Good info is fine and welcome, but from what I saw, it's either his way, or else you're an idiot. The internet way of today, I suppose.
Little Robert Morris finds $50 million for new arena
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
- Start date
I think we're talking two different things here. I'm not sure you'd find anyone on here (a sports message board) who wouldn't 100% agree athletics matter - a lot. It's just the matter of money. If you have some kind of solution why Pitt fans suck at actually donating for athletics, there's many at the University who'd love to hear it.
I said this earlier - there is no $$ tree on the Cathedral Lawn. The endowment money is off limits. Even with receiving our full share of ACC money, we're still borrowing from the Education Fund (I believe that's the source but @CrazyPaco could correct) to make ends meet. So just HOW does Pitt start raising all this money that it needs? Cause it ain't coming from the the fans or alumni, that's for damn sure.
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Pitt-Girl I share your angst. All I can come up with is to find a great Football Coach and support him with all the resources the University can muster. Had Pitt leaders done this consistently through the last 100 (or even 40) years it would find itself in a better position. Perhaps some other athletic endeavors may suffer but it has to be football success to pull in interest in donationg. The good news is that Pitt has a coach that can take a team into Death Valley against #2 Clemson and win. That is the best I can come up with, sustained seasons ranked 10-22.
said wbrcolonial to JeremyChappelFan on an RMU message board a few years ago when the idea of a new basketball arena for a program that barely draws a few hundred per game was theorized.
I was just kidding but Pitt does need to hire better Consultants than Barnes and Pederson hired in prior years! Thanks though, he can't be worse.
Yeah, RMU found space to put Football Stadium on Campus named after Pitt Alumnus, Joe Walton, just Bus the Players there?
There are facts and reality and then there are thoroughly uninformed opinions passed off as facts and blatant unrealities based on nothing but invented fantasy. I do not well tolerate the invention of one's own facts for the self service of some personal false narrative to the detriment of the university's mission. After I provide the actual facts and explain the realities, sourced with data when available, for the 10th, 12th...I don't know how many times to the same posters over 20 years on these message boards, then absolutely yes, there is no where else to go with certain people. Disagreements over interpretation or opinions is not what I am talking about. I'm not infallible nor perfect, but I've gotten completely fed up with some of the absolute BS, often fueled by urban myths, misconceptions, or flat out lies; the spread of which has at sometimes proved detrimental to what Pitt is striving to accomplish. And yes, absolutely, some of these times recently I've flown of the handle out of frustration. When there are those that are so absolutely out of touch with things that have happened, where as to call a blue sky plaid, and they show no ability and intention of acknowledging certain facts, I've now just resorted to putting them all on ignore rather than getting in the same argument for the 100th time with individuals that refuse or are unable to be reasoned with. And I'm absolutely great with people putting me on ignore if they don't want to read what I have to say, but I'll continue to provide facts where I see a need or purpose for them, as I've done for over 20 years.
And to address your prior comment, the purpose of the athletic department is to win. And as long as the athletic department exists, its purpose should be to serve the university in this purpose as much as possible. But, the operation of the athletic department should not endanger the overall mission of the university. To that end, the university can not provide the athletic department with unlimited resources. The athletic department is in a supportive role, it is not in itself a mission of the university. That said, winning in athletics and have great academic achievements is not mutual exclusive, as many institutions stronger than Pitt academically readily demonstrate.
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Pertaining to the major capital campaigns, like the one that raised over $2 billion over a 12 year period, that was raised by Pitt. When you see the amount of fundraising done by the university in any particular year, that is Pitt. And Pitt does not fundraise that impressively compared to peers. It's fairly average. For a school the size of Pitt, with a med school, $2 billion is not impressive considering that took over 12 years.
That said, Pitt and UPMC do share a medical and health science foundation for fundraising in areas that complement each other. For instance, the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and UPMC Cancer Centers. However, for most fundraising you are talking about, Pitt does the lion's share of the lifting. Keep in mind though, UPMC also supports Pitt financially to a very substantial degree...about $190m to the med school in FY'15, that is far more than other schools are getting from their med centers.
Pertaining to the endowment, the majority of the endowment isn't necessarily research funds, but a large chunk of it is purposed to the med school. Or you may be confusing the endowment with overall university operational revenue of which the largest source is from external research funding. And external research funding is obtained by Pitt faculty and academic departments, not UPMC. UPMC supports these departments and centers financially, and provides a clinical home for Pitt's faculty in those departments, but the research funding is not obtained or administered outside of the university.
I've posted this before, but here are some athletic endowment and fundraising number courtesy of Virginia Tech.
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The Truth!
Pitt: Run by the "smartest" DUMB People to walk the face of the earth.
Well, it sounds better than Sewell, which always sounded like a cross between "sewer" and the sound a hog makes.
And in Pittsburgh, where people still watch Mannix regularly, maybe they'll feel synergy with a name taken from another TV show that started in the 70's.
There you go... you answered your own question. Even Robert Morris has figured it out but Barnes and Pederson could never figure it out. You have to get *personal* w/ your contributors. I'm around ~1,200 on the whatever points system. You'd think I'd get a phone call once in a while. Nope. You'd think I'd get a personal email every so often... nope. You'd think I'd get a personal letter once a year... again... NEVER. I get a form letter once a year about the "give us 10% more Mr. <fill in your name here >". I actually got a template email about a month ago. "Mr. , Thanks for your continued support...". Yes... my name was missing.
The clowns in charge the past 15 years can't even grasp how to handle their existing donors. How do they expect to *gasp* garner more donors?? I guess they are just waiting for some Pitt grad billionaire to solve all their problems? Or... "win and they will come" mode of business.
They are f'n clueless. They couldn't raise money for new football uniforms. They can only hold out their hand and wait for the ACC to give them money. Pathetic.
As a student, I would love a stadium on campus, but I think most students and people in Oakland would be fine with Heinz if there was an easier/quicker way to get there. It's always nice to get out of Oakland once and while but sucks when you know it will take 45 minutes to get home and you have an exam that week... also, if we came up with $50 mil I would love to see it be used to add outlets to the classrooms, add more green space to the university, and add a larger gym/find space for more equipment.
Hang on I'll send you my Fund Me For Vacation info asap!Where can I donate for Tarps.
Maybe PITT could use some of the $2-3 billion of endowment funds to upgrade PITT facilities to equal that of 3rd world country Universities.
Or we can borrow money from RMU or just go take it PITT's bigger than RMU right?
To be fair they have been improving a lot of the facilities recently. The new addition to Salk is great and the renderings of the scaife renovations look fantastic... but there is still a long way to go. They don't necessarily need to pull from the endowment either. I feel like if they had a goal to raise X amount of money for a specific goal, people would donate towards it.
They have been systematically going through and renovating the academic facilities: Chevron, Benedum, David Lawrence, Hillman, Cathedral, etc.
They can't pull from the endowment for random facilities projects, or any other projects, academic or athletic. Endowments don't work like piggy banks, as has been discussed on these boards 100 times over. They are legally restricted in what they distribute (% disbursement) and for what purpose (most often donor intended).
It does help to have something concrete to serve as the center of a fundraising plan...things like architectural renditions. Easier to raise for something people can see and is more tangible than something more abstract like a athletic scholarship endowment fund. But it isn't as easy to fundraise for these things as you would think. For instance, it can take a decade or more to raise the 1/2 million or less needed for one nationality room.
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I haven't been on this too long, so I'm not sure if you have answered this before or not, but when Pitt decided to spend the $13 mil on the sports dome, is that money that they had saved up over time specifically for pitt recreation? Or is there a general facilities fund that they add to every year? And are these funds completely separate from the endowment? You obviously have great knowledge on these topics and I know very little. Thanks.
It's a f'ing urban campus with a major city park right next to campus. id love to see what other space should be green in your opinion.
Apparently, Student Affairs is paying for the sports dome, or at least a large chunk of it, as it will be used mostly for intramural sports. This is probably coming from their reserves (saving up for it) and probably annual budget which itself would be funded from tuition and student fees. But you'd have to have the actual budget for the facility to know exactly where all the funding is coming from.
There is a separate facilities budget for construction and renovations, but I don't know if it is being tapped, or for how much, for this project.
Besides Bigelow Blvd or other road closures? The most obvious one is Schenley Quad but they are supposed to be turning that into a pedestrian-only area after this school year so we'll see how that turns out. I'd eliminate street parking along O'Hara St and widen the sidewalks to make it more park like. There is a small parking lot between Gardner Steel and the O'Hara St Student Center that I'd turn into a mini park. The space between David Lawrence and Hillman could be spruced up. There are some green roof gardens that could be added if it was structurally possible to do so.
Those are all great ideas... hopefully they have been suggested... additionally, would love to see some more housing like bouquet gardens for upper classmen/grad students. Lots of nicely maintained green space between the apartments give them a nice look/feel.
BTW, since you haven't been on here too long, here's the deal with endowments. They are essentially like a mutual fund. When someone donates to the endowment, they are essentially buying shares of that fund by adding to their donation to the overall investing pool. When you see the ~$3 billion endowment number, that is effectively the entire investment pool for all combined endowment funds within the university...and that includes endowment funds that benefit all sorts of purposes in all 17 colleges & schools, all the academic centers, the athletic department, and all the regional campuses, labs sites, etc.
The entire purpose of that pool is to provide revenue (the investment returns) that are distributed to the individual endowment funds. The purpose of donors creating these individual endowment funds is to provide, at least in theory, funding in perpetuity for specific donor intended purposes: like scholarships, endowed chairs (supporting faculty positions), fellowships, research funds, community outreach projects...all sorts of things. Donors legal specify what the funds can and cannot be used to support, and it can usually be very specific. The donor intent is protect by law.
In order for the donation to last for perpetuity, the annual return received from the investment pool has to both replenish the money annually withdrawn to support the purpose that it was created for, and offset the rise in inflation. The later is important, as the purchasing power of the endowment disbursements is supposed to at least remain constant, if not grow; it is not supposed to shrink over time. If the purchasing power shrinks, then the entire point of ensuring the perpetuity of the financial support is lost.
The amount that can be disbursed from an endowment fund is also regulated by laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (or any other state...the laws are pretty much the same). The amount in PA is no less than 2% and no more than 7% of the fund. This minimum and maximum protects the endowment from turning into a hoarded pile of money or from being spent beyond the ability of the investment returns to maintain its purchasing power, and absolutely to prevent it from being raided like a piggy bank. Pitt sets its endowment disbursements typically around 4.5% of the annual amount for a fund. This is a very typical level for most institutions. Pitt actually calculates the disbursement annually as either the three-year average of the fair market value or a “floor” of the prior year’s distribution, provided that the distribution is not less than 2% or more than 7% of the trailing three-year average. This means it fluctuates from year to year based on how the endowment is doing, but the floor prevents university units that are supported by endowments from getting unexpected cuts from one year to the next based on how the market is doing (i.e. it helps make annual funding more stable). Funds are actually distribute on a $ per share basis, just like a mutual fund.
So, if you see someone talk about a $1 million dollar endowment (e.g. someone donated $1m for a scholarship fund) you can do a quick calculation that it probably means $45,000 is distributed to that endowment fund every year (to annually pay for the cost of the scholarship in the example). That means the ~$3 billion endowment at Pitt provides the university $135 million a year in financial support, mostly for specific projects through the entire university. Considering the budget of the university is over $2 billion a year, the endowment represent financial support of less than 7% of the total annual university budget. That is less than the % of the budget received from the state in most years. It is definitely not one of the largest sources of revenue for the university's operations.
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The only place to put something like that on campus might be on the upper campus between Chevron and Falk School. That area is way under utilized (and under appreciated).
BTW, Pitt owns some properties along Oakland Avenue across from Bouquet Gardens (like the place where they currently have the urban garden and the Central Oakland Apartments and Oakwood Apartments). My guess (and only a guess) is that when they get enough contiguous property on Oakland Ave, they'll tear down the existing apartments and add more Bouquet like residences. But it will be very hard to push further into residential Oakland with acquiring properties. It is a very politically sensitive thing to do.
I have an idea - let's create a capital campaign to bribe the City Council to close Bigelow in between the Student Union and the Cathedral. At this point I think it's the only way it happens.
Wow! Thanks for all the info. Definitely more informed about the topic now.
I hope they can come to an agreement buying more properties in Oakland. I understand some of the politics around it, however, I think it is necessary to an extent. Some of the landlords who own multiple properties in Oakland are absolutely ridiculous with maintaining the houses/repairs.
It would be part of my PILOT negotiations. Any payments would be contingent on it.
It will get done at some point. I don't know if anyone will be alive to see it, but it obvious and natural to occur, and ridiculous that it hasn't yet. And politics is the only reason it hasn't.
Unfortunately the slum lords have been there for many decades and aren't leaving anytime soon.
It's not just slum lords. If anyone is actually familiar with Bouquet Gardens, you know there are two awkwardly placed houses essentially in the middle of that development on the Oakland Ave side. These are hold outs...they just wouldn't sell for any price. So Pitt finally gave up and just built Bouquet Gardens around them. There are a lot of old residents in South Oakland who just won't sell.
And Pitt starting collecting these parcels as far back as 1967, and I believe part of it was acquired through eminent domain by the state for Pitt when it first became state-related. Pitt didn't began building Bouquet Gardens until 1998. That's how long it took to get enough parcels together and the political situations worked out. 30 years...and people think they can buy up large swaths of residential plots in South Oakland for large developments. Not likely.
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There are still some houses (apartments) standing in South Oakland (including one where I lived) that were sh*t-holes 30 years ago! Can't even imagine what they are like now. Having said that, obviously, Pitt is an urban campus. It's not like they can go in and bull dozer private property. They must be making a mint to hold onto these properties.
