Resurrecting an old thread to post a few renderings I found on Pitt’s website for the new Victory Heights plan. See pages 21 and 22. https://www.campusplan.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/imp-meeting-2.pdf
Pitt Master Plan
- Thread starter pittchagg
- Start date
Are we supposed to see no room for a football stadium or am I missing something?
Where is the stadium going to be located?
Where is parking for 45k people?
What main access highways are being used to get in and out?
How much is all of this going to cost and who is paying for it?
People who present questions rather than address problems are part of the problem! That's you!
Or you work for local, state, or federal government. Or you're an educator.
You have a 0.0 Solution Score!Or you work for local, state, or federal government. Or you're an educator.
Here's how we fund the place!
University of Pittsburgh Endowment Fund
Posted by Richard C. WilsonFundsNo Comments
Name: University of Pittsburgh Office of Finance
Assets Under Management: $3 Billion (Source: University of Pittsburgh 2014)
Annual Report: University of Pittsburgh’s Endowment Investments
What are Universities doing with this money.
Just the interest ( 5% * 3 billion = 150,000,000) on $ 3 bill could help fund a stadium, begin to reduce tuition, maybe build a track or tennis courts ( the ship sailed).
Plus some contributions from you cheap, whiners from Pittsburgh.
Top Ten Endowments:
( this is crazy? Where is this money going?)
1. Harvard $ 36bill
2. Yale $ 27 bill
3.U Texas system $ 26 bill
4. Stanford $ 25 bill
5. Princeton $ 4 bill
6.MIT $ 15 bill
7.U Penn $ 12 bill
8.Tex A&M $ 11 bill
9. Michigan $ 9 bill
!0. Northwestern $ 10 bill
?PITT $ 3 bill ( we lag in this area too)
I would like to know what the plans are for these huge endowment funds that keep growing if only for the accrued interest!
People who just present questions don't deserve answers.
For each question the poster presenting the question should provide a rationale as to why the proposal won't work.
Only politicians, government workers, or educators present lots of questions in an attempt to distract others from suggesting new ideas or proposals that actually might work but it wasn't their idea.
The previous posters referenced a facilities plan that had been prepared.
My guess is you fit into one of the categories I highlighted!
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Donors dictate how they want their donation to be spent. You cannot just take the money and use it for whatever you want.
If they use the OC Lot space for the victory heights facilities as currently laid out we can’t fit a new stadium up there.
The entire Victory Heights concept shows that there is room, but Pitt prioritizes differently. I don't blame them. It's easier to use the free football revenue to fund it, instead if reinvesting in football.
You really have no clue how endowment funds work, do you. Because if you did you would realize what you posted makes zero sense
University endowments usually have a portion that isn't earmarked for anything specific.
How about the interest portion of the endowment fund how is that to be spent?
I doubt the interest /earning over and above the donation amount is earmarked.
I'm sure many people just sent in monies to colleges with no instructions as to how they'll be used.
This recently was kicked around on a financial show I watched and none of the financial experts had a clear answer regarding how the interest on the endowment monies should be spent.
The majority of the panel participants questioned the large endowment funds and wondered how they would be used.
I would love for someone to explain why Harvard has $ 36 bill + interest in the fund and how they plan to use the $36 bill.
They could use just the interest portion of the endowment and fund tuition for all and still have $ 36 mill in the fund??? Or atleast lower student tuition.
Sit out the next few rounds.
(The interest is the operational portion of endowments- it’s how they continue be endowed- it’s not a checking account)
I know for a fact people send endowment monies to colleges with n
Sounds like a quick, not thought out answer.
Do you realize how much interest there is on $ 36 bill even if it's invested in reasonable safe long term Treasuries????
I know people leave money to Universities without direction as to how it will be spent.
In both my parents wills monies went to a University endowment fund without spending direction so I'm sure many leave money that way. They had no idea how they wanted the University to spend the money so they left it undirected.
Don't some people earmark some of the billions for sports.
So what will Harvard do with the $ 36 bill + interest+ interest.
I'm surprised all you liberals aren't after this endowment money.
Rich U's getting richer! LOL!
Spend some of the $ 36 bill on the students.
Sounds like a quick, not thought out answer.
Do you realize how much interest there is on $ 36 bill even if it's invested in reasonable safe long term Treasuries????
I know people leave money to Universities without direction as to how it will be spent.
In both my parents wills monies went to a University endowment fund without spending direction so I'm sure many leave money that way. They had no idea how they wanted the University to spend the money so they left it undirected.
Don't some people earmark some of the billions for sports.
So what will Harvard do with the $ 36 bill + interest+ interest.
I'm surprised all you liberals aren't after this endowment money.
Rich U's getting richer! LOL!
Spend some of the $ 36 bill on the students.
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The ability to make a point quickly is supposed to be a good thing.
Others ramble on endlessly without actually saying anything .
https://www.harvard.edu/about-harvard/harvard-glance/endowment
Harvard does what companies do- reinvests the earnings not used into the endowment-
Compounding interest is the name of the game.
You've made one of two points in 58,666 posts?
Terrible hit rate.
You people are jumping through hoops to defend the billions Universities has stashed away for a rainy day?
You'll see more pressure on U's and to explain endowment funds as tuition costs rise.
A few in government are beginning to look into this now.
The 400m outdoor track takes the place of the recently completed "sports bubble" behind the Cost Center. I actually asked about this recently, and was told that the bubble only has a useful life of around 8-9 years before needing to be replaced, so it looks like they're going to simply tear it down and build the track instead. I'd be interested to see what the interior and proposed uses of the new buildings will be on the current OC lot and around the field house. Trees and the field house are multi-purpose facilities, housing multiple sports each, so it makes sense to renovate and expand them.
The only people pressuring schools about how they spend their endowments are people who don't understand endowments.
You, for instance.
Yeah, but I also think there will better locations for a stadium down the road. Maybe they realize this and have something in mind, since any stadium is probably 20+ years away at best.
I understand how they work that's not the question.
The question is how should they work? Lot's of things are changing in the last few years.
University tuition costs are rising, and students are buried in debt.
The "rich" Universities with super high tuition are getting richer and tuitions are going up.
The University endowment wealth gap between the "rich" and the "poor" universities is widening.
Do I hear inequality?
When this happens in other areas the same people defending the "rich" universities would be all over this issue.
Maybe we'll see some action in this area since college tuition costs are a front burner issue.
Tracks, baseball fields, tennis courts, football stadiums all impact the student populations of these universities, just like some of the absure majors the same universities spend tons of money funding.
We'll see some meaningful discussion on this going forward. The world is changing lately!
By discussion I didn't mean on this board, I meant between people who count, and actually know stuff!
No. But I do find it interesting that many "football poor" schools have very large endowments, rivaling some of the biggest schools in the country (Pitt is one of these) where many of the "football rich" schools like Alabama and many SEC schools specifically, have low endowments proportionally. Now as a functioning University, the former is definitely better than the latter. But it also says if there is a want to, likely athletics could have some more focus and attention. Obviously a lot of those schools are Ivy or prestigious academic institutes like CMU, Johns Hopkins and MIT, which do not play "big time athletics". And others are those mega schools who have it all (Michigan, USC, tOSU, PSU, Stanford, etc...) who excel both in the classroom, researchwise and athletics. It is amazing how high Pitt stacks up, considering just how poorly overall it is athletically.
It definitely shows the overall mission statement of the school, and let's face it, that is exactly what universities should be about. But.....it also shows if there is or was a "want to", likely they could have much better athletics.
Great list. Pitt is higher on this than any sports list.
https://thebestschools.org/features/richest-universities-endowments-generosity-research/
Do you understand some endowments are earmarked for scholarships to actually reduce tuition?
Agree on the sports dome; it appears the plan is to (finally!) build a dedicated outdoor facility for track and field, and place a multi-purpose practice field for soccer and lacrosse in the infield of the new track. That’s not a short-term goal, because they need to finish up the student rec center first to replace the intramural and rec space that would be lost with the sports dome.
You can see in the renderings, though, that the Field House would be demolished; wrestling, volleyball and gymnastics would move over completely to the Human Performance Center on the OC lot, and the other sports with coaches’ offices, etc. in the Field House will move over to the expanded Petersen Sports Complex under construction this summer. All of the non-athletics facilities in Trees Hall currently would move either to Posvar Hall or the new student rec center, the pool area will be renovated and expanded, and the other half of Trees would be demolished and an indoor turf facility would be built in its place.
The Human Performance Center on the OC lot and the student rec center on O’Hara are the big ones, though, and the catalysts that need to happen for the other dominoes to fall. I believe both are out for bidding now. To answer your question, though, there’s more information about the OC lot site at these links:
https://www.campusplan.pitt.edu/sit...elines-selected 2/5B-OC-Lot-Redevelopment.pdf
https://www.campusplan.pitt.edu/sit... Guidelines-selected 2/5A-Trees-Hall-Site.pdf
https://www.campusplan.pitt.edu/sit...idelines-selected 2/5D-Playing-Field-Site.pdf
That is a lot of shuffling, but should leave every program with improved facilities once completed. It's great that they will finally have the full size outdoor track facility, which has been missing from campus for 20 years. Now all they need is to finally build that band facility that's been fully funded and promised for the past 20 years.
Yeah, you can see by the renderings that it’s a really bold plan that will benefit in a massive way nearly every sport not named football - who, as we’ve seen, has benefited from substantial upgrades to their facilities on the South Side. It’s just unfortunate that it all needs to be done at once - most of our peer universities in power five conferences have been doing these things over the past few decades while we haven’t been keeping up.
Agree on band - I want to say I saw something buried in one of those documents that references plans for the band’s new home, but I can’t find it now.
The irony is that Pitt likely would do more with that large endowment in the terms of expansion but is politically limited from doing so.
Pitt isn't very popular in its own town. It's a convenient political scapegoat for the local government's own ills.
Some of that unpopular sentiment is due to the relentless public smear jobs that the locos do, claiming Pitt doesn't pay its share, exploits its employees etc..
The good things that the university does (not to mention the obvious of being the top employer) get overwhelmed by the negativity.
Thus Pitt gets fought tooth and nail on even the most obvious or innocuous ideas that it would have to grow or procure beyond its own borders. Meaning there just isn't all that much possible to spend that endowment on!
What could change that? Hmmmmmmm. I wonder. What is the number one thing that makes an entity uber-popular in this region? And thus politically infallible? Not only allowed to develop as it pleases but often given the funding from the government for it?
Yes, I wonder...
I mostly like your posts. Mostly. Anyways, I am not an accountant nor a tax lawyer so I will not pretend to know the intricacies of the tax code. But I know most, if not all "University" related land and buildings are tax exempt, correct??? This is where there is a big difference between schools in urban centers and those big state schools which are essentially those cities they reside unto themselves.
So if you think about it, Pitt playing in Heinz, there are taxes to be reaped by the city, right? Whereas if it was in say Pitt Stadium, they would be exempt, right? Can someone answer this? And you can say well isn't this true of State College or Morgantown? Yes, but here is the difference. Pitt is a supportive entity to the diverse economy of Pittsburgh. It provides resources, talent, research, etc....to support and employ various entities that make up our economy. While in State College or Morgantown, the schools are the economy. Those towns would essentially be Butler without those universities being there.
So, yeah.....plus look at Pitt's BOT's and the Chancellor's Advisory Group. The latter are mostly made up of alums from other schools who maybe good at what they do, but do they bleed blue and gold? The former, some of the names on the BOT's, I can't believe are still alive. I can't. They were once titans of industry and communications, they are feeble old men now. The University needs some movers and shakers who can politically start bridging some of these gaps and tap into the fact that Pitt should be one of this region's focal points into the future.
My guess... only thing that happens in our lifetime is the student rec center and the “upgrade” to the Peterson Sports Complex. Pitt officials remain perplexed on how Peters Township have better facilities.
From my last understanding, the university at large is in active development of three projects: the One Bigelow project on the Syria Mosque lot that will house the new computer science school; the student rec center on O’Hara where the parking garage and LRDC are located; and the Human Performance Center on the OC lot. They’ve already selected contractors for the student rec center, they’re in the design process for One Bigelow, and full architectural work is currently out to bid for the Human Performance Center. I understand the cynicism, but it’s my strong belief that those three projects are happening and will be built over the next 3 or so years.
The third floor of the Petersen Sports Complex building is going to start construction this summer.
Souf, believe me, I don't want to side with Buffet, and I am not totally but there is a point he is making. We all know that student debt is a problem, and something needs to be done. We have heard congress grandstand and of course blame this on corporate America (banks and loan institutions) and want Joe taxpayer to foot the bill for relief. Yet these schools sit on these HUGE warchests, and they have continued almost unchecked rising costs. Something is not morally right about this. But that is for another thread and another forum...which will devolve into its typical yelling tic tac toe posts of all the typicals lining up accordingly.
To the defense of the current leadership, with Pitt/UPMC (always going to be lumped together) being the alpha dog in town, will be a target of sorts, like U. S. Steel before it. No matter what gaps they might try to bridge. UPMC and its, let's call it what it is, a-hole CEO certainly don't avoid the perception either. Nor did U. S. Steel leaders in the day.
One difference is that U.S. Steel couldn't field a championship college football team (or basketball to a lesser extent) to provide as an opiate to the masses. Pitt can and should for this reason alone, forget the tremendous revenues. It would free up so much political capital to let Pitt grow (to take over the south Oakland slums for example). The Steelers and Penguins prove it. The activists of the Hill District are STILL angry that the Pens were handed the civic arena site for free and have still done jack squat there.
As i wrote in another thread, maybe soccer will rise meteorically and Pitt can become dominant in that, and accomplish what I'm saying. But that's years if not decades off and most of us wont be alive to see it.
Collegiate soccer is not, will not be any factor as a revenue driving sport. I don't even know who the soccer powers are in the NCAA anymore, I know Indiana always was and some ACC schools, Notre Dame, I imagine a Stanford and a UCLA, but even in those soccer friendly communities, I can't imagine the average attendance more than 2K. What does the NCAA championships play to? I guess again, another thread where SMF can participate.
I wouldn't necessarily say it's all being done at once. The Pete and Pederson Sports complex were much needed additions, as well as the upgrades over at UPMC complex.
That said, these others upgrades are long past due, and even the above mentioned upgrades need upgraded.
But it takes money and we need donors to do it. I think this admin has the ear of the donors.
I don't know, it would be pretty tight with all the stuff they have planned up there.
