August 10
The below article was originally printed in Gold and Black Illustrated: Football Preview issue. As we begin the 2009-10 season, we want to thank those of you who continue to be strong supporters of Boilermaker Athletics through your membership in the John Purdue Club and we urge those of you who are fans and alumni to become members of the "The Team Behind The Teams" because cheers alone fall short in supporting our 500 Boilermaker student-athletes and continuing the tradition that is Purdue Athletics.
As I stood at the 18th green of the fourth and final round of the 2009 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf National Championships anxiously waiting for the final putts to fall, or fall short, to determine if Purdue senior student-athlete Maria Hernandez would win the NCAA national championship, I could not remember ever being so nervous!
Well that feeling pales by comparison to the anxious feeling I now have as the final days of fiscal year 2009 approach. For the first time in John Purdue Club history, our annual contributions and the interest earned from our life memberships will NOT cover the total scholarship costs (approximately $7.5 million) and the John Purdue Club’s operating budget. Obviously we were cognizant of the significant increase in tuition, fees, room, board and books over the past five years, and had worked to ameliorate the situation by encouraging each John Purdue Club membership to increase his/her annual giving by the same percentage as the increase in tuition and fees that year. And as is always the case, our membership responded generously.
What we had not factored into our 3-year John Purdue Club planning process was the significant shift in the economic climate! The residual impact on giving to intercollegiate athletics is memberships and annual contributions are down by three and four percent respectively. According to a recent study, Giving USA estimates donations to educational foundations will fall nine percent this year. While we are certainly not alone in bearing this financial impact; we are fortunate that the effects are not as severe as many of our peers. We understand and are empathetic to those who face drastic financial issues; and we are indebted to those who continue to fund our mission of providing the best educational and athletics experience for Purdue’s 500 student-athletes!
I want to be totally transparent on the Club’s financial situation for several reasons:
1. The tremendous growth of our facilities, including the current Mackey Arena renovation, and the increased national success of our student-
athletes reinforce the perception that everything is great and we have everything we need! While things are great and we're moving in a very
positive direction, our annual fund has to meet the obligations of all our athletics scholarships and John Purdue Club operating costs.
2. From a cost-benefit perspective as it relates to our mission, this new financial reality is forcing the JPC staff members to evaluate the
effectiveness of every practice and activity in which the Club participates.
3. This fiscal year we will survey the JPC membership to learn or confirm your priorities, interests, and motivations.
4. We will continue to seek your help in identifying, educating and soliciting friends, neighbors, and colleagues who share your love for
Boilermaker Athletics. It was never our expectation that the current membership would/could be able to cover all the rising costs of tuition,
fees, room and board, but that we would spread this awesome responsibility of funding all the athletic scholarships over a larger
membership base each year.
5. While sound progress is being made to the Mackey Renovation project (which will impact significantly all of our student-athletes in every
aspect of their collegiate experience), we have a lot of work left to do.
For the past 13 months you’ve heard (and I’m sure can recite!) that the challenge is to increase your giving to the next level and recruit two new members. We can’t emphasize strongly enough that ANY amount at this point will be helpful and the recruitment of two new members is critical!
Through your generous support you create such incredible opportunities and experiences for our Boilermaker student-athletes for this I can’t thank you enough! If we all continue to commit to making the John Purdue Club the best, most effective intercollegiate athletics support group in the country, then, like Maria we’ll achieve the national championship title ~ and the worrying would have been for naught!
Go Boilers!
Nancy L. Cross
Senior Associate Athletics Director - Athletics Development and Sports, SWA