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Post by thelasallelunatic on Apr 17, 2024 10:43:10 GMT -5
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Post by lasallejohn on Apr 17, 2024 10:57:34 GMT -5
I think we can agree it’s nice to finally have some true leadership.
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Post by GlitterBro #2 on Apr 17, 2024 22:34:52 GMT -5
This was a scary snippet....
"The fiscal year ending May 31, 2017, was the last time the school operated in the black, a spokesperson said. Since then, it has run deficits.
The school’s $93.7 million operating budget for the current fiscal year included an $11.5 million loss that was lowered to $6.5 million through bond restructuring and draws from reserves, according to a recent bond offering statement."
If a business runs in the red for 7 years, would you invest in that business?
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Post by explorerman on Apr 18, 2024 7:40:53 GMT -5
This was a scary snippet.... "The fiscal year ending May 31, 2017, was the last time the school operated in the black, a spokesperson said. Since then, it has run deficits. The school’s $93.7 million operating budget for the current fiscal year included an $11.5 million loss that was lowered to $6.5 million through bond restructuring and draws from reserves, according to a recent bond offering statement." If a business runs in the red for 7 years, would you invest in that business? I don’t know you could ask about 30% of the NASDAQ or Tesla, who has been running at operating losses for well since the company came to us in the early 2000s |
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Post by GlitterBro #2 on Apr 18, 2024 13:41:37 GMT -5
This was a scary snippet.... "The fiscal year ending May 31, 2017, was the last time the school operated in the black, a spokesperson said. Since then, it has run deficits. The school’s $93.7 million operating budget for the current fiscal year included an $11.5 million loss that was lowered to $6.5 million through bond restructuring and draws from reserves, according to a recent bond offering statement." If a business runs in the red for 7 years, would you invest in that business? I don’t know you could ask about 30% of the NASDAQ or Tesla, who has been running at operating losses for well since the company came to us in the early 2000s id agree with you in the case of disruptive innovation like Tesla where investors are lining up for the high risk high reward. La Salle wasn't disrupting anything though. |
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nealum
Mop-Up Time
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Post by nealum on Apr 18, 2024 19:17:56 GMT -5
I just read the Inquirer article. Wow! It clearly doesn't do LaSalle any favors and will actually discourage new students from enrolling. Students don't want a degree from a school that may not be viable in 5-10 years. The negative stats are staggering. I don't see how the administration, regardless of who's President, can stop the slide. It's not fixable. The school's location, the cost of a private school education and demographics say 'merge' or go under. Combine this with the drop in Christian Brothers available to teach at the college. Historically, Brothers in teaching and admin positions helped to keep payroll costs down. The number of brothers nationally declined by 75% from 1965 to 2017.
The current President is doing the best he can. His message is always positive. I like that. But behind the scenes, he needs a plan B with a more draconian solution.
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Post by thelasallelunatic on Apr 18, 2024 20:18:44 GMT -5
If the city gets cleaned up, and I LOVE what I'm seeing from Mayor Parker, the school will be fine. We just had 8 years of bullshit from a pandering guy pretending to be something that he wasn't, and he let the city go to shit on the meantime. Parker means business. La Salle will be ok.
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Post by belfieldhappyhour on Apr 18, 2024 21:28:53 GMT -5
Can someone post the MSN link for this story? thanks
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Post by big5explorer on Apr 21, 2024 8:13:39 GMT -5
I will preface this by writing that I think the current President has done a nice job trying to turn things around.
In my opinion, Colleen was the worst person at the worst time (Covid, poor financials) for the school. She isn't the only reason for La Salle needing to catch up to other Universities (financially, enrollment, endowment, vision, offerings, marketing). We've had generally poor leadership on all these for 20-25 years. Our last solid Prez may have been Pat Ellis.
Next year, I will have 3 kids at Universities. And we've had the chance to look at nearly 50 schools in the last 5 years. Without a doubt, La Salle has not remained competitive with any of the schools we have visited.
On-campus living: MINUS. Gym facilities, dorms, apartments, food halls are essentially the same as 30 years ago. I also suspect we lag significantly behind with intramural and club-sport offerings, and club offerings in general. The neighborhood is what it is, but I fear that it isn't going to get any better. Can it be overcome? I think so. I reside in the Lehigh Valley, and I continue to be shocked by how many kids up here go to Temple. Our local public school sends at least 20 kids to Temple each year.
Sports Our Flagship sports team, men's basketball, has not only underperformed, but alumni and student enthusiasm for the team is down from what it was 25-30 years ago (which, was sub-par even then). We currently have no band, ticket sales and marketing of the team (until just a few years ago) were terrible. This all despite making the Sweet 16 in 2013.
Last week we visited UConn with my daughter. That school is light-years ahead of La Salle. Our visit to UConn also reaffirmed my conviction that La Salle (under Colleen's leadership, and that of others) has dropped the ball on marketing our flagship team/sport. During a tour of UConn's beautiful biology department, the quite-serious Chair told a lecture hall full of parents and high school seniors that, "This entire building was essentially built by Geno Auriemma. Basketball is responsible for turning this school from an average, nearly unknown school, to the amazing campus and facilities you see today. And today, basketball is the beautiful front-door to a million-dollar house." It may be helpful to know that UConn had 53,000 (yes, thousand, not hundred) applicants for next year's freshman class -- and that was before they repeated as National Champs. The school expects even more next year.
Marketing/Academics:. This is where leadership has been most abysmal for decades (though it seems the current Prez is doing a much better job). Few of us could argue that La Salle's biggest strength always has been academics. For decades, the school was one of a handful of Greater Philadelphia colleges with a direct pathway to medical school. We have a relatively new Science building and Business building. We have, arguably, one of the best undergraduate Communication departments in the country. The Honors Program is on-par with any in the country. We have faculty whose main focus is teaching, not research. Class sizes are small. Access to faculty is easy and encouraged. It remains a liberal arts education. However, for 20-30 years, nearly NONE of that has been marketed. Or, if it was, it wasn't marketed well. Focused University outreach to alumni of the above-mentioned departments has been nearly non-existent. Instead, especially under Colleen's tenure, the marketing focus was to paint La Salle as a Community College version of a Swarthmore -- more Liberal than Liberal Arts.
Alumni Outreach/Endowment:: This could be lumped into Marketing, but for simplicity I will separate it out. I'm not business-savvy enough to understand where La Salle has failed here. But I know, for sure, it has failed with a capital F. Maybe someone with better insight can identify the barriers, but I cannot understand why our endowment lags so far behind similar smaller private schools (St. Joes, Duquesne, etc). We have hundreds, if not thousands, of very financially successful alumni. Hundreds of successful doctors and business people. Political "leaders." Professional athletes. Where are they all?
Identity: .This could be lumped into marketing. Every school we've visited with our kids over the last 5 years has had some unique identity. Some, more than others. Frankly, I don't know what La Salle's identity is today. The school has deviated from its identity as a Catholic school. The marketing hasn't touted us as Catholic. We have not captured as many Philly and Tri-State Catholic High School grads. And the policy and politics (which, I really don't want to get into here) of the school have not identified with that of a Catholic school.
While La Salle does have many obstacles to overcome, the "Marketing" and "Identity" are perhaps the easiest to address and fix. Hopefully in the coming years, under Dan Allen, La Salle is able to rebound.
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Post by diehardexplorer on Apr 21, 2024 9:05:37 GMT -5
i hope no prospective students come on this board after reading a couple of these posts. i realize that la salle needs to fix a lot of things, and maybe it's me, but imo, the trashing of the school on here is over the top. the new president and ad are making strides. let's give them a chance to fix things and scale back on the negatives.
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Post by big5explorer on Apr 21, 2024 9:12:45 GMT -5
i hope no prospective students come on this board after reading a couple of these posts. i realize that la salle needs to fix a lot of things, and maybe it's me, but imo, the trashing of the school on here is over the top. the new president and ad are making strides. let's give them a chance to fix things and scale back on the negatives. Who is "trashing the school?" To fix problems they need to be identified. Can't fix an issue unless an issue is identified. I can provide numerous examples where the University has failed to identify problems over the last 2 decades. Over 99% of prospective applicants are not reading this thread. But some in the La Salle administration might. Hopefully, they recognize the constructive criticism (and some of the suggestions/fixes). |
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Post by las71 on Apr 21, 2024 9:34:08 GMT -5
i hope no prospective students come on this board after reading a couple of these posts. i realize that la salle needs to fix a lot of things, and maybe it's me, but imo, the trashing of the school on here is over the top. the new president and ad are making strides. let's give them a chance to fix things and scale back on the negatives. Who is "trashing the school?" To fix problems they need to be identified. Can't fix an issue unless an issue is identified. I can guarantee over 99% of prospective applicants are not reading this thread. But some in the La Salle administration might. Hopefully, they recognize to the constructive criticism (and some of the suggestions/fixes). If the current administration has to read this board to identify our problems and find the fixes, we might as well close now. I'm sure the criticisms are well known to those charged with turning the school around. As you note, the school has been negligent for more than a generation in responding to a changing demographic but it seems that we now have an energetic and engaged President and Athletic Director. If any of us have any suggestions to make, email addresses for each are posted on our website. Posting criticisms on this site doesn't seem particularly effective and while some of us may need to vent, that too can be done by direct communication with the proper party. Maybe it's time for us to recognize that changes are coming and to get on the bandwagon. Go 'splorers! |
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Post by explorer88 on Apr 21, 2024 9:58:58 GMT -5
My concern would be how long before Allen and Puri find greener pastures?
Can we keep them long enough to have them make the changes needed to sustain La Salle in the future?
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Post by diehardexplorer on Apr 21, 2024 11:02:51 GMT -5
i hope no prospective students come on this board after reading a couple of these posts. i realize that la salle needs to fix a lot of things, and maybe it's me, but imo, the trashing of the school on here is over the top. the new president and ad are making strides. let's give them a chance to fix things and scale back on the negatives. Who is "trashing the school?" To fix problems they need to be identified. Can't fix an issue unless an issue is identified. I can provide numerous examples where the University has failed to identify problems over the last 2 decades. Over 99% of prospective applicants are not reading this thread. But some in the La Salle administration might. Hopefully, they recognize the constructive criticism (and some of the suggestions/fixes). so you think posting them on a messageboard will help the school identify the problems? how about writing a letter to dan allen with your thoughts. |
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Post by big5explorer on Apr 21, 2024 11:30:02 GMT -5
Who is "trashing the school?" To fix problems they need to be identified. Can't fix an issue unless an issue is identified. I can provide numerous examples where the University has failed to identify problems over the last 2 decades. Over 99% of prospective applicants are not reading this thread. But some in the La Salle administration might. Hopefully, they recognize the constructive criticism (and some of the suggestions/fixes). so you think posting them on a messageboard will help the school identify the problems? how about writing a letter to dan allen with your thoughts. I have engaged with the school in many ways previously. These include phone calls, emails, and in-person conversations. Years ago I hosted an alumni get-together in an effort to get a regional alumni group off the ground in my area, with very little support from the University. All have been mostly unproductive. My above post was primarily for discussion, and not intended as a letter to the administration. But if it is viewed by administrators I am fine with that. It is not "bashing" the University. If someone disagrees with any of the issues I posted, I'm happy to know what was inaccurate. |
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Post by diehardexplorer on Apr 21, 2024 11:59:24 GMT -5
so you think posting them on a messageboard will help the school identify the problems? how about writing a letter to dan allen with your thoughts. I have engaged with the school in many ways previously. These include phone calls, emails, and in-person conversations. Years ago I hosted an alumni get-together in an effort to get a regional alumni group off the ground in my area, with very little support from the University. All have been mostly unproductive. My above post was primarily for discussion, and not intended as a letter to the administration. But if it is viewed by administrators I am fine with that. It is not "bashing" the University. If someone disagrees with any of the issues I posted, I'm happy to know what was inaccurate. i never said any of it was inaccurate, and this will be my last comment, but have any of your engagements with the school and its administration that you mentioned been since dr allen has taken over? if it hasn't, maybe people should try again. everyone on here knows what a disaster colleen was. and i'm sorry, you did do some bashing of the school, but i never said it wasn't deserved. my question was is this the right place to do it. fire away again if you want. |
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louth
Utility Bench Player
Posts: 127
Likes: 328
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Post by louth on Apr 21, 2024 20:13:14 GMT -5
I will preface this by writing that I think the current President has done a nice job trying to turn things around. In my opinion, Colleen was the worst person at the worst time (Covid, poor financials) for the school. She isn't the only reason for La Salle needing to catch up to other Universities (financially, enrollment, endowment, vision, offerings, marketing). We've had generally poor leadership on all these for 20-25 years. Our last solid Prez may have been Pat Ellis. Next year, I will have 3 kids at Universities. And we've had the chance to look at nearly 50 schools in the last 5 years. Without a doubt, La Salle has not remained competitive with any of the schools we have visited. On-campus living: MINUS. Gym facilities, dorms, apartments, food halls are essentially the same as 30 years ago. I also suspect we lag significantly behind with intramural and club-sport offerings, and club offerings in general. The neighborhood is what it is, but I fear that it isn't going to get any better. Can it be overcome? I think so. I reside in the Lehigh Valley, and I continue to be shocked by how many kids up here go to Temple. Our local public school sends at least 20 kids to Temple each year. Sports Our Flagship sports team, men's basketball, has not only underperformed, but alumni and student enthusiasm for the team is down from what it was 25-30 years ago (which, was sub-par even then). We currently have no band, ticket sales and marketing of the team (until just a few years ago) were terrible. This all despite making the Sweet 16 in 2013. Last week we visited UConn with my daughter. That school is light-years ahead of La Salle. Our visit to UConn also reaffirmed my conviction that La Salle (under Colleen's leadership, and that of others) has dropped the ball on marketing our flagship team/sport. During a tour of UConn's beautiful biology department, the quite-serious Chair told a lecture hall full of parents and high school seniors that, "This entire building was essentially built by Geno Auriemma. Basketball is responsible for turning this school from an average, nearly unknown school, to the amazing campus and facilities you see today. And today, basketball is the beautiful front-door to a million-dollar house." It may be helpful to know that UConn had 53,000 (yes, thousand, not hundred) applicants for next year's freshman class -- and that was before they repeated as National Champs. The school expects even more next year. Marketing/Academics:. This is where leadership has been most abysmal for decades (though it seems the current Prez is doing a much better job). Few of us could argue that La Salle's biggest strength always has been academics. For decades, the school was one of a handful of Greater Philadelphia colleges with a direct pathway to medical school. We have a relatively new Science building and Business building. We have, arguably, one of the best undergraduate Communication departments in the country. The Honors Program is on-par with any in the country. We have faculty whose main focus is teaching, not research. Class sizes are small. Access to faculty is easy and encouraged. It remains a liberal arts education. However, for 20-30 years, nearly NONE of that has been marketed. Or, if it was, it wasn't marketed well. Focused University outreach to alumni of the above-mentioned departments has been nearly non-existent. Instead, especially under Colleen's tenure, the marketing focus was to paint La Salle as a Community College version of a Swarthmore -- more Liberal than Liberal Arts. Alumni Outreach/Endowment:: This could be lumped into Marketing, but for simplicity I will separate it out. I'm not business-savvy enough to understand where La Salle has failed here. But I know, for sure, it has failed with a capital F. Maybe someone with better insight can identify the barriers, but I cannot understand why our endowment lags so far behind similar smaller private schools (St. Joes, Duquesne, etc). We have hundreds, if not thousands, of very financially successful alumni. Hundreds of successful doctors and business people. Political "leaders." Professional athletes. Where are they all? Identity: .This could be lumped into marketing. Every school we've visited with our kids over the last 5 years has had some unique identity. Some, more than others. Frankly, I don't know what La Salle's identity is today. The school has deviated from its identity as a Catholic school. The marketing hasn't touted us as Catholic. We have not captured as many Philly and Tri-State Catholic High School grads. And the policy and politics (which, I really don't want to get into here) of the school have not identified with that of a Catholic school. While La Salle does have many obstacles to overcome, the "Marketing" and "Identity" are perhaps the easiest to address and fix. Hopefully in the coming years, under Dan Allen, La Salle is able to rebound. |
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Apr 22, 2024 6:48:04 GMT -5
This conversation has been fine so far and I’m not going to move it, but please tread lightly and let’s not go to town with the vitriol. Thanks.
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Post by belfieldhappyhour on Apr 22, 2024 18:48:55 GMT -5
We have not captured as many Philly and Tri-State Catholic High School grads. On this point, a classmate of mine has a daughter who is a HS senior, ranked very high in her class. My buddy, and his wife, are both La Salle alums. Their daughter went to a summer program at La Salle last year. She was contacted ZERO times about possibly attending the school next year. She may have gone somewhere else anyway, but they were befuddled that no contact was made at all. And the professor that oversaw the program taught my friend. Very odd they didn't even try to recruit her. |
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louth
Utility Bench Player
Posts: 127
Likes: 328
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Post by louth on Apr 23, 2024 12:08:47 GMT -5
Belfield, In my experience dating back to the eighties, I am in agreement on lack of follow up at La Salle. From a personal perspective, my son was an all state track and cross country performer from a private school with decent scores and grades and wanted to go to La Salle. He heard from no one, and I as a donor decided to take the bull by the horns. I personally went to AD, track coach, admissions director and finally the president. They all sheepishly couldn’t come up with an answer. My son finally was admitted after these personal efforts. Today, in my thinking not much has changed and probably is the reason the school is in such a precarious state, no one gives a sh.t, just collect a paycheck. I have supported save the school campaigns previously, my parish elementary school, my high school, and my wife’s college alma mater, they all failed and closed. La Salle may be on a precipice now, and I am weighing whether or not my future estate contributions could be better spent.
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Post by explorerburger on Apr 23, 2024 14:26:15 GMT -5
While I have to admit that Brother Pat was the last "successful" president of La Salle, I also feel the need to say that he was administering during a much simpler time for academia. It might as well have been a light year away from the needs of this era and the changing landscapes of the past 25 years. His successors have successfully polished his halo just by being there, but we will simply never know what would have happened if he'd stuck it out another 6-7 years instead of moving on to bigger things at Catholic U (where we was decidedly less popular). In my opinion, his immediate successor, Brother Joe, was exceptionally underachieving and although I loved him as a professor, Brother Mike never really initiated a pivot towards the modern university era. I cannot emphasize enough how much of a hole that put us in. We needed transformative leaders much, much earlier. By the time Colleen took the helm, we were already in so much trouble. I will preface this by writing that I think the current President has done a nice job trying to turn things around. In my opinion, Colleen was the worst person at the worst time (Covid, poor financials) for the school. She isn't the only reason for La Salle needing to catch up to other Universities (financially, enrollment, endowment, vision, offerings, marketing). We've had generally poor leadership on all these for 20-25 years. Our last solid Prez may have been Pat Ellis. Next year, I will have 3 kids at Universities. And we've had the chance to look at nearly 50 schools in the last 5 years. Without a doubt, La Salle has not remained competitive with any of the schools we have visited. On-campus living: MINUS. Gym facilities, dorms, apartments, food halls are essentially the same as 30 years ago. I also suspect we lag significantly behind with intramural and club-sport offerings, and club offerings in general. The neighborhood is what it is, but I fear that it isn't going to get any better. Can it be overcome? I think so. I reside in the Lehigh Valley, and I continue to be shocked by how many kids up here go to Temple. Our local public school sends at least 20 kids to Temple each year. Sports Our Flagship sports team, men's basketball, has not only underperformed, but alumni and student enthusiasm for the team is down from what it was 25-30 years ago (which, was sub-par even then). We currently have no band, ticket sales and marketing of the team (until just a few years ago) were terrible. This all despite making the Sweet 16 in 2013. Last week we visited UConn with my daughter. That school is light-years ahead of La Salle. Our visit to UConn also reaffirmed my conviction that La Salle (under Colleen's leadership, and that of others) has dropped the ball on marketing our flagship team/sport. During a tour of UConn's beautiful biology department, the quite-serious Chair told a lecture hall full of parents and high school seniors that, "This entire building was essentially built by Geno Auriemma. Basketball is responsible for turning this school from an average, nearly unknown school, to the amazing campus and facilities you see today. And today, basketball is the beautiful front-door to a million-dollar house." It may be helpful to know that UConn had 53,000 (yes, thousand, not hundred) applicants for next year's freshman class -- and that was before they repeated as National Champs. The school expects even more next year. Marketing/Academics:. This is where leadership has been most abysmal for decades (though it seems the current Prez is doing a much better job). Few of us could argue that La Salle's biggest strength always has been academics. For decades, the school was one of a handful of Greater Philadelphia colleges with a direct pathway to medical school. We have a relatively new Science building and Business building. We have, arguably, one of the best undergraduate Communication departments in the country. The Honors Program is on-par with any in the country. We have faculty whose main focus is teaching, not research. Class sizes are small. Access to faculty is easy and encouraged. It remains a liberal arts education. However, for 20-30 years, nearly NONE of that has been marketed. Or, if it was, it wasn't marketed well. Focused University outreach to alumni of the above-mentioned departments has been nearly non-existent. Instead, especially under Colleen's tenure, the marketing focus was to paint La Salle as a Community College version of a Swarthmore -- more Liberal than Liberal Arts. Alumni Outreach/Endowment:: This could be lumped into Marketing, but for simplicity I will separate it out. I'm not business-savvy enough to understand where La Salle has failed here. But I know, for sure, it has failed with a capital F. Maybe someone with better insight can identify the barriers, but I cannot understand why our endowment lags so far behind similar smaller private schools (St. Joes, Duquesne, etc). We have hundreds, if not thousands, of very financially successful alumni. Hundreds of successful doctors and business people. Political "leaders." Professional athletes. Where are they all? Identity: .This could be lumped into marketing. Every school we've visited with our kids over the last 5 years has had some unique identity. Some, more than others. Frankly, I don't know what La Salle's identity is today. The school has deviated from its identity as a Catholic school. The marketing hasn't touted us as Catholic. We have not captured as many Philly and Tri-State Catholic High School grads. And the policy and politics (which, I really don't want to get into here) of the school have not identified with that of a Catholic school. While La Salle does have many obstacles to overcome, the "Marketing" and "Identity" are perhaps the easiest to address and fix. Hopefully in the coming years, under Dan Allen, La Salle is able to rebound. |
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