Student Union Construction.

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Originally Posted by CajunRebel

I made an excuse in this thread???

I don't know what the real reason is but here's my guess if the money is actually there. It's my understanding that a Cajun Field renovation will include a new athletic complex/weight room built in to it. They may not want to spend all that money on a new weight room if the entire complex is slated to be torn down and replaced as part of the master plan. That's just my guess but who knows? If you donated to the project I would recommend emailing Farmer to ask him why nothing has been done with your money. If you didn't donate then I don't think you have much reason to care how other people's money is spent.

You're right though. The cuts were definitely disproportionate. Academics has been cut way more than athletics has. Academics has been cut 49% since 2008. Athletic subsidies have only been cut about 15% (about 1 million taken from about 6 million.) I think that's more than fair after losing 49% of your subsidy.

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More defense of the admin. Athletics has taken a hit every year along with academics. Your numbers smell of the area from which you produced them.

As for my right to complain, I give to athletics therefore I have an interest in what the admin does with that money as does everyone else here who gives.

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Originally Posted by CajunRebel

You're right though. The cuts were definitely disproportionate. Academics has been cut way more than athletics has. Academics has been cut 49% since 2008. Athletic subsidies have only been cut about 15% (about 1 million taken from about 6 million.) I think that's more than fair after losing 49% of your subsidy.

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I don't know anything about anything but I was told a while back by someone at Martin Hall "UL-Lafayette has never maxed out" a little over 3 million was the number I was given. So when I heard Savoie took a 1 million my mind went to 2 million total.

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Originally Posted by Hammer58

It just occurred to me how funny it is that the admin could move ahead with these renovation and construction projects without the campus aster plan having been finished down to the last t being crossed and the last I dotted but we couldn't move ahead with the much needed and long promised new weight room until every last detail of the athletic plan is completed.

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Hammer the fee for this project was voted on during the '98 or '99 semester as I took part in the vote. The credit for this project goes to the Fossil and the students.

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Originally Posted by CajunRebel

I made an excuse in this thread???

I don't know what the real reason is but here's my guess if the money is actually there. It's my understanding that a Cajun Field renovation will include a new athletic complex/weight room built in to it. They may not want to spend all that money on a new weight room if the entire complex is slated to be torn down and replaced as part of the master plan. That's just my guess but who knows? If you donated to the project I would recommend emailing Farmer to ask him why nothing has been done with your money. If you didn't donate then I don't think you have much reason to care how other people's money is spent.

You're right though. The cuts were definitely disproportionate. Academics has been cut way more than athletics has. Academics has been cut 49% since 2008. Athletic subsidies have only been cut about 15% (about 1 million taken from about 6 million.) I think that's more than fair after losing 49% of your subsidy.

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Yet, the most visible marketing tool for a university is athletics. Just go ahead and look at the application increases when UL has been successful in athletics compared to when we were not.

Hell, LSU athletics offsets many of the cuts towards academics because they are able to be fully funded and make money for the university. But, we don't want to be like LSU anyway, you know that Tier I university right down the road with an enrollment over 30,000.

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Originally Posted by cajun4life

Hammer the fee for this project was voted on during the '98 or '99 semester as I took part in the vote. The credit for this project goes to the Fossil and the students.

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Oh, I'm not arguing the financing, just that it is funny that no athletic projects could move forward until the master plan has every t crossed and I dotted yet these other projects could move forward before the campus master plan was in place.

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Originally Posted by HelmutVII

No photographs today as it is raining pretty hard this afternoon. Not much progress this past week because it rained almost every every day. As far as photos or renderings I don't have any and since they have not been made public yet, I don't think they will be. The only thing I can say is that the middle section of the new building will be brought closer to McKinley Street the renovations will be made to the Ball room and Bookstore areas and an addition will be made from the bookstore to where Guillory Hall is ano for a new food service wing. Guillory, Old Corona and old Olivier Halls (the original old student union buildings build ion the late 1950's commonly referred to as the "eyesores buildings) wil be demolished. A plaza area will be built where Guillory Hall is now and landscaping will be placed where old Corona Hall and old Olivier Hall are now.

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Thanks for the info.

Do we know if it is a 'done deal' that Guillory Hall is a goner? I've always liked that building, with it's hip, mid-century design. I just think it would be really cool to see it re-habed and given a new life.

At the very least, we should fight to keep the grating over the swamp intact.......that is without question the coolest, most unique place on campus. Who doesn't have fond memories of hanging out there, and/or getting a kick ot of watching little kids feeding fish, etc., there?

Thanks for letting me rant, lol.

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Originally Posted by cajun4life

Hammer the fee for this project was voted on during the '98 or '99 semester as I took part in the vote. The credit for this project goes to the Fossil and the students.

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I don't know if this is true or not, but I was under the impression the student fee used to build the original Union never expired and I think these funds (if still around) would have been used for the construction of the new Union. And if this is indeed the case, that's a considerable amount of funding.

Heard this from ex-students older than me (and Zee). And these are people who have no concern whatsoever about a new Union or a new Cajunfield, or new parking garages, or any other new facilities.

In no way I am defending anything, just presenting what may be a fact.

New Union fee was passed about 10 years ago

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Originally Posted by cajun4life

Yet, the most visible marketing tool for a university is athletics. Just go ahead and look at the application increases when UL has been successful in athletics compared to when we were not.

Hell, LSU athletics offsets many of the cuts towards academics because they are able to be fully funded and make money for the university. But, we don't want to be like LSU anyway, you know that Tier I university right down the road with an enrollment over 30,000.

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You have some numbers that actually show the application increases? I'm not going to get into this again and I've explained my reasoning before but I just don't beleive that giving 6 million dollars to athletics is the best way to spend money to promote the university and increase enrollment. I beleive if you spent 6 million on scholarships to woo the state's best and brightest you'd get more students and a higher caliber of them. And 6 million dollars will buy much more quality airtime than 0-3 nationally televised football games will. Heck with 6 million dollars you could probably run ads during every single bowl game. I'm not complaining about it. But I'm not going to pretend the reason I want to see that money go to UL athletics is because I care so much about UL academics. I love UL and want to see it grow and succeed academically but I don't spend my weekends cheering on the quiz bowl team. I want it to go to UL athletics because it benefits UL athletics.

And keep in mind you're preaching to the choir here. I was the one that recently had a long, drawn out post arguing that in order to compete with other D1-A schools in the future the most important thing we need to do is increase the university subsidy to athletics. Our budget is at the bottom of the barrell because we get bottom of the barrel funding from the State/University. Will it make us self-sufficient like LSU? No. Only a handful of the very biggest programs in the country are self sufficient. But it will put us on a more level playing field with our conference peers which is something UL deserves.

(I think we've derailed this great thread long enough BTW. If the three stooges want to go back and forth with me on all this they can start another thread.)

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Originally Posted by LaGrid

I don't know anything about anything but I was told a while back by someone at Martin Hall "UL-Lafayette has never maxed out" a little over 3 million was the number I was given. So when I heard Savoie took a 1 million my mind went to 2 million total.

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http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sport...dy-table_n.htm

This is where I got my info. I know it used to be 3 million. A few years ago David Walker or Scott Farmer convinced the Regents to approve a change to the formula that determines what the max allowable subsidy could be. It was at 3 like you said but after the change it bumped up to ~6 million. From what I understand Tech and ULM have UL to thank for being able to increase their budgets through subsidies as well.