1) Fix the Pyramid or find an alternative - This is at least the second year that we’ve known about the leaky Pyramid but engineers are still trying to figure out if its salvageable? I know engineers are methodical and detailed but 18 months later and still no results made public? Given the delay, I suspect its probably the worst case scenario, but sitting on bad news and hoping it doesn’t rain when there is a scheduled event is not addressing the problem. I know this predates Smitheran but he needs to find a viable solution, even if it means tearing down the Pyramid.

2) Hire a president for crying out loud – Jane announced her retirement at the end of November 2024, which means the search for her successor has been going on for 12 months. It takes that long to find someone to fill a job paying $500,000 a year! I’m starting to wonder if they are waiting for a certain person to become available or what. If their search efforts are really not producing quality candidates, then I suggest the following. Open up the search to ALL candidates. Quit considering only females, liberals, and those aligned with California politics. I swear this next hire (whenever that may be) better be a homerun hire. I mean someone who will transform and elevate LBSU back to a top 2 CSU school. That is the least they can do if you’re going to take this long. It we end up with another Janey, god help us…

3) When you construct a new building, make it last – Why do some of the buildings seem to age quickly and need extensive renovations or have to be demolished? I’m not speaking of just the Pyramid, but also the student union and dining facilities, which will be out of commission for another 3 years! I also read in the LBSU master plan that the original dorms in Parkside will need to be demolished and rebuilt. Those buildings aren’t even that old! Is this what you get with choosing the lowest bid?

4) For our major sports (MBB, MB, WBB, WSB, and WVB), hire people with extensive head coaching experience at either the D2, D3, or even JUCO levels. In all of these sports, NIL and unlimited transferring has resulted in yearly roster turnover. Developing players and team chemistry is no longer a 2 or 3 year process, you have 6 months maximum now. Coaches with extensive experience at lower levels know how to do that. Rosters at the lower levels change substantially from year to year. We need coaches with that type of mindset. Recruit players who have proven their ability to be successful at the lower levels, even if their upside is not as a great as someone like Gavin Sykes. I was so excited when Acker recruited Diaz this past cycle. I said to myself, get another 2 or 3 from D2 but they stopped there.

5) Hire general managers for our main sports – I kind of scoffed at other schools when they started doing this but I think our primary sports need this. I know various staff members of each sport kind of do a little of this but it would be better if there was a dedicated person. The coaching staff need to concentrate on practice prep, game prep, recruiting and whatever else, but bogging them down with the business aspects of roster management is too much.