OU President Gallogly

[Pete]

Not good timing with the head football coach raise and the new softball stadium announced this week.......

Remember, the athletic department actually makes money for OU.

[BoulderSooner]

Not good timing with the head football coach raise and the new softball stadium announced this week.......

OU athletic dept is not only fully self sufficient. It also gives money back to the university every year

In addition t paying for the full cost of tuition for the instate and out of state athletes OU gives 5 plus mil back to the general fund every year.

OU is one of very few schools that operate this way. And the only one in this state.

Osu for instance gets almost 5 mil from the university genera budget. Ie the tax payers of Oklahoma for their sports.

[David]

maybe it's just me... but he throws out the 6% as being a low number... but to me, having debt payments be 6% of your total operating budget seems high to me.

I had the opposite reaction, 6% seems tiny to me.

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^^^
Agreed. That’s why this seemed like a curious kerfuffle to me. Maybe it’s just because they come from different worlds (public service/academia vs publicly traded corporations), but bonding for capital projects is standard in the public sector. Yet Gallogly’s comments read like their house is on fire. I’d have expected these two to be on the same page at least until after the transition.

[Rover]

Getting the capital projects for growth and maintenance funded with bonds at a time of historically low interest rates was very wise. In a couple of years that option likely won’t be there. It’s like locking in your home mortgage with 3.5% rates instead of waiting til they are 7. That debt /interest load would be debilitating if done before or after it was.

[dankrutka]

Also, while K-12 funding cuts have been highlighted, cuts to higher ed have been just as deep and unprecedented. Any financial problems are largely at the feet of tax payers. Of course, you can see why, as their are posters in this thread that seem to neither see any value in education nor the tremendous role they play in the local civic and economic lives of their states and communities.

[Jersey Boss]

I have to believe a review of salaries of professors in excess of $250,000 annually might want to be reviewed. I was absolutely stunned when I saw the list of profs *in one college alone* within OU drawing that kind of money.

Where did you see this list and what specific college were you refering to?

[Jersey Boss]

^^^^^^^^
Agreed. That’s why this seemed like a curious kerfuffle to me. Maybe it’s just because they come from different worlds (public service/academia vs publicly traded corporations), but bonding for capital projects is standard in the public sector. Yet Gallogly’s comments read like their house is on fire. I’d have expected these two to be on the same page at least until after the transition.

Agreed. Seems odd that the "new guy" is slapping D Bo before his desk chair is cool. Unseemly to say the least.

[PhiAlpha]

Agreed. Seems odd that the "new guy" is slapping D Bo before his desk chair is cool. Unseemly to say the least.

I think he’s just identifying a problem and lining it out as something that needs to be fixed. Of course Boren is going to minimize it...it all happened under his watch. At any rate, operating at a $36 million dollar per year deficit isn’t a good thing.

[Pete]

Remember that Boren was specifically excluded from participating in the search for the new president.

Maybe the regents felt this was an area that needed to be addressed.

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^^^
I had that thought too and it is entirely possible. I just thought it was odd for them to put each other on front street so publicly before the transition.

[Jersey Boss]

Do any of the posters know whether or not an ongoing debt of 6% would be part of the oversight of the regents?

[mugofbeer]

Do any of the posters know whether or not an ongoing debt of 6% would be part of the oversight of the regents?

6% is the average interest rate and $1 billion is the indebtedness if I read all this cortectly. Thats $6 million of interest annually. I assume the other $30 million is debt reduction. I would have to think the OU Regents indirectly oversee all of this while the University has financial people (or hire out under contract) who do the macro cash management. The Regents should be fully aware of the situation and get at-least quarterly updates.

[Midtowner]

Remember, the athletic department actually makes money for OU.

It amazes me every time I see someone who doesn't know this. These facts are constantly offered in the media.. or you could Google them...

[mugofbeer]

Does anyone know if the school gets all the students it wants or is there room for more?

[Pete]

6% is the average interest rate and $1 billion is the indebtedness if I read all this cortectly. Thats $6 million of interest annually. I assume the other $30 million is debt reduction. I would have to think the OU Regents indirectly oversee all of this while the University has financial people (or hire out under contract) who do the macro cash management. The Regents should be fully aware of the situation and get at-least quarterly updates.

From that article:

"Total debt is almost $1 billion at our Norman campus,” said Jim Gallogly, who becomes OU's 14th president July 1. Debt service costs are almost $70 million a year, he said.

With the $70 million in annual debt service, it caused the unversity's net income to be a negative $36 million last year.


Also, 6% on $1 billion is $60 million not $6 million.

[ditm4567]

As a recent graduate of OU there are a few things that I would love to address that President Designate Gallogly pointed out. First, I do not know how many of you all that are on this thread have actually been inside the buildings on the Norman campus recently, but many are extremely outdated. Yes, the outsides of most are beautiful (because that's all that OU has paid to be kept up for appearance purposes) but the insides of most haven't been touched since they were built. Many of the classrooms do not have functioning A/C, and the blinds are either nonexistent or are broken and barely hanging from the walls. Many classrooms do not even have an HDMI port that can connect laptops to projectors. Second, the sad fact that the building named after him might not have enough funding to be finished is a horrible look for the university and how Boren left it. Third, kudos to Gallogly for not simply just increasing tuition and putting the burden on the students shoulders (I saw in-state tuition increase 19.1% over the last four years). Many students are already taking out federal loans to pay tuition (36% of incoming freshman). And fourth, I would love to know what the University was thinking in continuing to build student living. The newest dorms, Cross Neighborhood, are just 26% leased for the upcoming year.

Just throwing out some thoughts from a recent graduate.

[Thomas Vu]

It's been a little over 5 years since I've attended OU. To hear that the physical science building and dale are more likely more run down than when I left is sad to hear.

[ultimatesooner]

Boren's response,

https://newsok.com/article/5598772/u...c-universities

he's part of the swamp

[ultimatesooner]

Also, while K-12 funding cuts have been highlighted, cuts to higher ed have been just as deep and unprecedented. Any financial problems are largely at the feet of tax payers. Of course, you can see why, as their are posters in this thread that seem to neither see any value in education nor the tremendous role they play in the local civic and economic lives of their states and communities.

Education is valuable but OU already gets plenty of tax $$, the problem is Boren and his wife spending as much as they possibly can on every construction project/marketing campaign so they have a bunch of pretty pictures to show off what "they did"

he should have ran the place on a balanced budget like the rest of us in the the real world have to live on

[FighttheGoodFight]

It's been a little over 5 years since I've attended OU. To hear that the physical science building and dale are more likely more run down than when I left is sad to hear.

It has to do a lot with ADA code. When they update they have to meet the new code requirements. Redoing Dale Hall will lose half the seats if they do. Thats why they wait.

[Rover]

Education is valuable but OU already gets plenty of tax $$, the problem is Boren and his wife spending as much as they possibly can on every construction project/marketing campaign so they have a bunch of pretty pictures to show off what "they did"

Absurd comment from a Boren hater.

[PhiAlpha]

Absurd comment from a Boren hater.

Yeah I would definitely be considered a Boren hater but his take is extreme for sure. I would've liked for the Borens to do a better job of managing the finances for all the projects and their ongoing maintenance and operation, but it's really tough to knock the job that did transforming the campus. There are definitely gaps and buildings that still need work but overall the Borens did a hell of a job building up the campus. Now it's Galogly's job to continue that and seek out new revenue streams to pay down the debt.

[PhiAlpha]

It amazes me every time I see someone who doesn't know this. These facts are constantly offered in the media.. or you could Google them...

Yes this is really annoying. At any rate, I would say that OU gets a pretty great return on investment for every dollar they pay a successful head football coach. The athletic program is immensely more profitable when the football team is competing for national championships, completing 10 wins seasons, and getting tons of national exposure. It provides funding for the rest of the sports and the university. Additionally, a strong athletic program that is constantly in the national spotlight is a great recruiting tool not only for athletes but non-athletes as well.

[aDark]

Yeah I would definitely be considered a Boren hater...

An SAE who hates Boren? No way! /s