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Post by bbg95 on Jul 13, 2020 18:49:41 GMT -5
In the last month, four Division I schools have announced the elimination of their Baseball teams. I stand corrected it sounds like. Yikes! I guess I should rephrase and add baseball to the list of location exceptions probably. Eh, I wouldn't. There are nearly 300 D1 baseball teams, so losing three isn't that big of a deal, especially since none of those programs were particularly distinguished. The other examples you cited were Duke lacrosse and BC hockey. Both programs have won multiple national championships fairly recently, and both sports are far more regional than baseball at the D1 level (baseball isn't regional at all). There are ~60 D1 men's ice hockey teams and ~70 D1 men's lacrosse teams. Baseball isn't as safe as men's basketball, which is literally required, but it's a pretty safe men's sport at most D1 universities.
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Post by Wolfgang on Jul 13, 2020 18:55:40 GMT -5
I want to give you a clearer picture of endowments. Whatever $$$ amount is given to set up the endowment, the payout is roughly 5% so as not to “eat into” the principal. So, for example, let’s say someone established an endowment to cover men’s vb expenses. They put in $100,000 to set up this endowment. Annually, the men’s vb program gets a mere $5,000 (because 5% of $100,000 is $5,000) from this endowment. That’s not a lot of money. So, while the $100,000 sounds like a lot, you want to maintain the corpus of the endowment ($100,000) so the payout is 5%. The payout is the return on investment. If the university people who manage this endowment is smart with investment strategies, they should rake in at least 5% annually.
So, you actually need a lot more than $100,000 to cover the hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses to run an average men’s vb program. Also, if you have a $1,000,000 endowment, the payout is roughly $50,000 which should cover tuition for ONE (1) athlete per year at most universities.
Who’s going to donate this kind of money?
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Post by Confucius on Jul 13, 2020 19:02:16 GMT -5
I want to give you a clearer picture of endowments. Whatever $$$ amount is given to set up the endowment, the payout is roughly 5% so as not to “eat into” the principal. So, for example, let’s say someone established an endowment to cover men’s vb expenses. They put in $100,000 to set up this endowment. Annually, the men’s vb program gets a mere $5,000 (because 5% of $100,000 is $5,000) from this endowment. That’s not a lot of money. So, while the $100,000 sounds like a lot, you want to maintain the corpus of the endowment ($100,000) so the payout is 5%. The payout is the return on investment. If the university people who manage this endowment is smart with investment strategies, they should rake in at least 5% annually. So, you actually need a lot more than $100,000 to cover the hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses to run an average men’s vb program. Also, if you have a $1,000,000 endowment, the payout is roughly $50,000 which should cover tuition for one athlete per year at most universities. Who’s going to donate this kind of money? To clarify, and I may misunderstand this a bit, but endowed money is dedicated to whatever the person donating wants it to go towards. If the person endowing the money gives it to the engineering department, all of that money and any % goes only to the engineering department. This means that while there is $30 billion in endowment, most of it is probably dedicated to specific areas outside of sports.
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Post by Wolfgang on Jul 13, 2020 19:15:34 GMT -5
I want to give you a clearer picture of endowments. Whatever $$$ amount is given to set up the endowment, the payout is roughly 5% so as not to “eat into” the principal. So, for example, let’s say someone established an endowment to cover men’s vb expenses. They put in $100,000 to set up this endowment. Annually, the men’s vb program gets a mere $5,000 (because 5% of $100,000 is $5,000) from this endowment. That’s not a lot of money. So, while the $100,000 sounds like a lot, you want to maintain the corpus of the endowment ($100,000) so the payout is 5%. The payout is the return on investment. If the university people who manage this endowment is smart with investment strategies, they should rake in at least 5% annually. So, you actually need a lot more than $100,000 to cover the hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses to run an average men’s vb program. Also, if you have a $1,000,000 endowment, the payout is roughly $50,000 which should cover tuition for one athlete per year at most universities. Who’s going to donate this kind of money? To clarify, and I may misunderstand this a bit, but endowed money is dedicated to whatever the person donating wants it to go towards. If the person endowing the money gives it to the engineering department, all of that money and any % goes only to the engineering department. This means that while there is $30 billion in endowment, most of it is probably dedicated to specific areas outside of sports. Yes. When I first got into the world of endowment giving, I made two assumptions about myself: 1. I just wanted to give due to altruism, and 2. I trusted the institution to do good things with my money. From going through the process, I learned two things: 1. I wasn't doing it for altruistic reasons. It was more "legacy building." I knew this as soon as the school asked me to donate money to an already existing endowment, to use a made-up example, the Tinsley Weinberg Endowment. I said to myself, "Who the frick is Tinsley Weinberg and why the frikk do I care about HIS endowment? I'm creating my own endowment and I want my name on the damn thing!" 2. I wanted as much control as possible because I learned to distrust the school to use my money properly. So, I didn't have any "do whatever you like" clauses. The instructions were very clear. The $$$ goes to the Art Department and ONLY for scholarships. I don't want you doofs to use if to fund pizza parties or expenses for "conferences" in Maui. If I had set up an endowment for the Athletic Department, I would've been very careful and specific with the language to make sure only certain sports programs would benefit and ONLY for certain types of expenses.
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Post by babybacksets on Jul 14, 2020 1:34:06 GMT -5
Donors pretty much dictate how endowments work, within the limits of the school's policy. For me, I set up endowments at a few universities, each one more or less like the following (I've generalized it so as not to bore you): 1. $$$ to set up X scholarships to graduate students in the School or Art, the X and the recipients to be determined by a committee within the School of Art, and those students may keep that scholarship for each succeeding year provided they meet certain academic minimums, 2. If there happen to be no recipients in #1 above, set X number of scholarships for undergraduate students majoring in Art, X and the recipients to be determined by the committee, 3. If there happen to be no recipients in #2 above, funds my be used by the College of Liberal Arts to set up scholarships in any way they see fit. That's all. The school can't use my endowment to fund the men's volleyball program, for example. Some endowments are more general and would say, "to be used by the Athletic Department as they see fit." But that doesn't mean the money gets to the men's volleyball program. The AD would spend it however they want, most likely on the revenue sports. But who knows. I don't have that provision so I have no idea. To sum: Endowments are very very specific about how their money is spent. They can't just take my $$$ in my endowment and then suddenly fund the men's volleyball program if I didn't provide for it. Considering this, I wonder if the initiative that some of the Stanford Alum have begun to save the sport has to do with pleading their case with donors to adjust the terms of their endowment to get some help financially while working on creating a little more revenue themselves? How accessible even is the average endowment bestower? Lol for some reason I picture these inaccessible mystery figures but then you said you were one...😅
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Post by robonthemic on Jul 15, 2020 2:30:20 GMT -5
I had the chance to speak with Kyler Presho, Jr. MH of Stanford to find out how MVB was responding to all of this. I'll have a full Pod/Vodcast up as well for College Volleyball Weekly, but I wanted to help Stanford MVB get the word out...
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Post by Disc808 on Jul 16, 2020 21:39:42 GMT -5
I had the chance to speak with Kyler Presho, Jr. MH of Stanford to find out how MVB was responding to all of this. I'll have a full Pod/Vodcast up as well for College Volleyball Weekly, but I wanted to help Stanford MVB get the word out... Thank you for sharing, very well spoken by Presho.
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Post by passserve on Jul 17, 2020 0:34:26 GMT -5
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Post by robonthemic on Jul 17, 2020 2:00:39 GMT -5
So disappointed-- apparently I had some technical difficulties with the upload of last night's file. This edition of the interview has the full 45:00 minutes (vs. 28:00 in the original). A few other significant things were said by Kyler-- please check it out if you have the time and sign the petition. Sorry for the hassle...
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Post by coug94 on Jul 19, 2020 21:53:48 GMT -5
I had the chance to speak with Kyler Presho, Jr. MH of Stanford to find out how MVB was responding to all of this. I'll have a full Pod/Vodcast up as well for College Volleyball Weekly, but I wanted to help Stanford MVB get the word out... It was surprising how poorly this was communicated by the school to the impacted players and staff for all 11 sports. Most companies provide some kind of access to counseling or follow up with the “5 Stages of Grief” when a lay-off or merger happens. “The five stages, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief. Not everyone goes through all of them or in a prescribed order. “ These athletes are definitely experiencing these stages, and it’s a reflection on the ham handed way this was rolled out, they spent more time with the lawyers and bean counters than walking across the quad and talking with their world class health system experts on how this could impact the Student Athletes. I think there should be an open letter signed by Stanford donors to show Stanford as well as any other school that cutting sports is going to cost more $ from lost donors than any savings around the margins like this. A petition is fine but IMO it won’t be heard as loudly as an open letter.
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Post by Disc808 on Jul 19, 2020 22:23:54 GMT -5
I had the chance to speak with Kyler Presho, Jr. MH of Stanford to find out how MVB was responding to all of this. I'll have a full Pod/Vodcast up as well for College Volleyball Weekly, but I wanted to help Stanford MVB get the word out... It was surprising how poorly this was communicated by the school to the impacted players and staff for all 11 sports. Most companies provide some kind of access to counseling or follow up with the “5 Stages of Grief” when a lay-off or merger happens. “The five stages, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief. Not everyone goes through all of them or in a prescribed order. “ These athletes are definitely experiencing these stages, and it’s a reflection on the ham handed way this was rolled out, they spent more time with the lawyers and bean counters than walking across the quad and talking with their world class health system experts on how this could impact the Student Athletes. I think there should be an open letter signed by Stanford donors to show Stanford as well as any other school that cutting sports is going to cost more $ from lost donors than any savings around the margins like this. A petition is fine but IMO it won’t be heard as loudly as an open letter. That could work If enough donors sign it or if the amount of money would be sizable, but I’m not sure how many people would sign it / how much money would even be “threatened” here.
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Post by tallvolley on Jul 20, 2020 16:30:31 GMT -5
The smart strategy would be to go to the biggest donors supporting the specific axed sport, call them up and get them to add their name to a list of other benefactors and if they are significant enough Stanford would pay attention to this. As a matter of fact, if there are any big donors that would add there names to the list just because they feel that the 11 sports are an important part of the fabric of the school and feel as if they should be reinstated then they would have to listen. Especially if Stanford feels like they might lose the future financial support of those donors. They might even discover that it would cost them more to get rid of those sports. Also, something Stanford hasn’t calculated is the loss of future donors (220 student/athletes a year) that could have added up to a lot of money. Since it’s all about the money.
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Post by Disc808 on Jul 20, 2020 16:42:40 GMT -5
Good points ^. It’s reasonable to assume that Stanford already considered potential donation losses that would come with their decision. One thing I am questioning is if there even are big enough donors/signers to make Stanford reconsider (maybe parent of an affiliated athlete?). The sports cut aren’t exactly ones where people become super rich in, and I would assume most of the big donors come from outside of the athletics world.
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Post by BearClause on Jul 23, 2020 12:11:51 GMT -5
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Post by wilbur on Jul 23, 2020 13:33:36 GMT -5
excellent article, hope a lot of people read it.
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