Article on President Weiss in the NY Times

rob0597 · Joined: 05 Sep 2009 Posts: 2

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05...scp=1&sq=lafayette&st=cse

With the whole fraternity situation, raising tuition, signing that stupid us news petition, Weiss is single handily destroying this school

Lafalum · Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 843

Its not single handedly, all these things would not and could not be done without the encouragement and support of a BOT that has demonstrated it has lost touch with the real world and incompetently managed the affairs of our institution for the last 25 years!! This was not a flattering article at all!!

Pard4Life · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 300

The first few paragraphs were particularly embarrasing. Of course, no mention of the role of executive board leadership and investment management practices... which is the root CAUSE of the messes highlighted in the article.

rob0597 · Joined: 05 Sep 2009 Posts: 2

Weiss doesnt realize the two main reasons people choose a school are the academics and social life. In his tenure he has been a main reason for both declining and with tuition reaching around 50k, why would kids choose lafayette?

Lafalum · Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 843

Wies is letting himself be a tool. He follows a string of presidents who followed a BOT that destained sports, raised turition, cut offerings by reducing requirements, reduced teaching time,raised administrative salaries, added uneeded deans, financed by large campaigns and high risk investment policies directed by friends of the chairman of the BOT that allowed them to spend money they didn't really have while they liquidated the liquid assets and were forced to keep the illiquid ones.
That in a nutshell is the problem which to give Weis some credit he admits to 50 pct of. Yes we are at a crossroad.
To fix it we need to give up on being Williams and be ourselves. We would need their endowment and that is not happeniing. Start growing the school and reasses a strategic plan that promises more and will not have the fuel to do it. Redirect resource to accomplish that rather than to diversity deans and related consultants. Accept the fact that there is al limited number of high quality full pay applicants in our pool and concentrate on balancing our fiscal needs with reality. Stop alienating giving generous alumni by bashing and elimating their connectins with the school. This will reqire a complete change in board leadership since the problem runs 30 years deep and it tends to replicate itself from administration to adnministration.

Franks Tanks · Joined: 23 Mar 2007 Posts: 532

Wow what was that??

Yes Lafayette doesnt have the name rec of the Ivies or top 10 liberal arts colleges, but Lafayette is still a top liberal arts school- this guy just dismisses that fact in order to make his pre-concieved point.

I understand his point about the cost/benefit of truly non-elite LAC's, but sorry I dont think Lafayetet fits into that category. Schools like Moravian, Albright, Wilkes and Lebanon Valley may be better examples of this scenario. Good schools that attract solid students, but also expensive and not-elite level.

Lafalum · Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 843

I think the point is Frank, that at 50k, and a declining revenue stream a school of 2300 that uses 40 pct of it's revenue just to give aid doesn't work. You have to do something different because we are at a crossroads.
I think his point is well taken, and Weis seems to agree, but reading his response to the article on the Lafayette web site indicates to me he is unwilling to do what is necessary and defends the indefensible (which is the status quo)
Can we really afford to give full sabaticals every six years, can we afford a ramping up of intensive majors like music ( with its one on one teaching demands), do we really need the large staff of deans and asst deans in school that hasn't grown in 30 years.
This strategic plan is dead and we need to grow to do the things we need to do to attract and retain students that fall into our applicant pool. We should start doing that now or will be more like Moravian and Albright than a Colgate, William and Mary, and Richmond.

Franks Tanks · Joined: 23 Mar 2007 Posts: 532

Lafalum · Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 843

The schools that we view as our peers (colgate,bucknell, W and M etc) have already done it. They are not 2300 and even Colgate I am told by a very senior person there, is planning to grow ( they are already about 2800)
Our problem is that we depend on our endowment for 30 pct of our revenues, Lehigh is closer to 10 pct. Colgate is lower and so on. When we lost 20 or 25 % it is more significant for us. We should have not been 50 pct in alternative investments and someone should pay the price. In this enviroment it will be difficult to get us to an endowment that fits the current strategic plan. ( I have been told the plan requires an endowment of about 1.2 billion, but that included rises in tuition which are not wise or posible in my opinion)

TheTruth · Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 485