Greetings, UWGB Colleagues,
We find ourselves in challenging times. To meet these challenges and to turn them into opportunities we will need the engagement of everyone. Please use this space to give your best ideas and ask important questions. I will work to answer questions and I will make sure your views are shared with the various planning and governance groups. This is a fantastic university with an important mission. With your help, we will move through this period and into a bright future.
Go Phoenix!
Gary
UW-Green Bay is fortunate to have ample parking for all. I understand parking permit fees are revenue generating in a time of extreme budget issues. I also understand, and am witness to, decreased morale and low pay taking place with some campus employees. Perhaps a way to offer a token of appreciation would be to remove, or at least waive the fee for a year.
While I appreciate the desire to boost employee morale where we are able, Campus Parking is one operation that must fully pay its own way.
The State of Wisconsin provides no state tax money to administer and maintain parking facilities or to construct new lots. For that reason, a parking fee is levied to generate operating revenue for snow plowing, salt and sand, parking signage, pavement repair and construction projects such as parking lot replacement. We have held the line on parking costs for the last four years but we must be fiscally responsible and cannot kick the can down the road for others to deal with. We will be replacing the main housing lot next year at a cost of over $600,000, and additional lots will need to be replaced within the next couple years.
Our parking fee is the lowest in the UW System with next closest yearly fee $36 more. Many of the other UW’s have raised rates for next year and we were $71 below the average prior to their new increases. (UW Madison and UW Milwaukee were not included in the survey.) Everyone at UWGB who uses the parking service pays — students, employees, administrators, everyone.
That’s the short (long) explanation for why we pay to park. The good thing here, compared to some of the other UWs, is that we are always guaranteed a place to park. Elsewhere, employees must compete for better parking, ride shuttles in from satellite lots, hope to be one of the lucky few selected by a lottery system, or deal with the hassles of restricted parking on city streets. I think UWGB delivers decent value to those who purchase parking.
How about adding programs and additional life and activity to our campus? As an Alum, Athlete, Fan, and Employee I would love to see UWGB start of D1 Football program. To compliment this maybe start women’s programs in LaCrosse, Gymnastics, and Water Polo. I am sure some or many would dispute and others could support the economics of doing this but doing so could breathe some additional life on our campus, increase student enrollment, and generate interest from the community and donors. I am sure some will cite the deal made between Lombardi and our founding chancellor to not start a football program but that was 50 years ago and times have changed. We know we don’t need higher segregated fees so we would need to find some way to get these programs started without adding seg fees per student. How about moving the Men’s Basketball games to on-campus except for when we bring in major D1 opponents (e.g. Wisconsin, Virginia, etc.)? While it would seem unlikely we would make such bold moves it sure is fun to think and dream about! Have and make it a great day everyone!
Carl,
As Chancellor Miller outlined in his budget-reduction update last week, the University is proceeding with a full understanding of the guidelines for notification that a layoff decision would set in motion. We also appreciate that the current uncertainty is difficult for faculty and staff.
That said, we are just not yet in a position to offer many specifics. Senior administration and the University Planning and Innovation Council are still compiling and evaluating data. Also, as the Chancellor noted, the legislative budget process is still under way, and it might not be until late May that the UW System and UW-Green Bay will know with any certainty whether the overall cuts will be as deep as initially projected. So, with so many variables still in play, such as the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program, it would only be speculation at this point.
Hi Sheryl,
Thanks for your comments. Yes, the Chancellors letter a few days after my question answered the questions I had.
Thanks!
Carl
We currently only allow UWGB students who are enrolled in Fall session to register for January interim classes. We should consider making this term open like we do for summer. There is a lot of interest in enrolling in these classes from non-UWGB students because they are condensed, online, and we offer a great selection. I realize it won’t generate a massive amount of revenue but it would generate some, and potentially result in more transfer students who had a positive experience.
This week we reach the 90 day mark before July 1st, Can you offer some timeline as to when the layoff notices will be served? Thank you.
The University’s Alternate Work Schedule and Telecommuting policies have been available since 2009 and are located online at:
http://www.uwgb.edu/hr/documents/AlternativeWorkSchedulePolicy.pdf and http://www.uwgb.edu/hr/documents/TelecommutingPolicy.pdf. Many employees currently utilize these alternate schedules and new requests are reviewed weekly. Employees and supervisors are encouraged to have dialogue about options that meet both the operational needs of the department and personal needs of the employee.
Hello,
With the uncertainity of the current budget situation, there may be employees who will decide to leave for a more secure environment. If they leave, we are likely to not be able to fill these positions. I’m wondering if there has been any thought about how to retain the current employees, such as a more flexible work from home policy or alternative work schedules, i.e, four ten hour days or 8 1/2 hour days and 1/2 day off on Fridays. I understand the need for full coverage in departments; however, I’m sure the staffs could arrange to alternate the days so the offices stay open from 7:45 to 4:30 daily. Thank you.
Hello,
I am unsure if anyone else has asked this question, but it pertains once again to health care, and retirement benefits.
I read the campus wide e-mail Chancellor Miller sent recently that reported no change to these things for the biennium. What will happen after two years? If the exact answer is unknown what is the educated guess. If the UW system is removed from the pension how does that impact the monies that have already been collected by current employees, what would be the substitute going forward, what does that mean for those who are retiring, etc…. Thank you in advance for any information about this.
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) analysis of the Governor’s budget proposal is as follows:
“Provide that the UW System Authority be considered a state agency for the purpose of employee participation in the Wisconsin retirement system, group health insurance, and other benefit programs administered by the Department of Employee Trust Funds.”
The intent is that if the UW-System becomes an authority, the Authority will be treated as a state agency for purposes of participation in the above noted benefit programs going forward, not just for the 2015-17 biennium.
Thank you very much for this response Kelly.
In relation to Rick’s question about possible healthcare policy changes…
Yes, this proposal was reported in various media outlets, but it’s has not been part of the discussions regarding the proposed cuts to the UW System.
That’s because it is uncertain if such a shift would save any money at all. Deloitte Consulting estimates this proposal’s impact could range from a savings of $18M to an added cost of $4M depending upon how many individuals opt out, statewide.
Kelly Franz
a SMALL but motivational component would be to provide faculty with FACULTY parking – or priority parking for a higher fee….granted student might not like that faculty get to park closer but this might help with morale and would not cost the university anything… right now some of the best and brightest are very demoralized from years of neglect and punitive treatment. It might be something little that shows goodwill toward faculty that have not, and will not, for some time seen pay raises….
A free way to attempt to show good faith….
I have two questions:
1. At the most recent Faculty Senate meeting on February 18, the Provost mentioned that the Chancellor would submit a draft report of UW Green Bay’s response (my words) to the budget cuts at the March, 2015 Board of Regents (BOR) meeting, and a final copy of UW Green Bay’s response at the April BOR meeting. Are these documents available to faculty and staff? Perhaps these are public documents and support transparency.
2. Chancellor Miller, do you support the public authority model independent of budget cuts? In other words, if there were minimal or no budget cuts, would you support and/or advocate for the public authority model?
Thank you.
To continue my comments below, Green Bay would have the only plumbers in the world who could quote Foucault.
This is a bit “outside the box”, but I’ve been thinking about this idea for years:
Merge with NWTC (eliminate administrative redundancy), offer both vocational and undergraduate / graduate degrees, acquire the same taxing authority the tech schools possess, and become an independent institution (no UW system affiliation).
We’d be the only institution in the Midwest modeled on the old polytechnic system that thrived for decades in the UK.
This is an interesting idea. Is NWTC even being impacted by proposed budget cuts? My understanding is that the state Tech campuses receive even more state funding than the UW system does. I am also aware that some of the salaries at NWTC in particular are very inflated.
Could calls for campus participation in identifying creative solutions be supported with sharing of financial data so that we know what our current budget looks like? It is difficult to think creatively or strategically, rather than merely looking for savings around the margins, without knowing what we currently spend. I realize that the Redbook and other info may be possible to find, but an executive summary (maybe with infographics!) that faculty, staff and students can all access and understand would demonstrate commitment to transparency and allow everyone to propose feasible solutions.
(In addressing a budget cut, Wooster admin “[s[et up a wiki with all of Wooster’s financial information for the past 20 years, plus staffing data, and made it available to faculty, staff, and students. http://chronicle.com/article/How-One-Campus-United-Behind-a/190027/)
Alison,
We are doing a financial deep dive with the University Planning and Innovation Council (UPIC).
gm
There is an interesting proposal out there to offer incentives to “opt-out” of the health insurance. This could really save both the employees and university … no monthly co-insurance plus a $2,000 incentive for the employees and no monthly co-insurance for the employer/university .,, of course this only works if the employees have other options for insurance.
Rick,
We have not heard those proposals.
gm
In the face of this devastating budget cut, I think it is past time for the the UW System to eliminate a few of the UW Colleges. I don’t think this suggestion requires further explanation.
I think we have a great athletics program and we could use it more to attract new students in our area. We should invite high school students to specific games for free. Then we can use the opportunity to pitch recruitment and have people on hand to answer questions and write down contact info. It might be effective to highlight the different majors of the athletes to get people thinking about college and what UWGB can offer. If we contact high schools, there may be a way to arrange field trips to get more student participation (perhaps we arrange bus transportation). At the very least high schools could put up posters and get the word out. I don’t just mean basketball either; I think a lot of high school students are interested in soccer, softball, and volleyball as well. If there are games where we don’t normally fill capacity, it would be worthwhile to also invite parents of high school students for free. If we’re not filling capacity, we have nothing to lose by trying, and only concession money to gain.
Thanks for the suggestion Ryan. The Athletic program is a great community connection for us. Unfortunately, there are NCAA rules about inviting high school students to games. The folks in admissions are now regularly inviting high school teachers and advisers to attend games along with our faculty. We’ve had great response. GM
Great points every one. One thing is sure that it will be unfair if we sacrifice the quality of the teaching and pass on the major pain to the faculty. We need to make serious efforts at making our administration lean. I am not kidding. Take a look at some of the media reports. One such report is here from Wall Street Journal:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323316804578161490716042814
– which says that “Hiring Spree Fattens College Bureaucracy—And Tuition”
“Opportunity often comes in disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.”
-Napoleon Hill
Revenue Generating Ideas:
1. “Rise of the Phoenix Fundraiser” using social media and modeled in sorts after the Ice Bucket Challenge that raised over $115M for ALS. Create our unique pitch starting with the Chancellor and reaching all our employees, students, and alumni. We’ll raise some money, reconnect with and better track alumni, and create some positive energy.
2. Enrollment from regional sources: Create a systematic plan that targets every high school in the area and see if we can teach complete courses (for a fee) if they have a need or guest lecture once in various classes (for free) so students can experience us first hand and hopefully be left with a desire to apply. Build on the success of Phuture Phoenix with more touch points. Also, change our recruiting plan for different demographic groups who are under-represented. Finally, explore how we can be the 4 year transfer institution of choice for more 2 year community colleges beyond primarily NWTC.
3. Enrollment from international sources: Form more partnerships with international programs in areas where there is a huge desire to come to the US to study.
4. Form partnerships with businesses that produce revenue streams (e.g., teach classes at their facilities for their people, offer our intellectual capital in unique ways to the business community). Plant our flag in downtown Green Bay and also in the Valley.
5. Get a competitively differentiated and flexible MBA program as a means to increase enrollment and connect with businesses for revenue in creative ways.
6. Drive innovation as a core value of the institution. Set up an innovation contest for all employees and challenge them to create and implement ideas to innovate our operations or expand our growth. Then award the annual winners in different ways that matter (e.g., create a Founders Award for Innovation; pay the winners of the innovation contest a percentage of the savings or growth that their idea provided to UWGB).
7. Our Board of Trustees has been extremely generous in their service to us. Are there ways we can leverage their connections and expertise for targeted fund-raising (in new ways we have not considered)?
8. Restructure parking similar to seating in a stadium. There would be premium parking for a higher fee and lower fees for parking spots further out in the lot. Give LIR a reduced rate at the premium parking spots, but all students and employees might pay on a tier system ($300, $200, $100) per year. We would also gain citation revenue from those who choose to park in the wrong section.
9. Develop ideas to rent our space during non-peak months.
10. Enhance our marketing efforts around Green Bay and the Valley so we are not drowned out by the competition.
11. Expand the ways we bring the community onto campus more (e.g., events like the Color Run, more youth camps, science contests, regular events on campus that could mimic the success of the farmer’s market).
12. An idea from Jack Riopelle and the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation = In partnership with business sponsors, create an Annual Innovation contest/award that would give us regional prominence. Have different tiers of contestants (i.e., students, businesses by industry). Create this as a significant revenue generator and position us as a regional center of excellence in this area.
13. Develop a Disney International (or domestic) College Program (https://business.montclair.edu/academic-programs/international). My previous university started one and annually took in about 300 international students for 10 days, and then sent them to intern at Disney for a semester at $6500 each = $1.95M revenue each cohort (expenses need to be factored in).
Additional Cost Reduction Measures Not Mentioned Previously in the Blog:
1. Consider having all administrators with a Ph.D. or Masters degree teach one course per semester or year to save on ad hoc costs.
2. If we end up going to a 4-4 teaching load, restructure our onerous service load by only having committees that add measurable value and impact to the campus’ immediate strategic imperatives. Eliminate all others. This will free up already scarce time for faculty for additional teaching, advising, and continuing research. It will also improve morale.
3. Keep the travel ban for tenured faculty, but give non-tenured faculty a stipend for one conference per year so that we continue to invest in their professional development.
4. In addition to enrollment gains, assess our time to graduate rates. Similar to a restaurant, getting students in an out on time creates more space/resources for the next “customers”.
5. Have a sincere effort to shut lights off in unused rooms.
6. Move all student course evaluations online to save on Scantron and personnel costs.
7. Where possible, renegotiate vendor contracts (e.g., A’viands, bookstore, phones etc.).
8. Consider using the same text book across all sections of a class to buy higher volumes at lower rates.
9. Printing allotments for each person.
10. Consolidate summer classes to a smaller number of buildings.
David,There are way too many good ideas here for me to respond to. Many of these are underway…let’s talk about how to get the word out about some of these initiatives.
Your suggestion about the Trustees is great. Right now that group is organized in our support. They are also ready to help as we push for new programs. We are most fortunate to have such a well respected group in our corner.
gm
We should organize more workshops and teaching sessions at local highschools. More we interact with our local schools, more likely it is that we would get more students intersted in our programs and offerings.
Great idea. The enrollment initiative we began this past fall includes more of these activities. Many more are planned.
gm
One area where University might benefit from is looking into some of the administrative positions which may not be needed.
I spoke with some of my non-state employee friends living in Wisconsin and out of state. I was looking for suggestions from non-biased individuals who were not emotionally involved. Here are their comments. Clearly, existing agreements may prevent some of these suggestion, However some of these may have merit.
1. Close the campus on the weekends, (or at least Sundays) with the exception of required services. Lock buildings, lights off, heat turned down.
2. Sell some of the land we own.
3. Sell Shorewood golf course.
4. I understand that UWGB provides the Chancellor with a house. Is it feasible to have the Chancellor purchase and maintain a house on his own?
5. Get rid of all the state vehicles used for travel, it’s cheaper to pay employees for mileage in their own vehicle.
6. Stop all programs and services provided to the community which do not provide an income.
7. Increase all non-tuition fees for students.
8. Have students pay for all housing luxuries beyond four walls and a mattress.
9. Start hitting up our 32,000 alumni for more money. 4 million divided 32K ways = $125 each.
10. Seriously reevaluate the salaries and necessity of upper level administrative positions.
12. Hold State, Nation, or Worldwide raffles, tickets are $20 bucks a piece, grand prize 4 years of paid fulltime college tuition at UWGB.
13. Required time off without pay. Furlough days. The argument was that the reduction in salary was easier to take than being laid off. Most have already experienced furloughs and survived. Reduced salary was still more than unemployment income and one would still have a job with benefits.
14. Ask the Packers, our partner in education, and other area business for money.
15. Open a “for profit” business on campus. “Daycare”?
16. Lease to former Grill / Erbert and Gerbert spaces by the Phoenix Club to paying new food options. Pizza hut, Cousins, Sonic, etc…
17. Play basketball games on campus, not at the Resch Center and increase ticket prices.
18. encourage early retirement with additional benefits.
19. Increase the fees for every program we offer if allowed.
Would the University consider asking for volunteer employees to reduce their work schedule which would result in a salary reductions, temporally or permanently? Should drastic measures need to be taken, I think if given the choice between a reduced work schedule and pay vs. layoffs, those who could swing it would volunteer for the reduction instead of unemployment. It would take a little creativity to ensure that services to students were not hindered (although if these cuts go through our service to students will most likely not be at the same level it is now) and larger workloads were not created for our coworkers, but I think it could be done.
Administration might want to look to past/retired employees for help with recruiting. Many are living in out-of-state locations and might be looking to have some interaction with students. This was their career choice. The others who are still living around here might be interested in something to do for a few days or weeks. They probably don’t want to be double-dippers but I am sure there are other ways to compensate them that would be legally acceptable. You won’t know if you don’t ask.
I am curious about whether the System might consider offering early retirement incentives. In at least some cases, offering an incentive for people to retire early might create some vacancies that could be held open for a while (not forever!), thus saving money.
It is my understanding this is under consideration. GM
Excellent!
I also wonder if it might be feasible to offer severance packages for people who are too young for early retirement but might be open to leaving the university to pursue other employment or a new career. A severance package might nudge some people back to school, for example. Vacancies could be held or positions eliminated.
We should look at limiting the amount of internal marketing that is done on paper products (fliers, postcards, and letters) and with the paper marketing we deem as essential make it more targeted. This would be a good way to reinforce our “green” philosophy and save money. Anything we market with paper could be marketed very effectively using our web infrastructure.
Not a huge cost savings likely, but to what extent it could help, stop printing and sending the invites or announcements about campus activities to every employee. I am sure many of them go into the recycle bin. Isn’t there a way to convert these items into and electronic medium that is announced to us via the Log, or an email to all of campus? Still getting the message just in a different format?
Is it possible to provide a clear definition of what it means to be an employee within a public autonomy setting for employees that have many years of service as a state employee? (For example, HR policies and benefits)
thanks
If the proposed cuts go through I think first and foremost it’s important to recognize and make public the negative impact of the cuts. Despite what System President Cross says, these aren’t cuts that will simply be a “challenge to overcome,” rather, we have to show the public that the cuts are real and have a detrimental impact. To that end, I have three suggestions:
1. One of the biggest complaints both within and without of academia, has been the growth of administrators. To many of us at UWGB, the past 2-3 months have indicated that we could do without a Provost. If the Deans are given budgetary and hiring authority and the Chancellors’ cabinet is rearranged, I fail to see why we couldn’t do without a Provost, as we did for many years in the first half of the university’s history. Such a decision would play well with legislators and the public.
2. Eliminate phones from faculty offices. I use almost exclusively email and the calls that I do receive in my office tend to be from people office campus and invariably in the community. If all calls are directed to the ADAs, who will take a message and pass it along to the faculty, then the public will realize the cuts have had an impact on accessibility to their university and its faculty. For those faculty more technologically inclined, it’s possible to receive a free telephone number through google, which also has an answering system.
3. The most radical suggestion, but I think definitely worth considering: closing the university (at least for a year) on Fridays. This will send a clear message of the impact. There are few classes on Fridays anyway and it would give students and faculty additional time to work. Granted it would have the biggest negative economic impact on staff, but we haven’t seen any salary increases in years (at least not above the rate of inflation) and perhaps some of them would be interested in finding a part-time job Friday-Sunday (I know many classified staffers who have evening jobs already!)
For my last point, I should have mentioned this could be an option to avoid layoffs of anyone and would hopefully only be temporary.
To add on to your point about phones. I have for a while now wondered why we pay $18 for the phone line, pay $6 for voice mail and additional fees for long distance, when a cell phone is only $6.30 and it includes voice mail and texts. If cell phones are cheaper why don’t we switch more people to cell phones to save money? Obviously some offices would need to keep the full landline package, but I agree with you that we should be able to save money here.
The approach to phones is to move to voice over IP. But that will require planning and incur implementation costs.
gm
I have a significant, major and minor required course that meets for three hours every friday of every semester and have taught it every year I’ve been here. Theatre and Dance is one of the programs that routinely teaches on Fridays and relies on doing so and would be severely impacted by closing the campus on Friday.
David, I have to disagree with #3, for a variety of reasons.
First, I don’t think it would have the impact you suggest. Students and the public would simply adapt to the new hours and the same amount of business would then be crammed into 4 days instead of 5. After a year, most people would say that the university functioned well with reduced hours and provided all the same services, so the change would simply become permanent. I think the impact of the cuts would be much greater if entire departments, programs, or services are eliminated. In other words, if we continue to do all the things we do now, even if they are only available 4 days a week, the students and public will see almost no impact at all.
Second, it is fundamentally unfair to suggest that all staff, across the board, should bear the greatest economic impact of the cuts. Staff salaries are already too low, and most cannot afford to absorb a 20% pay cut. Anyone able to leave would certainly do so. (Suggesting that we should just take on part-time jobs to make up for the cut comes across as a little insulting.) Instead, perhaps a voluntary work reduction could be offered to those who want it. I know that NY has such a provision, for example: https://www.goer.ny.gov/Employee_Resources/VRWS.cfm
Third, my understanding of the current proposal is that public authority status wouldn’t take effect fully until 2016, so I’m not sure that state would even allow the campus to be closed every Friday for a year. Even if allowed, this would also essentially convert all professional staff to hourly employees (this is what happened in any weeks when we had to take a furlough day several years ago), which creates other problems. Areas such as residence life, IT, and student life can’t really operate on a limited schedule of office hours.
How much could the University save in operating costs if it were to be closed between the week of Christmas and New Years and the Friday after Thanksgiving? I know the Union would probably have to remain open for dining options for on campus students.
To Bridget’s question. I think people talked about this kind of question the years we were all furloughed for several days. Since the vast proportion (over 95%, I think) of our state-supported expenses are salaries, in order to reduce operating costs we have to do things that impact salary costs. If we closed campus for eight days and essentially furloughed everybody for those eight days, that would be about 3% – 4% of a person’s annual contract (3% for 12-month staff, 4% for 9-month faculty). My guess is this would get us about a third of the way towards the total $4M that we are building plans to reduce. I personally have mixed feelings about this idea. Many UWGB employees are already extremely underpaid relative to their market value, and reducing their annual pay by another 3%-4% is moving those salaries in the wrong direction. BUT, I think this is exactly the kind of innovative thinking that the Chancellor wants the committees reviewing proposals to consider. I assume those people are reading these comments…..
Chancellor,
I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make it to the Town Hall (class conflict), but I appreciated the summary I read on the log and your commitment to a proactive, transparent approach.
Many concerned students have asked me about the impact of the budget cuts on Segregated University Fees (SUF) and Student Programming. My current take on the matter is that (at least on the short-term) Seg Fees collected and administered independently of tuition and State funds should be uneffected by Walker’s cuts. The restructuring of UW Sytem into a state authority may well involve an overhaul of our governing documents (F50 and 3609(5)) concerning SUF, but it seems to me that any reformation of the Student Fee structure will undoubtedly involve direct student input and/or approval.
Are there any data here I’m missing or possible ideas on this subject that you think I might share with my fellow classmates?
Reed,
You have this right. The SUF fee expenditures will continue as before. (one of your colleagues asked this question at the TH meeting). I can’t answer the question about what happens to the fees in an authority.
GM
I would like to know why the budget for UW System is more than double the budget for nearly all of its teaching institutions (excluding Madison and Milwaukee). UW-Green Bay has, in house, most if not all of the administrative offices that any non-system college has, so what does the budget for System buy?
Secondly, and more direly, why is the projected cut for System only 3% when UWGB’s projected cut is 14%?
What does System do exactly that warrants such a large budget, and why is its projected cut so relatively small?
(I may simply not understand something, but would like to know what that is. Also, information was obtained from UWSP Chancellor Patterson’s powerpoint presentation, which is on his webpage: http://www.uwsp.edu/chancellor/Pages/budget.aspx.)
Chris, I can state that $3.2 million of the UW system budget is set aside for the UW System Libraries. That money is used for a number of our core databases (Shared Electronic Collection) and for the van delivery system that delivers materials between all of the UW Libraries 4-days a week. I can’t speak to the rest of the System budget, but this $3.2 million is critical. If that specific budget line is cut it will have an enormous impact on our library services.
Would it be worthwhile to get rid of cable TV in the residence halls to save money? Most students I know would not be willing to pay for cable TV if it was a separate cost, and that just shows that we’re wasting money on a service that few students value. Most students watch Netflix and are happy with it. Dish is also offering a streaming service called SlingTV that would give students access to ESPN and other common cable channels over the internet. As more streaming options become available, Cable TV becomes less relevant and less valuable (especially to our students’ generation). Let the students decide what TV services they are willing to pay for. It would be nice if students still had the option to buy individual cable TV plans, even if it’s at full price. I doubt it would impact residence halls occupancy, since no other place subsidizes cable TV. I hope someone takes a look at the numbers. If the funding is non-transferrable back to the campus, at least it can be used to save students money or improve other aspects of the residence halls.
Ryan,
Thanks for the suggestion. We will put this in the hopper for further consideration.
gm
Thanks to everyone who attended the Open Forum yesterday. The questions were great. We’ve got lots of work to do together. Please post your questions here and we will work to get them answered. Go Phoenix!!