[Vision2020] Re: Nice Story about Nick Holt

[Donovan Arnold]

Chris Storhok writes, "Dr. Gier's attack on Vandal athletics is perhaps one 
of the poorest
strategies ever used to solve the funding woes of the U. of I." and he 
continued with,

"The real cause of the U of I's funding problems can be traced directly to 
poor government leadership within the state legislature, the governors 
office, and a out of touch and very anti-public education State Board of 
Education."

First off, Dr. Gier was not attacking the Vandal athletics program. I think 
you misunderstand what Dr. Gier was stating or you intentionally are 
misrepresenting his fair-minded and concerned intentions. From my 
perception, Mr. Geir cares very much about the University and has done a 
great deal for it and the teachers and students. Pointing out an error is 
not attacking it to prevent future harm to the University is not attacking 
it.

I doubt Mr. Gier of all people would disagree that the State Legislature and 
Governor are not running an effective government. However, that is only part 
of the financial problems of the University. The other half of the problem 
is the million of dollars lost by the University Administration dumping huge 
amounts of money into programs and projects that they believed would make 
more money based on uninformed decisions using flawed research.

Favoring sound financial decisions through proper research will prevent the 
University from plunging deeper in financial despair. I think everyone would 
like very much to pursue expansions in all areas of the University. But they 
should do so not in a reckless manner that creates financial havoc.

The evidence that going to AI will improve the financial situation of UI is 
shaky at best. I think if the attendance of 12,000-17,000 on average per 
game is needed to make the financial projections necessary to make the 
investment costs of moving to AI worth while we should absolutely not move 
to AI. There is nothing to indicate that on average, 110% of the current 
student population will attend every game. Moscow does not have the 
population base to get to 12,000 on average.  Further, using WSU as a model 
is also evidence that the person(s) doing the research has a poor 
understanding of the University and the surrounding populations.

I think anyone that truly cared about the University would not want its 
limited resources chasing after long-shot dreams of having a great and 
profitable football team. I am all for moving to AI. But not at the expense 
of rest of University. The money and the resources we have should be put 
toward the original intentions of the University, education.

Take Care,

Donovan J Arnold

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