Everyone is quick to point out the budget deficit or the med school merger but I'm sorry in terms of the football program these arguments do not hold water. There is no way that the football program runs a $36 million deficit. Just look at the OSU game. Sold out plus parking, plus concessions, plus TV(even if only a partial share) someone do the math and then tell me that the football program is running at a deficit. I think the deficit is that the football program is not making enough $ to find all of the other programs at RU. Which is fine and other football programs do but the administration has to recognize the cash cow that is the football program and invest in it.
This is in the right direction about the speciousness of the $36mm-deficit number put out there. It isn't nearly that big in terms of real dollars ("in-kind" dollars are what' reported), and given the size of the university's overall budget, which prior to the med school merger was around $1.3bb/year, as a percentage of annual budget it is on par or smaller than many ochre schools. Consider that Julie hasn't cut any athletics, which keep millions of $ on the books every year, which has not been the way other ADs have handled their deficits.
Also, the $6mm/year paydown of the stadium expansion has been on the athletics department's books, and most universities keep those expenses off the athletics department books. There is a lot to look at with the numbers, and when you consider that everything is more expensive here in NJ than pretty much anywhere else in the country, and the picture becomes clearer that we are not in the red to the extent the "faculty" reports we are.