(11-04-2017 07:43 PM)Hallcity Wrote: Good. There's no justification for college athletics if it doesn't contribute to a school's academic mission.
I don't know if this is a promising article. It reveals that the school has been, and is, operating at a deficit. Tuition revenue only went up because scholarships and financial aid was reduced. That is not a good way for that to happen. There is nothing unusually high about its capital budget compared to peer schools.
Momentum, as is claimed in this fan blog site article, needs to be look at over longer periods since things fluctuate from year-to-year. Louisville's institutional momentum over the past ~10 years:
Financial:
Since 2014, UL's credit rating has been downgraded twice by Moody's and this October it was placed under review for another possible downgrade.
In 2016, Louisville's endowment is at $0.716 billion which is ranked 131st by NACUBO. That is up from $0.680 billion in 2006, a 5.3% increase in value, but not enough enough to keep its endowment rank from dropping from 91st (or -40 slots since 2006). Annual giving at Louisville has increased from 2006 to 2014 from $61.1 to $85.1 million a year (in 2014 dollars), but its rank among peers has decrease over that same period from 90th to 92nd.
The earliest financial report numbers available on their website was 2011 and that report showed assets of $1.282 billion (or $1.389 billion if adjusted for inflation). That compares to $1.285 billion in 2017. Likewise, the net position has decreased from $0.806 billion in 2011 (inflation adjusted to $0.873b) to $0.748 billion in 2017.
Conclusion: UL institutional financial standing is worse than 6 to 10 years ago.
Research:
NSF's rankings of total R&D expenditures showing $148 million ($174m inflation adjusted) and ranking 106th in 2006 (the earliest year on their table) to $180 million and ranking 107th in 2015 (the most recent year).
In the all important federal obligations for R&D, indicative of successfully navigating peer review to obtain the most competitive extramural funds, UL has gone from $63.6million ($74.6 inflation adjusted) and 112th in 2006 to $59.6 million and 120th in 2015.
Faculty that are members of the National Academy at Louisville remained at 2 between 2006 and 2014, although UL's rank among peers dropped from 123rd to 140th. Faculty that won major awards (such as Guggenheim, MacArthur, and Fulbrights) dropped during the same period from 6 to 3, while UL's ranking dropped from 96th to 153rd.
The number of graduate students has increased from 124 in 2006 to 134 in 2015, but UL's rank among peers has decreased from 121st to 134th. Likewise, earned doctorates at UL have increased from 135 in 2006 to 161 in 2015, but UL's rank has also fallen from 108th in 2006 to 113th in 2015. Between 2006 and 2013, the number of Postdocs at UL has decreased from 148 to 92 with a concurrent decrease in rank from 91st to 128th.
Conclusion: UL's research profile has decreased compared to peer institutions.
In world international academic rankings, that are often heavily research related (and take into account things like publication citation indexes, etc), we have the following changes between the most recent ranking and the ranking either 10 years prior or the otherwise oldest available rank:
ARWU (China) 2017 #601-700; 2007 ranked #403-510
CWTS Leiden (Netherlands) 2017 #419; 2011 #277
CWUR (UAE) 2017 #303; 2014 #322
Nature Index Academic (UK) 2017 #464; 2013 #360
NTU (Taiwan) 2017 #386; 2007 #292
QS (UK) 2017 to 2015 unranked (>1000)
SCImago (Spain) 2017 #528; 2009 #537
THE (UK) 2017 unranked (>1000); 2010 unranked (>200)
URAP (Turkey) 2017 #470; 2010 #311
US News Global (US) 2017 #583; 2014 #481
Conclusion: UL's international reputation has failed to improve or worsened in 8 out of the 10 most influential international rankings.
In US rankings, the differences were:
Wall St Journal/THE 2017 #406; 2016 #359
US News 2017 #165; 2007 #125-190
Forbes 2017 #426; 2007 #400
Washington Monthly 2017 #221; 2011 #146
Conclusion: UL's domestic academic rankings have failed to improve.
Common Data Set numbers:
Fall 2016 Total undergrads 15,827; total all 21,579
Fall 2006 Total undergrads 14,995; total all 20,804
2016 6 year graduation rate: 52.8%; retention rate: 79.7%
2006 6-year graduation rate: 40.6%; retention rate: 78.1%
2016 applications 10,165; admit rate 72.6%; yield 39.1%
2006 applications 6,323; admit rate 70.8%; yield 54.6%
2016 middle 50% SAT CR+M 1000-1250; ACT Composite 22-29; Average GPA 3.60
2006 middle 50% SAT CR+M 1000-1270; ACT Composite 21-27; Average GPA 3.48
2016 % students from out-of-state 18%; 73% freshman on-campus; Student to faculty ratio 15:1; faculty with terminal degree 75.0%
2006 % students from out-of-state 14%; 62% freshman on-campus; Student to faculty ratio 16.5:1; faculty with terminal degree 70.4%
Conclusion: UL has made some progress in attracting better students and graduating students.
There is a lot of work to do. There are no shortcuts through athletics.