Unconquered

Not exactly a logical decision when both athletics and academics are in a deficit. Your choice though. I'm sure I and any other student who benefited from the the gift that the boosters give to academics annually are thankful.

Academics should not get any money donated to Boosters. If academics needs money they need to do a better job of fundraising. So atheltics is short 2+ million this year and Boosters is forced to give 2.6 million to academics. Well there is your shortfall.

People donate to boosters to make the sports teams better, not for some random professor to get a raise. Each part of the university needs to be accountable for itself and not rely on Boosters to foot the bill.

If FSU and Boosters were so short on money, i surely hope we would not move forward with certain projects right now. I have to believe that the people running Boosters, especially, know whats going on financially and feel ok about it.

I think this is some posturing by Spetman to increase donations and shine more light on the state cuts to FSU's overall budget which affects all aspects of the university. Smart people know athletics drives the engine at FSU and if people are mad that athletics are being hurt by state cuts, more will step with donations and political pressure.

I've been out of town here and there, so maybe I missed this, but whatever happened with the practice field fiasco?

Actually people donate for various reasons. Your statement is just flat out wrong.
I think your are right about the posturing to encourage people to buy tickets and donate more.

"Academics" has done this to themselves largely. USF has(d) 219, or some such ridiculous #, of degree awarding programs w/ a $3 billion per year operating budget. Are you kidding me? No way that is sustainable, and what the hell does any one university do w/ 219 programs? Not to mention it isn't exactly a secret anymore that "academics" is little more than left-wing indoctrination. And people (i.e. the ones who fund these bloated universities) aren't buying it. Hence the donations are drying up. This is a good thing to me.

Take myself: Proud FSU alum, donated (notice the past tense) to the school even though I didn't agree w/ all the leftists that made a living in part to my help, but I did b/c I love FSU. Not anymore. Ever. Why? B/c I got to see that scumbag TK prancing around w/ a "Noles for Obama" button and that hoodlum William Ayers came on campus (this the same terrorist that said 25 million Americans will need liquidating b/c we won't buy into their Marxist model) to speak. Screw them and if they go bankrupt all the better. Then they will get a good dose of what true economics is all about. BTW FSU's Economics dept. (who the Koch brothers support and had John Stossel by recently) is rather conservative, and is doing well. Wonder why?

No, it's time these little islands of indoctrination got their come uppance. Way past time actually.

Good grief. "Academics" is little more than left-wing indoctrination? Donations are drying up because of this?

You have no idea what you're talking about. The financial issues faced by the State system in Florida relate to a lot of factors, and have little to nothing to do with fanatics like yourself pulling donations. The state of Florida has long relied on tourism dollars and new residential growth for state funding. Both have dwindled significantly post crash. Secondly universities took major hits on their endowment during the crash along with everyone else invested in the market. Thirdly, with interest rates being so low, universities (like everyone else) aren't getting as much of a return on their endowments. 6 years ago what were money market funds getting? 5%? Now you are looking at .75%. When you have an endowment of $500 million+ that is quite a bit less for operating funds yearly.

Keep your fanatical rantings off this board. You can always go to the off topic board or congregate with other like minded people.

Typical. How about you pay my sub then you may dictate where, when, and what I post about. Until then? Hug a nut. But you're right, FSU, and other universities everywhere, turning their back on the alumni who are out in the real, not theoretical, world has nothing to do w/ their funding drying up. Nope not a thing. What you stated about the market definitely plays a role as well, but it's not the only thing. People are fed up w/ what constitutes an "education" these days and those that proclaim themselves to be educators who couldn't function outside of their leftist fantasy islands w/ their captive audiences.

This is what happens when you (in this case higher education) market a worthless commodity. It's value is greatly diminished due to it's purchasing power. A 4 yr degree in any liberal arts field and most others is largely worthless. Why? B/c there are so many due to this false belief, fostered in large part by the universities so they can make revenue, that everyone is due a college education. What we are now seeing is little more than a market correction. In the long run this is a good thing.