Future of Division III

[Ralph Turner]

I enjoyed S C Gwynne's book Hymns of the Republic, The Final Year of the Civil War (... Empire of the Summer Moon about the Comanches and Quanah Parker and The Perfect Pass about Hal Mumme, Mike Leach and the Air Raid offense...)

He is a very enjoyable read.

[MCScots2013]

It's been one hell of a slippery slope going from "let's recognize we aren't angels throughout history" to "damn you, you fascist pig for having your great-great-great grandfather even exist" just by being born with a certain pigment in a certain area without being judged by the content of character. Wild times.

[WUPHF]

If was born in the 1830's South or 1930's Germany or when and wherever, I am 100% sure I would be on the right side of history in perpetuity. [/sarcasm]

[awadelewis]

No, Sewanee is welcome to the title. W&L is struggling with their history and their alums enough these days, and it has cost the school plenty. I have no love for the Lost Cause, but University Chapel is a lesser place without all the historical plaques and an open view of the Recumbent Lee statue. History is best in context, and Lee Chapel should have had the context added instead of the history removed to the museum.

They can rename every building on campus, they should even rename the school in my opinion, but Lee Chapel was the proper place for history and I don't like what happened to it.

That's fair. We've had our share of struggles with our history over the past two decades as well. My take of our experiences at Sewanee has been that our administrations over that time have been so fixated on distancing ourselves from the negative aspects of our history that we've tossed so much of the good because some thought it too tainted with the bad.  A lot of things that tied Sewanee to the Oxbridge tradition have been deemphasized over the years and that has made the place a lot less unique.   

[DagarmanSpartan]

Being a CWRU grad is a little bit easier in that regard.  Western Reserve's campus in Hudson was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and its co-founder, Owen Brown, was an abolitionist and the Father of radical abolitionist John Brown (yes, THAT John Brown).

We were the first school West of the Appalachians to both enroll (1832) and graduate (1836) an African-American, John Sykes Fayette.  We were second medical school in the USA to graduate a woman, and produced six of the nation's first eight female physicians.

PROUD history.

[MCScots2013]

Unpopular opinion: John Brown had a just cause but not just means.

Viewed with a post-2020 lens, Pottawatomie was mass murder and Harper's Ferry would've been another January 6th.

Moral of the story: things feel bad now, but at least it's not 1850's bad.

[WUPHF]

Unpopular opinion: John Brown had a just cause but not just means.

It is a popular opinion in Missouri, made more popular by the hype video that Kansas football released two weeks ago.

But even the elder Brown, and Leonard Case for that matter, would have led complicated lives heavily influenced by their place in time and space.  Land their grand or great grand parents in Virginia rather than Connecticut and they probably look more complicated still.

[DagarmanSpartan]

Oh yeah.

And even Western Reserve's history as an abolitionist hub has a dark side.

How?

Well, there were of course abolitionists on WRC's early board of trustees that wanted to free the slaves, educate them, and fully integrate them into American society with full equality.

BUT............

There was another faction which, while technically wanting to "free" the slaves, wanted instead to send them back to Africa to "recolonize" Liberia, or something to that effect.

The dispute between those factions nearly resulted in the school's closure early on.  Early professor Elizur Wright resigned during the dispute to form the American Anti-Slavery society.  He went on to found the short-lived Oneida Institute.  Eventually, Oneida leadership left, together with Owen Brown and others from Western Reserve and Cincy's Lane Theological Seminary, to form Oberlin College (highly prestigious and still going strong today, and frequently a CWRU sports opponent, as they are less than an hour away). 

Then, and now, the world was/is a very complicated, troublesome place.

At the end of the day though..........Frederick Douglass gave the 1854 commencement address at Western Reserve, so I like to believe that CWRU was on the right side of history.

[MCScots2013]

Unpopular opinion: John Brown had a just cause but not just means.

It is a popular opinion in Missouri, made more popular by the hype video that Kansas football released two weeks ago.

I think it was in poor taste, but to each their own.

UVA tried a similar albeit tamer version for the WVU game (insinuating Country Roads is about western Virginia (Shenandoah Valley/Blue Ridge) rather than West Virginia), but of course, UVA couldn't included Lee or Stonewall could they?

On another note, having grown up in Virginia and having all the Confederate statues and monuments around, it was a sort of funny touché moment when I visited Charleston, WV for work and drove by an Abe Lincoln statue in front of the Capitol.

(Final note: Stonewall was actually born in present day WV.)

[Ron Boerger]

Getting back on track here ...

Moody's has revised Union (NY) College's outlook to negative from stable, but reaffirmed the current A3 issuer and revenue bond ratings.  The continuation of the A3 (...) rating is important as the school is planning two new bond issuances totalling $69M, increasing the school's total adjusted debt at the end of this FY to $194M.  "[W]eaker-than-expected operating performance in fiscal 2026 and likely in 2027" were cited for the decision.  "Higher tuition discounting and student market headwinds [that] could limit the college's ability to match revenues with growing expenses" were also a factor.  An A3 rating is a second-tier Prime rating which "demonstrate above-average creditworthiness relative to other domestic issuers and issuances."  The next lower rating, Baa1, would still be Prime but only demonstrate average creditworthiness.  Moody's cited total cash and investments around $650M (3+ times debt) and solid liquidity as justification for the maintained ratings.

In happier news, Moody's also upgraded Illinois Wesleyan's outlook to stable from negative, reflecting "strengthening operating margins driven by improved net tuition revenue, donor support and expense controls, contributing to cash and investment growth."  The school's rating remains at Baa3, however; this is the lowest (third tier) Prime rating, one step above below-average credit worthiness, and Moody's states "high tuition discount rates and a challenging student market will continue to constrain revenue prospects".  That said, they "expect cash and investments to grow following strong fundraising including donations received to reimburse the university for prior capital project costs"; while "the university's wealth will rank above similarly rated private colleges and universities, its small scale and still narrow operating margins will likely trail Baa peers."

[WUPHF]

I was reading through the decision from the judge who is hearing the case for Ben Pearce and his suit to play a fifth season.

The judge has cleared him to play at any NCAA members institution.

The judge also prohibits the NCAA from enforcing the transfer portal rules, though it appears that he entered the portal in the Spring.