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UNT president didn’t know extent of financial woes


Harry

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Smatresk said his four-year presidency at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas taught him how to deal with financial hardships when the state cut $74 million in funding.

“Compared to some of the things I’ve had to deal with in the past, I’m going to call this ‘garden-variety,’ and that doesn’t mean it’s not significant. So I’m not trying to diminish what has occurred. What I am telling you is that we put a good team together and we know how to get ourselves back on track,” Smatresk said.

Three finance officials resigned in light of the findings. The university has since hired a new vice president for finance and administration, an assistant vice chancellor for financial planning and reporting, and a vice chancellor of finance.

Smatresk said he is ready to work through the woes, including a lowered bond rating by Moody’s Investors Service. In an April press release, Moody’s stated it had given UNT a rating of Aa2 and that the school’s outlook went from stable to negative. The university’s financial crisis was cited in the explanation of the change.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/06/05/5877802/unt-president-on-financial-troubles.html

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Actually, I don't know about this year because it's just now finishing but in the prior year the athletics department had a surplus of $4 million dollars of income over expenses according to their report to the DOE. They may have to belly up a little to help out but they're not the culprit.

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Actually, I don't know about this year because it's just now finishing but in the prior year the athletics department had a surplus of $4 million dollars of income over expenses according to their report to the DOE. They may have to belly up a little to help out but they're not the culprit.

I do not believe athletics is the main cause of any of our woes, but did we really show a $4 million profit in the athletics department? That seems a little high ( I would think in athletics over all we would not have any profit. Like many schools). I go to plenty of games and just do not see how that is possible, even with teams paying us so much to play them in Football.

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Actually, I don't know about this year because it's just now finishing but in the prior year the athletics department had a surplus of $4 million dollars of income over expenses according to their report to the DOE. They may have to belly up a little to help out but they're not the culprit.

Well, they are certainly not the major contributor but since most if not all of their positions are paid with local money (and thus are not eligible for state funds for their benefits) it is likely that they also contributed to this mess. Of course like the librarians etc, they also likely did not know this was going on or that it was inappropriate use of funds.

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Well, they are certainly not the major contributor but since most if not all of their positions are paid with local money (and thus are not eligible for state funds for their benefits) it is likely that they also contributed to this mess. Of course like the librarians etc, they also likely did not know this was going on or that it was inappropriate use of funds.

A lot of this points to the system finance office and whomever was supposed to be reviewing this at the state level. It's hard to aim at really anyone below the university equivalent of c-suite folks since they're likely not aware of what funds positions.

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Baseball will be delayed until the bond rating is restored.

Unless we can pay cash for a new stadium...

I haven't seen where the bond rating was downgraded, just the outlook given NT's financial situation.

Link to a story about the downgrade on the outlook regarding NT's financial situation.

Edited by UNTFan23
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Meh. One could be done in reverse, claiming that since we are the Harvard of the South, have a massive endowment, and a crack financial staff to exercise that endowment wisely, we don't need stupid athletics to bring in potential donations to all programs at the university.

Edited by UNT90
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Pay McCarney more as far as I'm concerned. I think the hair dye smeared in some of these students' hair is making them stupid. They think that their "values" are the student body "values." Well the pot smoking, death metal worshiping UNT students apparently didn't go to the Halloween game, Homecoming, or the HoD. They would have seen where a large portion of the student body holds their values, football. Now only if we could get showings like we had in those 3 games for 6 home games a year. That'd be huge.

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Seems timely and relevant that USA Today recently released their Athletic Dept revenue breakdown. I was surprised to see that NT ticket revenue was less in 2013 than in 2012.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/schools/finances/

SB Nation took the data further and ranked the 230 programs in terms of profit after removing subsidized funds...

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2014/6/6/5783394/college-sports-profits-money-schools-revenues-subsidies

Rank = 197
Revenue minus subsidy minus expenses = -$17,754,460

These figures combined with the overall budget concerns lead me to assume that the baseball program timeline and the idea from some that Benford should be bought out are likely delayed (baseball) or off the table (Benford).

Let's just be glad Mac's extension and the increase in pay for his staff were taken care of when they were.

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Seems timely and relevant that USA Today recently released their Athletic Dept revenue breakdown. I was surprised to see that NT ticket revenue was less in 2013 than in 2012.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/schools/finances/

SB Nation took the data further and ranked the 230 programs in terms of profit after removing subsidized funds...

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2014/6/6/5783394/college-sports-profits-money-schools-revenues-subsidies

Rank = 197

Revenue minus subsidy minus expenses = -$17,754,460

These figures combined with the overall budget concerns lead me to assume that the baseball program timeline and the idea from some that Benford should be bought out are likely delayed (baseball) or off the table (Benford).

Let's just be glad Mac's extension and the increase in pay for his staff were taken care of when they were.

Benford can be bought out. We have been told the money is there and appears to be there from booster donations.

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