(11-02-2022 04:19 PM)army56mike Wrote:  I would add these sports…..

NCAA
Beach Volleyball (M/W)
Bowling (M/W)
Equestrian (W)
ESports (M/W)
Fencing (M/W)
Golf (W)
Gymnastics (W)
Ice Hockey (M/W)
Lacrosse (M)
Rifle (M/W)
Rowing (W)
Swimming & Diving (M)
CLUB
Bass Fishing (M/W)
Stock Car Racing (M/W)

YES!!! I would bankrupt the school!!!

We do need to spend money on the school for tax purposes, so it's not that far fetched. One thing I hope the new leadership consider is establishing a booster but create a system to manage the power that donors have on decision making. We have about 21 sports in D1, the max I would consider is about 25-27 sports for the athletic department. I have mentioned what should be added which could bring more talented athletes who are believers to attend our school while using their abilities for the kingdom of God. At least those additional programs that I have mentioned could get our schools positive attention and athletes have the opportunity to continue their stride professionally nationwide plus internationally. There's some others that you mentioned that could be good too, especially since they have expanded that lake by camp hydaway. Imagine if they build some beach front properties up there and an additional mini suburbia/shopping centers to build up the Rustburg area. They can establish fishing [and other water sports] competitions which could bring more people to the region and viewers if a contract with ESPN was made for the summer season (since there's not much on). We can even mix in the Commonwealth games into the contract and promote Wellness for children (LU can boost that later when they build a hospital/medical centers connected with Centra). Just throwing out ideas.

(04-17-2021 07:12 AM)army56mike Wrote:  Build a state of the art smaller intimate outdoor amphtheater into the side of a mountain for outdoor theater productions and student bands to play music at.

That's already in the plans for the mall (River Ridge).

(04-11-2022 05:48 PM)army56mike Wrote:  What is the engineering program like at Liberty?

https://www.liberty.edu/news/2022/07/19/...professor/

(11-22-2021 03:36 PM)army56mike Wrote:  Architecture degrees.

That’s the only thing keeping my youngest son from wanting to go to Liberty.

That hasn't been a big thing in the LYH in a long time. Seem like the interest is coming back slowly in the area, but I don't think the university will add this school at all or at least any time soon.

Update on Liberty's future:

https://www.liberty.edu/champion/2022/12...00-online/

There are folks that believe that this new master plan will take many decades to come into reality. May I remind folks that we have grown largely in a matter of less than two decades. Our recent endowment took about 12-15 years to reach in the billions and will likely double in a decade or so. I believe it's possible to reach 20-25k students residential in a decade and a half. We've stagnated residential admission for too long and need to build as LU did with online(which needs more improved acadoc resources imo). It took about 1.5-2 years to build commons I&II, so it is possible to build that amount of dorms every 2 years or so. Academic buildings should be a major focus for campus expansion along with the resources/professionals needed. As I mentioned before, we have land and resources to gradually expand the campus. We don't need to stack everything on the main campus. The more dorms they build and the better facilities and funding for academia, the more students can come in plus hiring the top Christian researchers/professors around this national and the world. I hope the needed leadership comes in asap along with a more responsible board of trustees.

Was Doc’s vision 50,000 students or 50,000 residential students? Can a university become so big it loses the atmosphere and community that makes it special and unique? I have always thought 20,000 on campus residental students was the number to shoot for. There is a certain amount of intimacy and individual care and attention that goes along with being a Christian university, training champions for Christ. That is difficult to do with an enormous enrollment. It must correspond with added faculty to maintain a manageable student/professor ratio. Growth is good, but can it become too much?

(12-13-2022 11:11 AM)army56mike Wrote:  Was Doc’s vision 50,000 students or 50,000 residential students? Can a university become so big it loses the atmosphere and community that makes it special and unique? I have always thought 20,000 on campus residental students was the number to shoot for. There is a certain amount of intimacy and individual care and attention that goes along with being a Christian university, training champions for Christ. That is difficult to do with an enormous enrollment. It must correspond with added faculty to maintain a manageable student/professor ratio. Growth is good, but can it become too much?

These are good questions to ask on the matter. I believe Sr. was looking more of a growth of residential students on the mountain. Hence the idea of being a ND or BYU who has big residential campus. Is 50k a bit too much? Maybe. I was thinking possibly near 30k-35k. What was the point of getting thousands of acres of land just to have it situated there? I think that our leadership has lost its grip on that part of the vision,but I do hope that the new leadership will be focus on doing so with the new master plan. Why not make the university schools mixed into new and renovated communities? That's what universities used to do (ex:Princeton, Harvard, etc). This would be helpful in bringing in professors,/ professionals and give alumni a better reason to stay around and continue being useful in those communities. We don't have to wait decades or even centuries to do this. If only our leadership was not into settling and continue to be builders, but they are not really like that. They're focused on their assets and status instead of building for a better future in all aspect. All talk with minimal action (typical in comfortable baby boomer generation). This is why Lynchburg has lost it's wealth of the past; Liberty may turn this way for the same reasons with these type of people in leadership. Folks will say that one cannot spend unwillingly, but that's how wealthy universities strategically became who they are. We should want to grow this area with believers and the assets should be used for one another and most importantly sharing the Good News of Christ. We can do that so much more by expanding the campus, it's residents (undergrad, grad, alumni, donor) and the resources (academia research, local/national/international missions, athletics). The first century church(especially) is a great example of what should be done. Faith with out works is dead.

(06-14-2021 07:58 PM)voss749 Wrote:  I think my focus would be the "big picture".

Students and employees are free to support any political candidate or issue consistent with the university's christian mission, the administration as an organization should seek to keep politics at arms length and reassert its spiritual mission.

The university ought to have a spiritual leader who is separate from the people who manage the day to day affairs and the money strictly accounted for.

Valid comment.

I was gonna say I would try and get at least one radio station in every state to carry LU men’s basketball and football games. But then I realized no one really listens to radio anymore, rather they can just stream over the internet.

What would be the best way to get more Liberty sports into mainstream markets, thinking outside the box, beyond LFSN and ESPN/CBSSN?

Is there a way to sponsor a certain amount of tickets to away games to targeted audiences paid for by the university as a way to promote growth and brand name?

I vaguely remember reading a thread on ASOR about this same question. I believe the flames club does put on events for every away football game but im not sure if they provide tickets or anything. For the most part I think they are doing almost everything they can to grow the brand. Unfortunately (for us) there's a lag between success and the perception change that comes with it. If you look at boise state or Gonzaga they had several years worth of great seasons before "mainstream" fans really started to take notice. Fortunately for boise state that lag works both ways, people still look at them as a elite G5 program despite a relative lack of recent success. Liberty has had 3 straight 8+ win seasons but it's going to take a few more years before we start being recognized as an upper tier G5 that casual fans recognize. I think if you ask 100 casual fans what they think of liberty football the majority that know who we are wouldn't realize we've been good since moving up. That's basically a long winded way of saying we just need to keep doing what we're doing and the brand will grow.

To actually answer your question I still think more sports is a solid way to grow the brand and reach different audiences. As I've said before hockey seems like a no brainer. College hockey is niche but has a very passionate fanbase and approximately 25% of teams make the playoffs so it's relatively easy to compete against the big boys on national TV every year. Gymnastics is another one where it's relatively easy to make the post season that's nationally televised which will help reach a different demographic than we normally get with football and basketball. Adding any other sports wouldn't really do much more to grow the brand imo. I'm excited to see how much the brand grows with the significant boost in TV exposure in CUSA.

https://youtu.be/wB8r1Xn-7ro?feature=shared

(08-30-2023 04:22 PM)cruzan_flame13 Wrote:  https://youtu.be/wB8r1Xn-7ro?feature=shared

Great great interview!