EVANSVILLE — Crystal Young would love to be wrong.
She hopes the University of Southern Indiana’s move to Division I athletics is a great idea. That all the platitudes expressed by administrators and trustees – that it’s a surefire boon to athletes, students and faculty alike – come true.
“But,” she said, “I have concerns.”
Young, a USI graduate and psychology professor who left the university last year, is one of several current and former faculty and staff members who oppose the decision, which the Board of Trustees unanimously ratified on Feb. 7.
She said the school has scores of problems to fix before it takes on the responsibility of D-I: an ascension that would essentially double the athletics budget to $12 million a year.
Now or never? University of Southern Indiana advised to act fast on Division I move
Young, as well as two current USI professors who spoke to the Courier & Press on condition of anonymity because they feared professional retribution from school officials, said morale among faculty and staff is the lowest they've experienced it. Wages are stagnant, communication with administrators is stifled, and some student services, such as tutoring and the counseling center, are woefully understaffed.
They fear any future shortfall in athletics money could cause administrators to make up the difference with academic cuts – something USI officials say won’t happen.
“They’ve been telling people for years, ‘We can’t afford to give raises and we can’t afford to staff the counseling center to the extent people would like.’ There are all these things they can’t afford to do,” Young said. “But suddenly it comes to sports and they can somehow find (millions).”
In a university survey of more than 2,000 people, 60 percent of faculty said they were against moving to Division I. The majority of almost every other campus group, from students to administrators to retirees, voted “no” as well.
The only group that didn’t come out against it was student athletes. They were split: 45 percent for and 45 percent against, with 10 percent responding “I don’t know.”
The board of trustees moved ahead anyway. In a recent Zoom town hall with faculty and staff, chairman Ron Romain said it was the board’s job to “make the right decision – not necessarily the popular decision.”
Steve Bridges, USI’s vice president for finance and administration, believes sentiment will eventually turn. He thinks when the university becomes a full-fledged D-I school, initially skeptical people will see it was the right move.
Young isn’t so sure.
“There’s so much missing from the experience we already have at USI that my concern is this is just going to make it worse.”
USI and University of Evansville are 'apples and oranges'
One source of her worry is what recently happened across town.
With funding for its own D-I athletics program lagging, the University of Evansville announced last year it planned to gut or outright eliminate multiple academic programs, including its lauded music department.
UE administrators eventually downscaled the plan amid widespread backlash, but some are afraid something similar could happen at USI.
More:What to know about USI moving to NCAA Division I sports
Bridges said the two schools are an “apples and oranges” comparison. Unlike UE, USI is a public school with more streams of funding. And after battling some economic hardships during the pandemic, he said the school is in a “pretty good spot.”
USI plans to pay for D-I through fundraising and a hike in student fees. But even if the money comes up short, both he and USI Provost Mohammed Khayum said the school wouldn’t cut academic programs to make up the difference. Instead, the money would come from multiple reserves.
Khayum said the hope is that any dollar raised for sports would be matched on the academic side.
“To me, one guiding principle is that this move to D-I is not, in any way, going to be harmful to what we would do in our academic programming,” he said.
But two professors told the Courier & Press the school is already doing “cost-benefit analyses” of every department: something they feel is similar to what UE did. Khayum said some programs could see cuts if demand for them is lagging, but the university "wants to ensure" none would be reduced simply for financial reasons.
“By and large, faculty do not trust what administrators say,” one professor said. “Oftentimes they say one thing and it’s another.”
Low wages and low morale at USI
Young sees the survey as an example of that. She called it “standard operating procedure” for USI: ask what people think and do what you want regardless.
But Bridges said USI is already acting on one piece of the survey’s feedback: the need for raises. The administration plans to offer 3-percent merit bumps for some faculty members.
But those who spoke to the Courier & Press said even if they get the raise, it wouldn’t do much good. The U.S. inflation rate is more than double that, at 7.5 percent. And the increase is nothing compared to what could be coming for coaches.
More:Current USI athletes talk about switch to NCAA Division I sports
Division I coaches make substantially more money than their D-II counterparts. USI men’s basketball coach Stan Gouard pulled in more than $113,000 in 2021, according to Indiana public salary databases. But to keep pace with even some of his lower-paid colleagues in the Ohio Valley Conference, he'd need a hefty raise.
On the high end, current OVC leader Murray State, which will decamp to the Missouri Valley Conference next season, signed basketball coach Matt McMahon to a $500,000-a-year deal in 2019. The OVC's second-to-last team, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, pays head coach Brian Barrone more than $190,000.
The move to D-I will also require scores of new hires, which in turn will require new money.
Bridges said raises will be “phased in." Anyone hired in the near term will get a salary more in line with current pay at USI than the figures of D-I.
More:University of Southern Indiana to join Ohio Valley Conference for Division I sports
USI administrators are some of the highest paid public employees in Vanderburgh County, with President Ron Rochon topping the list. But some faculty members said wages for professors, staff and even student workers desperately need to increase.
They claim low pay has made it difficult to fill the 86 open positions USI currently lists on its website.
One professor said employees spend a lot of their time on “unpaid labor." That includes committee work, which can add more than 20 hours to their week with no additional pay.
Another professor said that’s one reason morale is “in the toilet.” She felt anytime she’s addressed concerns with administrators, they either got defensive or talked more than listened.
“I can’t tell you the number of people I know who have just given up entirely. They are just riding out their time at USI and they don’t even the energy or desire to participate anymore because they’ve just been beaten down,” she said.
“… You keep telling us we’re this great family at USI. We’re this great community. But that’s not how we feel. You don’t treat family members by ignoring them and dismissing their needs.”
Khayum acknowledged there’s a morale issue, but said it was confined to “pockets” of campus.
“I think morale and productivity are connected. As an institution, we have weathered the storm the last two years in a way that couldn’t have been possible if we had people who were so beaten up that they didn’t want to do what’s best for the institution," he said.
Bridges agreed.
“You’d be hard-pressed to find an industry where there hasn’t been a lot of stress over the last few years,” he said. “It’s been a stressful time. And I think people have felt that.”
‘I fell in love when I first came here’
Young had a lot of options after she finished graduate school. But she wanted to come back to the place she loved during her undergraduate years. So in 2017, she took a job at USI.
By 2021, she was ready to move on. She eventually accepted a position as a researcher at Dartmouth College, an Ivy League school in New Hampshire.
She said she had longed to contribute to the thriving culture she experienced as a USI student. But as the years wore on, things changed.
Other professors who spoke to the Courier & Press have felt the shift, too.
“I fell in love with USI when I first came here,” one said. “It was student- and faculty-centric. There was support available. It was lively. It was energetic. And now it doesn’t quite have that feel anymore.”
Young is hopeful things will change. Maybe D-I will be the catalyst. Either way, she said, something has to happen.
“I’m hearing a lot of people saying, ‘this is the worst it’s ever been.’ And people are at the lowest morale they’ve ever been,” she said. “And that worries me because it makes me think USI is going to lose a lot of really great people if they don’t snap to attention.”