The proposals will be heard in another week or two, possibly on a Saturday, committee members said.
“Then we’ll move forward,” university Trustee Doug Fecher said in a meeting Tuesday.
Marty Grunder, the trustee who chairs the committee, said he believes his fellow committee members are “clear on our path here.”
“Obviously, we all want to do this in the best possible way,” Grunder said.
In April, the committee said it was weighing the hiring of an outside firm to help with its task. Several members expressed concerns that their mandate may be too much for the completion of a fair and detailed report in less than a year.
The body had before it proposals from five firms at the start of the meeting — College Sports Associates, College Sports Solutions, Collegiate Consulting, the Pictor Group and MRJ Advisors. The firms offer consulting and executive search functions for college athletic programs, among other services.
While there have been no official bids, the costs provided so far range from $30,000 to $60,000, said Greg Sample, Wright State’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.
“I understand we’re watching our pennies,” Grunder said during Tuesday’s meeting.
“There is a degree of variability associated with each approach, thus the committee’s desire to engage in direct conversations with three of the firms,” Sample said in an email after the meeting. “Once those interactions have been completed and the firms have a more specific scope of work, we will then receive what you would consider bids/costs to complete the engagement and we’ll certainly provide them once secured.”
Among the issues the committee is weighing is the role of intercollegiate athletics for the university and its students. Members also want to understand how the pandemic has changed college sports both financially and in terms of participation.
“I want to understand better their process,” Fecher said of the companies who put forward proposals. He added that he hopes to arrive at a better understanding of the finances associated with college sports.
“I want to really understand how they go about doing their financial analysis, because in the end, that’s going to be important information for us to have,” he said.
He anticipated each interview could take an hour long.
The focus comes at a time when Wright State, like other universities, is wrestling with challenged finances and an altered landscape for higher education in general. Wright State in particular has been dealing with a student body that has gotten smaller over the years.
In February, Wright State officials said the institution had seen about a 30% decline in enrollment in the last five years.
Wright State cut three sports last year: men’s and women’s tennis and softball. The move left the university with 11 sports, six for women and five for men. Seth Bauguess, a spokesman for Wright State, has said the university has 194 undergraduate student athletes.
The elimination of the sports programs was part of a larger Wright State budget plan designed to stabilize operations as enrollment declined, the school said. The COVID-19 pandemic “has accelerated the need for all areas of the university to reduce expenditures,” according to the university.
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