David Harris-UNI AD
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That offer was never truly on the table. UNI basketball is still able to schedule without issue, I think it was a much bigger blow to Drake.
I will clarify that in no way do I think David is a bad person and all the personal interactions I've had with him have been very cordial. He's a good guy in the wrong job. It's actually more of an indictment on University leadership and the BOR than it is of David himself.
We've just had several long time volunteers and boosters pull support or stop donating time in the last 6 months. We were seeing noticeable and costly declines in attendance and marketing well before the pandemic began. Long time staff leaving athletics administration altogether and David's hand picked number 2 leaving because he didn't believe that there was enough of a supportive environment for him to get to the point where he could be an AD.
The cherry on top for a lot of UNI people is the current West Gym issue.
I appreciate everyone's input. UNI, at one point, was one of the best mid-major jobs in the country and there's a lot of people that would like to see it back to that level.
We've just had several long time volunteers and boosters pull support or stop donating time in the last 6 months. We were seeing noticeable and costly declines in attendance and marketing well before the pandemic began. Long time staff leaving athletics administration altogether and David's hand picked number 2 leaving because he didn't believe that there was enough of a supportive environment for him to get to the point where he could be an AD.
The cherry on top for a lot of UNI people is the current West Gym issue.
I appreciate everyone's input. UNI, at one point, was one of the best mid-major jobs in the country and there's a lot of people that would like to see it back to that level.
Especially in the 90's.
I think the success and growth of ISU has had sizeable impact on UNI.
UNI doesn't have a David Harris problem, they have a "we need to shrink the athletic department" problem. I'm sorry you can't see the difference but Warren Buffett wouldn't be able to fix UNI's financial problems without making some drastic cuts.
Iowa State's school of business is a big player here.
This also has been a tough time to be an AD regarding having to deal with issues the pandemic has caused.
I'd agree with you if our peers were struggling in the same way. Major capital projects have happened (even during the pandemic) at Illinois State, Indiana State, Murray State, Southern Illinois and especially South Dakota State.
All of them through private money. If that money exists in freaking Murray, Kentucky with UK and Louisville in state, it exists in Iowa.
The South Dakota State projects have been largely funded by Farm Bureau and a wind energy company, again very much like Iowa.
I don't know about the others, but you can't compare yourself to the Dakota schools. Those are the big universities in those states. You know why Farm Bureau and Mid American aren't throwing a bunch of money at UNI in Iowa? Because they get all the advertising they need through supporting ISU and Iowa.
UNI's David Harris named an Athletics Director of the Year
UNI's David Harris named an Athletics Director of the Year | InsideUNI
That's a pretty large fall in enrollment, especially in the last 3 years. How is Iowa State's enrollment over past 10 years?
UNI's Accounting department used to be known for pumping out CPA's. The problem though was that they could do that because they were not accredited and could have CPA Review Courses as part of their Accounting courses. ISU on the other hand was accredited and thus could NOT have CPA Review Courses as part of their Accounting courses. So as an ISU student I had to pay for an outside course to take the CPA Review course and it was another 3 hour class on top of my ISU classes.
Without looking I'm going to say it spiked around 2016 due to Leaths push to increase enrollment and has dropped since then due to different leadership.
Maybe UNI needs to play Iowa and ISU on the road every year or each every other year. Could earn some cash. Just a thought.
why the big drop in enrollment the last three years? Seemed somewhat flat before then.