Focus on Finance Women's Ice Hockey & Wrestling NCAA-Bound
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The Magazine of Cornell Sports S pring 2011 Focus on Finance pages 2-3 Women’s WOMEN’S LACROSSE Ice Hockey Hunt for Ivy Title & Wrestling NCAA-Bound MEN’S LACROSSE The DeLuca Era Begins TRACK & FIELD Heps Ambitions BASEBALL and SOFTBALL Diamond-Tough Focus On Finances Financial Aid Policy a Hit in Year One of Implementation! By J. Andrew Noel, Jr. The Meakem ◆ Smith Director of Athletics and Physical Education his past fall, Cornell University initiated a financial shows on the scoreboard and in the final team standings. aid program for all undergraduate applicants that Other programs that have already experienced greater enabled admissible students who were offered a Spirit! is published regularly by the success in recruiting during the first year of the new more generous financial aid package from another Cornell University, Department of financial aid program are women’s track, men’s and Athletics and Physical Education. | TIvy League school to receive an equal package from Cornell. women’s basketball, men’s and women’s ice hockey, men’s Publisher: J. Andrew Noel, Jr., Director This program allows admitted applicants to select their lacrosse, wrestling, and baseball. Many other teams also of Athletics | Editor: Kathleen Bolton | school of choice without regard to financial considerations. Designer: Julie Manners | Contributing benefited from the new program and are likely to be Writers: Amy Meldrim Foster ’95, John Football is a prime example of the positive impact impacted more in year No. 2. Webster | Photographers: Russ Hartung, the new financial aid program has had on recruiting I expect this terrific and necessary program to impact Tim McKinney; Patrick Shanahan, scholarship-level student athletes. Head football coach approximately 35% to 40% of the 222 recruited student Athletic Communications; Maple Leaf Kent Austin was able to attract to Cornell eight of the ten Photo; University Archive; University athletes we are able to matriculate each year under Ivy top candidates who had been heavily recruited by one or Photo Service; Darl Zehr | Editorial League rules. Since the results of our financial aid program more of the Ivy triumvirate: Harvard, Yale and Princeton Advisory Board: Jeremy Hartigan, Julie for regular decision candidates won’t be finalized or official Greco, Dave Wohlhueter and Kevin (HYP). These financial aid packages were based on need until late May, I have studied the priority lists for each Zeise | Address: Teagle Hall, Campus but, as you may recall, HYP in particular are able to use a sport and the data from our “early decision” admissions Road, Ithaca, NY 14853-6501 | more liberal “needs analysis formula” based on their larger program to estimate the impact on our recruiting efforts. Phone: 607 254-8706 | Fax: 607 endowments and smaller student bodies. Other Ivy schools 255-9791 | E-mail: spirit-news@cornell. Now, we must garner the support of alumni and friends to edu | Web: www.CornellBigRed.com have become increasingly aggressive in their financial aid packaging in order to compete with HYP as well. help fund this bold program that is serving all Cornell students including student athletes. I ask you to support Coach Austin stated to a group of football alumni at a recent (cover) Libby Johnson ’11 this new initiative. President Skorton, his senior staff, and gathering that he would not have been able to matriculate (lacrosse) ✦ Chelsea Karpenko our Board of Trustees have answered our call in the ’12 (hockey) ✦ wrestling photos 20 of his 26 top candidates without the ability to match the affirmative! Thank goodness! from left to right: Mack Lewnes most generous financial aid packages offered within the Ivy ’11, Mike Grey ’11, Steve Bosak League. Almost all of these candidates were offered full Thank you in advance for your thoughtful consideration ’12, Kyle Dake ’13. athletics scholarships from mid-major Division 1 schools and, and please remember to thank President Skorton for his (above) The Big Red celebrates in one case, a full scholarship from Stanford. Quite frankly, decision to enable applicants to consider the opportunity after an overtime win against HYP and some other Ivy schools have been successfully to attend Cornell with the same financial lens they use for RPI on Feb. 12, 2011. competing for scholarship athletes for many years and it the other Ivy schools. It makes all the difference. 2 A&PE Launches Athletics Initiative Program to Support Self-Funded Sports By John Webster Director for Alumni Affairs & Development for Athletics he challenging financial climate of the past few years has led to a decline in the value of Cornell’s endowment, as Increase Expected well as a more conservative approach to payout. As many Self-Funded Current over Goal in Program Goal 5 years FY 2015 * of you know, the Department of Athletics & Physical TEducation has not been immune to these forces. Sprint Football $91,135 $79,080 $154,399 A&PE has been fortunate to benefit from many gifts over time Baseball $164,671 $93,649 $239,590 from our generous benefactors, who have funded specific long- Golf $38,266 $8,220 $44,842 term investment pools (endowments) for sports and programs of interest to them. As a result, A&PE “owns” shares in the university’s LW Rowing $45,000 $57,506 $91,081 overall endowment fund that have a current market value of M Tennis $69,534 $27,644 $91,649 approximately $86.3 million. Due to market fluctuations and the M/W Polo $87,932 $36,343 $117,006 global fiscal crisis, the market value of our department shares peaked at about $107 million in FY 2008 and bottomed at $71 W Tennis $30,000 $74,553 $89,642 million in 2009. M/W Squash $125,000 $91,279 $198,023 Unfortunately, the market value loss has resulted in a $1 million Equestrian $50,000 $109,080 $137,264 decline in annual investment income for the department and has created significant financial challenges for A+PE management. * Current goal has already been assigned 20% of needed increase. To mitigate the effects of these challenges on the students who participate in the myriad of programs and services offered by the endowment payout. The difference becomes their fund-raising target. department, our staff is challenged to do more with less... just like The addition of indirect costs into a team’s budget now means that everyone else around the university and throughout the country! its annual fund-raising goal will increase (see chart above). We’ve reduced our workforce (through lay-offs, attrition and the early-retirement program), streamlined processes, and are full Some of these programs will meet the increased fund-raising participants in President Skorton’s “reimagining Cornell” project. challenge easily. Sprint Football, for example, exceeds its annual fundraising goal every year by more than what they are being Still, challenges remain. All areas of the university have been charged for their indirect costs. The program is fortunate to have required to assist the effort led by David Skorton to eliminate the a very loyal alumni base, and head coach Terry Cullen does an university’s structural deficit ($150M in FY 2009). Our department’s incredible job keeping former players connected to the program. intention has always been to weather financial storms without eliminating any intercollegiate teams. One of the hallmarks of Cornell Other programs face more of a challenge. Women’s Equestrian, for Athletics is the breadth of its undergraduate program. We believe example, is a young program without a mature alumnae base, and also firmly that Big Red programs build loyalty among athletes to their faces the unique expenses associated with their four-footed athletes. alma mater resulting in a lifelong, mutually beneficial relationship. We have two primary courses of action should a program fail In order to maintain our sport offerings, in a partnership with to meet its new fund-raising targets by FY 2015, both of which university senior staff, the department has launched an effort we hope to avoid: 1) a reduction in allowable expense, primarily to apply indirect costs to our 11 self-funded programs to make through a reduction in scheduled events and travel, or 2) the them fully self sufficient by FY 2015. The objective is to realize elimination of that program. cost-savings of approximately $500K by FY 2015. This action will Our goal over the next five years is to grow our donor base for allow us to maintain our diverse array of varsity sports while also these teams, encourage investment in self-funded program meeting budgetary mandates. endowment funds, and create sport-specific alumni associations. We have calculated the indirect costs associated with all The alumni associations will coordinate events aimed to bring programs and are charging those costs to team and program alumni and parents closer to the programs and encourage them to budgets. Including indirect costs in a program’s budget helps the be involved with fund raising, both through their own giving and department determine the “true cost” of a program. For example, the identification of potential benefactors. We hope that these a program that utilizes the compliance office will now be allocated approaches will help our department stay on track fiscally while a portion of that function’s overall cost. The amount allocated retaining the diversity of our varsity sports programs, which in turn will depend on the size of the program’s budget and the level of will attract the highest caliber of student-athlete to Cornell. service received. If you have any questions about any of this information or Presently, we calculate the self-funded programs’ fund-raising goals suggestions to share, I welcome your phone calls and emails.