision by saying that the NFLPA asked him to. That isn’t the only time where Judge Doty criticized the NFL’s arbitrator:

Henderson was an NFL executive for nearly two decades and apparently continues on in a part-time capacity, earning $2.5 million in compensation from the NFL since 2009.

This footnote was found at the bottom of Page 8 of Judge Doty’s ruling. This information, by itself, isn’t damning. The fact that Henderson’s ruling sounded like the NFL’s press release, coupled with his less-than-impartial ruling, however, all but state explicitly that Henderson was Commissioner’s self-appointed hatchet man against Adrian Peterson.

ProFootballTalk stated that the NFL hasn’t had a good year in the courts. That’s what happens when a tyrant thinks he has the authority to make the rules up as he goes. That’s what third world dictators get away with. High profile CEOs of major corporations don’t get away with that very often.

President Obama has no fiercer defender than Rep. Betty McCollum, the Democrat representing Minnesota’s 4th District. That doesn’t mean she’s accomplished much. It just means she’s represented a district that’s as competitive of a district as Nancy Pelosi’s. Rep. McCollum’s op-ed reads like something approved by President Obama himself and possibly written by Susan Rice with the assistance of Ben Rhodes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the midst of a heated reelection campaign. Yet he is traveling 5,900 miles to give a speech before a joint meeting of Congress on March 3 — just two weeks before Israelis go to the polls. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), working with Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, a former Republican political operative who renounced his U.S. citizenship, extended the invitation in a clear effort to undermine the president while the United States and its five partners engage in tough negotiations with Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons, a national security priority I strongly support.

TRANSLATION: Rep. McCollum hates Israel. What’s worse is that she supports President Obama’s bad faith negotiations with Iran that is aimed at giving Iran the time it needs to enrich enough uranium to build a nuclear weapon. Any statements that President Obama is trying to prevent Iran “from obtaining nuclear weapons” is BS.

Charles Krauthammer’s article blows that myth to smithereens:

The news from the nuclear talks with Iran was already troubling. Iran was being granted the “right to enrich.” It would be allowed to retain and spin thousands of centrifuges. It could continue construction of the Arak plutonium reactor. Yet so thoroughly was Iran stonewalling International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors that just last Thursday the IAEA reported its concern “about the possible existence in Iran of undisclosed … development of a nuclear payload for a missile.” Bad enough. Then it got worse: News leaked Monday of the “sunset clause.” President Obama had accepted the Iranian demand that any restrictions on its program be time-limited. After which, the mullahs can crank up their nuclear program at will and produce as much enriched uranium as they want.

That doesn’t sound like President Obama is working tirelessly to prevent the Iranian mullahs from getting a nuclear weapon. That sounds like President Obama has given Iran permission to build nuclear weapons.

Here’s more of Rep. McCollum’s BS:

“To think about going behind the back of a friendly country’s administration and working out this kind of arrangement with the parliament or the Congress — it’s unheard of,” said Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel. Such an unprecedented lack of respect toward a U.S. president has not gone unnoticed in Israel, either.

Rep. McCollum expects Israel to respect a president who’s handing a nuclear weapon to Iran, still the biggest state sponsor of terrorism? That’s frightening, especially considering this information:

The agreement thus would provide a predictable path to an Iranian bomb. Indeed, a flourishing path, with trade resumed, oil pumping, and foreign investment pouring into a restored economy. Meanwhile, Iran’s intercontinental-ballistic-missile program is subject to no restrictions at all. It’s not even part of these negotiations. Why is Iran building them? You don’t build ICBMs in order to deliver sticks of dynamite. Their only purpose is to carry nuclear warheads.

In other words, Rep. McCollum supports Iran getting the capability to launch ICBMs. She supports Iran having the ability to hit NYC with nuclear weapons.

Basharat concluded his Haaretz column by saying, “Any leader who tried to do to the Americans what Netanyahu has done would be ejected immediately, not from Washington but from office in his home country.” That’s one opinion. I will respectfully leave that choice to Israeli voters. In the meantime, I will respectfully abstain from attending Mr. Netanyahu’s campaign rally.

That’s laughable. After Rep. McCollum does a hatchet job on one of America’s staunchest allies, she then pretends that she doesn’t care who wins the Israeli elections. I believe that like I believe that waving a red cape in a bull’s face won’t provoke an attack. That’s why Minnesotans think Rep. McCollum is a joke.

Technorati: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Existential Threat, Iran Negotiations, Barack Obama, Nuclear Proliferation, Sanctions, ICBM, Betty McCollum, Democrats, National Security

Think of Scott Walker’s op-ed as his way of telling the Gotcha Media that he isn’t playing by their rules:

There has been much discussion about a media double standard where Republicans are covered differently than Democrats, asked to weigh in on issues the Democrats don’t face. As a result, when we refuse to take the media’s bait, we suffer.

I felt it this week when I was asked to weigh in on what other people said and did and what others’ beliefs are. If you are looking for answers to those questions, ask those people. I will always choose to focus on what matters to the American people, not what matters to the media.

Various right-leaning pundits have said that Gov. Walker needs to deal with the Gotcha Media’s tactics. Those pundits are wrong. In fact, I think that part of Gov. Walker’s strengthening poll ratings are directly attributable to Gov. Walker’s refusal to play the Gotcha Media’s games.

This is the stuff that Americans want to hear about:

Americans believe our nation is facing some substantial challenges. Government spending is out of control. Terrorists seek to destroy our way of life. Our economic recovery has been slow. Our borders aren’t secure. The federal government has usurped powers that rightly belong to our states.

And every day across Wisconsin, and as I travel the nation, I hear from people who share with me their worries about, and their hopes for, our country. They worry about whether their children in college will be able to find a good job after graduation. And as a dad with two sons in college, I worry right along with them.

They talk to me about the rise of terrorist attacks and ISIS, and what it means for our security at home, and for Americans and our allies abroad. We all pray for American sons and daughters in the military and their safe return home.

We’re living in dangerous times in terms of the threat posed by ISIS and al-Qa’ida, both of which get stronger with each week. We aren’t living in prosperous times, thanks to President Obama’s failed policies, starting with the Affordable Care Act.

It’s time conservatives to unite around Scott Walker. We need an inspirational leader who’s gotten great things done and who hasn’t played the Gotcha Media’s games. Only Scott Walker fits that description. Jeb Bush did some conservative things as Florida’s governor. Now that he’s playing on the national stage, however, he’s supporting things like Common Core and President Obama’s executive amnesty.

What Americans need now is an unapologetic conservative who’s listened to the people and did what they told him to do. We don’t need someone who’s listened to political consultants and the special interests.

Technorati: Scott Walker, Gotcha Media, Media Bias, Affordable Care Act, Terrorists, ISIS, al-Qa’ida, Jeb Bush, Common Core, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Republicans, Election 2016

When it comes to Minnesota Timberwolves basketball, one player’s name rises above the others. Whether talking about Da Kid, the Big Ticket or The Franchise, Kevin Garnett is the man that’s the face if the Timberwolves’ franchise. Wednesday night, 8 years after leaving Minnesota to win a championship with the Boston Celtics, KG returned home. This video is worth watching:

We’ll have to wait and see whether KG will play another season with the T’Wolves but we don’t have to wait to find out whether he’s instantly the leader of this team. Garnett’s charisma translates into being a true leader.

The other thing we don’t have to wait to find out about is whether he’s still a great defender. His block of Nene’s hook shot in the lane wasn’t just a rejection. Most blocks happen when coming over from the weak side. Rarely does the guy guarding a big man block that player’s shot. While KG guarded Nene, he swatted Nene’s shot off the backboard, grabbed the rebound, then handed it off to Ricky Rubio.

Once they got Rubio, Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic back from injuries, the T’Wolves’ offense has been decent. They just couldn’t stop teams. Wednesday night, the T’Wolves’ defense was outstanding. Washington’s box score tells the story of how good Minnesota’s defense was:

It’s great having KG back in a T’Wolves’ uniform. It’s even better watching him mentoring the talented kids on the T’Wolves’ roster. Whether he plays another season or whether he accepts a front office job or whatever new role he takes with Minnesota, it’s great having KG back home.

According to this article, 11 MnSCU institutions have been ordered to submit a Financial Recovery Plan because they’ve been financially mismanaged. Four out of seven MnSCU universities are on this list, including St. Cloud State. St. Cloud State’s budget deficit for FY2015, the current fiscal year, is $9,542,000. That’s bad news but it isn’t the worst news for St. Cloud State. Next year’s deficit is projected to be approximately $16,000,000.

Given the fact that SCSU’s budget reserves have dropped significantly in the past few years, sound financial judgment would instruct President Potter to start making decisions to cut St. Cloud State’s losses ASAP. That would instruct President Potter to start with cutting things that aren’t central to the University’s mission. Ancillary programs like the Women’s Center should be receive heightened scrutiny.

First, it isn’t that I’m saying the Women’s Center doesn’t serve any useful purposes. Still, there’s a reason why it’s called an ancillary program. One of the events it’s sponsoring is a play called Slut: the play. Here’s the purpose of the play:

to stem the tide of sexual shaming, harassment, and violence by raising awareness and calling for healthier attitudes toward female sexuality.

There’s no questions that this is a subject to be taken seriously. That being said, that doesn’t mean that St. Cloud State has to be the only option for putting on the play or that the University needs a Women’s Center. Since there already is an organization that deals with sexual violence in the St. Cloud area, why can’t that organization take the lead? If the argument is that there isn’t an office for the Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center on campus, there’s a simple fix to that. With all of the empty buildings on campus, there’s no reason why one of those buildings can’t offer on-campus space to the organization.

That would offer the best of both worlds. First, there’d be trained professional health workers on St. Cloud State’s campus to deal with this serious issue. Second, it wouldn’t cost St. Cloud State a penny to make this important service available to its students.

Another essential step that St. Cloud State must take is to immediately renegotiate the lease President Potter signed with the J.A. Wedum Foundation. The University lost $7,700,000 in the first 5 years of the lease. This isn’t the comprehensive list of bad financial decisions President Potter has made. They’re just some of the terrible decisions he’s made.

Thanks to President Potter’s bad decisions, St. Cloud State has essentially been given detention. The biggest question remaining is whether anyone with authority will finally demand that he start making better decisions. If President Potter won’t admit that he’s made some rather foolish decision, then it’s safe to say he won’t fix the problems he’s created.

Last night, Gov. Scott Walker, (R-WI), went ‘on the record’ with Fox’s Greta van Susteren:

One of the first things that Gov. Walker touted was the positive impact Act 10 has had on education:

GOV. WALKER: People claimed that public education would fall apart. Instead, by getting rid of seniority and tenure, we empowered school districts to put their best and their brightest in the classrooms by hiring based on merit and pay … Today, our schools are better. Our graduation rates are up. Our third-grade reading scores are up. Our ACT scores are the second best in the nation.

Thus far, we’ve watched DC pundits and British blowhards ask trivial questions of Gov. Walker about such non-pressing importance like whether he believes in evolution or whether he thinks President Obama is a Christian.

When Gov. Walker didn’t play their gotcha games, the media acted like they’d been scandalized. What’d happened was that Gov. Walker essentially told them, politely, was that he wanted to talk about important things, not the gotcha stuff they wanted to talk about. Thank God for that.

Other than the DC blowhards, nobody gives a rip about Gov. Walker’s thoughts on evolution or President Obama’s faith. What they care most about is what he’ll do to fix the messes that President Obama has created. The people understand that the next president will have to deal with a defiant Vladimir Putin, a terrorist nation that’s expanding its reach and a regulatory regime that’s crippling innovation and job creation.

GOV. WALKER: You’ll appreciate this, Greta. I was in Green Bay, WI, this afternoon. I was at 2 of the leading job creators talking about opportunities for people with disabilities and somebody in the press at the end of the event asked a question about this very subject and I said “I challenge you to go out and walk with me down the streets of Green Bay, WI, and ask 100 people on the street what they really care about. I’m certain not a one of them will talk about the issues we heard about in Washington.

That’s a perfect way to deal with the Gotcha Media. Gov. Walker didn’t respond this aggressively initially but he’s catching on quick. The thing he already understands that Jeb Bush never will is that the press will back down a bit (not a lot but a little) if they’re worried about some timely sharp elbows to keep them on the straight-and-narrow.

Think of it like a Bob Gibson fastball past your head or into your ribs if you showboated after hitting a home run off of him.

The thing that Gov. Walker now understands is that the Gotcha Media that cover the campaigns need him more than he needs any one of them. It isn’t that he needs to constantly pick fights with the reporters covering his campaign. It’s that he needs to remind them that he’ll give preferential treatment to people who don’t ask gotcha questions. If reporters ask tough, policy-oriented questions, he should answer respectfully.

It won’t take long for the reporters to figure out, and adapt to, the ground rules.

Technorati: Scott Walker, Gotcha Media, Evolution, Act 10, School Districts, ACT Scores, Graduation Rates, Jeb Bush, Republicans, Election 2016

Spring Semester Falloff—A Comparison Of SCSU With Mankato
by Silence Dogood

Spring Semester FYE enrollment is always lower than the preceding Fall semester FYE enrollment. The following plot shows the percent change in FYE enrollment from Fall to the following Spring Semester for SCSU.

Unfortunately, as shown in the figure, for SCSU, the decline from Fall Semester to Spring Semester is increasing.

Frequently, I have compared the performance of SCSU and MSUM—Mankato. These two MnSCU universities have very similar histories, are the two largest universities in MnSCU, and are both of similar size. Recently, it seems that SCSU has come up short in most comparisons.

Just out of curiosity, I wondered what kind of falloff of FYE enrollment from Fall Semester to Spring Semester that Mankato experienced. The following figure shows the data for FY15 as of February 15, 2015 for both SCSU and Mankato.

The data clearly shows that Mankato shows a falloff in FYE enrollment from Fall Semester to Spring Semester. However, while the two were within 1% in FY10, Mankato has been relatively stable while SCSU has gone into a significant decline.

If SCSU’s falloff in FYE enrollment for FY11 through FY15 had been the same as that at MSU—Mankato, SCSU would have a larger FYE enrollment in Spring Semester. The following figure shows the number of additional FYE by fiscal year.

FYE translates into revenue. There is a two-year lag in the state appropriation so while enrollment is going down, the funding does not go down as fast as the enrollment. The idea behind this is that, as enrollment is going down, you have some time to adjust before the appropriation is cut. Based on $11,500 per student, this additional FYE enrollment would generate additional revenue shown in the following figure:

In FY15, the figure shows that if SCSU had the same percentage falloff in FYE enrollment as Mankato, it would bring in an additional $3,700,000 in revenue (tuition and state appropriation) in just that year. Considering that for FY16 SCSU is looking at a deficit of $12,000,000 - $16,000,000, this might not seem to be enough to solve the budget crisis. However, you need to recognize that each student retained means that the following term you start with a higher number, which directly translates into additional revenue. As a result, the additional revenue from FY11 would actually compound and grow. Certainly, not all of those 301 FYE in Spring 2011 would have been back for Fall 2011 but if 75% of them came back, it would an additional $2,590,000 in revenue in Fall 2011. Additionally, this then gives you a higher starting number for retention for the following semester as well, which means even more revenue going forward and so on.

Using SCSU’s own spring to fall historical retention numbers, I’m pretty confident that the additional revenue in FY11 would have grown substantially—perhaps even to the point of completely covering SCSU’s $9,542,000 deficit for FY15.

Unfortunately, when you couple the poor retention numbers with declining numbers of New Entering Freshmen (NEF) and New Entering Transfer (NET) students as shown in the following figure, you have a “perfect storm” as described by President Potter in SCSU’s FY15 Financial Recovery Plan:

The 30.0% decline in NEF/NET numbers from Fall 2007 to Fall 2014 happened on President Potter’s watch. It is also relevant to note that the steepest decline came in Fall 2011 on the heels of his reorganization of the university to make it “more efficient” and better able to respond to change. From Fall 2010 to Fall 2015, NEF/NET enrollment dropped by an amazing 25.6%! It seems that the only efficiency gained by reorganization was in dramatically reducing the number of NEF and NET students enrolling at SCSU.

Clearly, SCSU’s “perfect storm” is of its own making and has created a deep financial hole. The first step to get out of that hole is to understand how you got there in the first place. That means you have to accept responsibility and stop blaming others or other things. It is not possible to move forward in any positive way if you keep thinking that things were just done to you and that you were in no way responsible.

As a start, let’s stop calling the loss of $7,700,000 on the Coborn’s Plaza Apartments in the first five years of operation “a success.” Clearly, it isn’t. Based on the lease with the Wedum foundation, SCSU is likely to lose over $6,000,000 in the next five years before it can get out of the contact and it might cost another $6,000,000 if we do not get out of the lease. While that failed project is not the only cause of SCSU’s financial hole, it certainly has contributed over a million a year in spending.

When coupled with all of the other expenses SCSU now has to cover—the operating costs and debt service for ISELF, losses on the parking ramp, loan repayment and debt service on the Brooks Center, police officers on campus, the Confucius Institute, and the list goes on—SCSU is in a much poorer financial condition as reflected in a 0.07 CFI for FY14. Given the current financial situation, a 5.1% enrollment decline in FY15 plus an additional 3.3% decline in enrollment for FY16, the CFI for SCSU will likely go negative for FY15.

It has been said that:

“The darkest hour is just before the dawn.”

The meaning of this is that there is hope, even in the worst of circumstances. Unfortunately, unless you know when the dawn is, it is hard to know if you have reached the darkest hour. For SCSU, it probably isn’t possible to answer that question with certainty because of the number of moving and interconnected parts. At best, all that can be said is the sun will eventually rise. How bad it will get at SCSU before then is anybody’s guess.