Discussing The DU Budget Crisis With Stuart At Spanky's Roadhouse

Yesterday afternoon I had a late lunch with my friend Stuart, seen in the photograph above, at Spanky's Roadhouse, located just to the west of the University of Denver campus in South Central Denver. I was surprised to learn that Stuart, a DU alumnus like me, had not heard about the major restructuring and budget cuts that are taking place at DU. The university was facing a $30 million budget shortfall this past fiscal year, mostly due to the decline in the college age population and in the number of international students. They made up the shortfall by not filling vacant positions, cutting expenses, and making up the remaining difference using endowment funds. The university's board of trustees approved a balanced budget for fiscal 2027 last week, but in addition to cutting expenses and not filling vacant positions, the university will also consolidate five of its schools into two and eliminate five of its academic departments. This will require, according to Chancellor Jeremy Haefner, "some rightsizing of our employees." Interestingly enough, Stuart, who has a master's degree in international studies from DU's Josef Korbel School of International Studies, received an e-mail announcement from the dean of that school yesterday morning announcing that three faculty members would be leaving. It appears DU is wasting no time in rightsizing those employees. I suggested to Stuart that now is the time to make that big donation to his alma mater, but he did not seem enthusiastic about the idea. And no, I myself will not be making a donation to them anytime soon, either. I did work for DU for almost 30 years before getting "retired" (i.e. laid off) after the DU Bookstore was outsourced, and so I consider that to be my donation. You're welcome.

The Chicago White Sox Are The Real Deal - I Think

I know it is only mid-June, but my South Side heroes, the Chicago White Sox, are actually playing great baseball and are currently tied for first place with the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Central Division, sporting a 38 and 32 record. Granted, the AL Central is a weak division, but that means the Sox actually have a chance to make the playoffs after losing over 100 games the past three years, including setting the record for the worst team in the history of Major League Baseball in 2024 with 121 losses. In their last homestand, the Sox have taken the series against both the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers, who are currently the two best teams in baseball, which is no mean feat. And best of all, the crowds have returned to Rate Field, cheering their team on to victory. And as you can tell from the photograph above, White Sox television announcers Steve Stone, on the left, and John Schriffen, on the right, are definitely enjoying their time at the ballpark these days. They finally are calling games that actually matter. And will it last? Will the Sox continue their winning ways? I certainly hope so, but no matter what, the Sox have finally put together a good team, which bodes well for the future. And they are doing all this without their star player, Munetaka Murakami, the "Japanese Babe Ruth," who is currently on the IL (injured list). When he comes back, the sky's the limit.

The 50th Annual Parker Days Festival

Yesterday afternoon my sister Susan and I drove out to Parker, Colorado, located 23 miles southeast of Denver, for the 50th Annual Parker Days Festival. To tell the truth, I never heard of Parker Days until this past week, when I saw an item in the paper about it taking place this past weekend. I have driven through Parker maybe twice in my live, and my opinion always was that Parker consisted of one downtown block containing a few historic buildings, surrounded by thousands of suburban housing developments. I couldn't have been more wrong. Parker is, in point of fact, two downtown blocks containing a few historic buildings, surrounded by thousands of suburban housing developments. But the festival was actually quite impressive, and much larger than I thought it would be.

This event is described on the Parker Days website as a family festival with music on 4 stages, 200 marketplace booths, over 25 food vendors, over 50 carnival rides, and many activities for kids. And I must say, this festival reminded me of a county fair, minus all the farm animals. This area is very popular with young families looking for a place where they can afford a home with a nice backyard and which has good schools, which probably explains why there were so many booths selling home improvement items and services. Those 200 marketplace booths filled 2 blocks on Main Street and all of adjacent O'Brien Park. Not being familiar with Parker, I missed the turnoff for downtown, but happily, wound up on the other side of town at the Pace Center, which is where festival goers were advised to park. Since there was a very large crowd attending the festival, I wound up driving around the Pace Center's parking lot three times without finding a parking space. Then I looked up and saw the Pace Center Parking Garage right across the street, where I immediately found a spot. Next time I'll know. 

This festival was very popular with kids, who were taking full advantage of all the kid friendly activities, including the carnival rides. Face painting seemed especially popular. Hopefully the paint is removable, and they will not need to consult a specialist to remove that paint in later years. As I mentioned before, this festival was very well attended, and it was fun to walk around checking out all those booths and doing a bit of peoplewatching. The downtown area was very pleasant, and there were a number of historic buildings along Main Street. My only complaint is that although you could tell those buildings were from the 19th Century, there were no plaques on them telling their history, or even the date they were constructed. The only way to know would be to do research on the internet before you went there. In any case, Susan enjoyed the festival, too, and said she thought Parker was a nice little town, but she wouldn't want to live there. I'll second that.

Graduation Day At The University of Denver

Yesterday was graduation day for undergraduate students at the University of Denver. This was an important day for the DU Bookstore when I worked there as the Finance Manager, before it was outsourced to Follett Higher Education Group. The gift and clothing buyer and her staff would bring tables of gift and clothing items to the Ritchie Center, where the ceremonies take place, and sell a lot of merchandise.  Meanwhile, back at the bookstore on this day, when it was part of DU, the place was filled with students selling back their books and returning rentals. After the ceremonies, parents and their children would fill the bookstore picking out last minute items to take home. And then, by about 1:00 in the afternoon, all those customers would leave, and the store was virtually deserted except for staff for the next two and a half months. Things are much different these days. Last year I went into the Ritchie Center on graduation day, and there was no sign of the Follett-run bookstore at all. National bookstore chains do not seem as interested in going the extra mile to increase sales as institutionally owned stores are, which is not a big surprise. And instead of two graduation ceremonies, one for graduate students on Friday and one for undergraduates on Saturday, each commencement is now split into a morning and evening session, reducing the number of students by half at each ceremony. Which is a good thing, since instead of just bounding up the stairway and entering the auditorium, everyone attending the ceremony now has to line up single file and undergo security screening, including a metal detector, which takes a lot more time. And as for the bookstore, I discovered that these days many if not most students access their books online, eliminating the need to come into the bookstore to buy textbooks and sell them back at the end of the term, resulting in a lot less foot traffic. On the bright side, since these days the DU Bookstore seems to be empty of customers most of the time, the staff probably doesn't even notice a difference once the students leave for home at the end of the school year. Just the same-old same-old every day. An entirely different world in just 15 years. Regardless of that, congratulations to the Class of 2026.

Talking About Cubs Fans...

There was an article in the Denver Post this past Wednesday by sportswriter Patrick Saunders about how Cubs fans turn Coors Field into Wrigley Field West whenever the Chicago Cubs come to Denver to play the Colorado Rockies. It is believed that there are over 100,000 transplants from Illinois in Colorado, and Saunders interviewed a number of them for his article, including Skip Perry, who with his wife Paula own Wrigley's Chicago Bar and Grill in Golden, Colorado. Perry is originally from the Chicago suburb of Waukegan, while his wife is from Arvada, just to the north of Denver. They have run Wrigley's since 2008, and it is quite the Cubs fan hangout. After the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, 750 fans poured into their bar, which at the time had space for 400. Years ago, Skip and Paula would charter a bus and take 75 Cubs fans to Coors Field whenever the Cubs were in town, but decided to phase that out when rounding up those 75 fans after the game began to get problematic. In any case, I drove to Golden to check out that bar and grill yesterday. It is located on West Colfax Avenue, right up against the foothills, as seen in the photograph on the left.

I stopped in around 2:30 on Friday afternoon and found that every space in the parking lot had been taken. Now THAT is impressive. Fortunately, they have additional parking across West Colfax, which is where I and a number of others found spaces. I took the photograph on the right of their outdoor patio, which seems very nice indeed. I also looked in at the main dining room, which is equally very pleasant. I definitely have to suggest to my friend Stuart, who is originally from Lincolnwood (a northside Chicago suburb) and a devoted Cubs fan that we take a break from the Old Chicago in Lakewood the next time we have lunch, go to Wrigley's instead, and catch part of a Cubs game. I will definitely make sure to wear my Chicago White Sox cap.

Watching The Cubs Avoid A Sweep At Coors Field With Susan And Mark

I went to Denver's Coors Field with my sister Susan and friend Mark, seen in the photograph on the left, yesterday afternoon to watch the final game of the series between the Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies. The Rockies took the first two games, and were hoping for a sweep of the series, but alas, it was not to be. They lost to the Cubs 9-3. Rockies starting pitcher Ryan Feltner set the Cubs down in order the first three innings, but in the 4th gave up two singles and a walk to load the bases and then a grand slam home run to Seiya Suzuki. Relief pitcher Blas Castano gave up a two-run homer to Alex Bregman in the 7th, and the damage was done.

The Cubs have been struggling a bit lately, going 3 and 7 over the past 10 games, and I suspect Cubs fans would not have been happy if they were swept by the team currently sporting the worst record in baseball. There were 35,128 in attendance at yesterday's game, and almost all of them were Cubs fans. Coor's Field is known as Wrigley Field West whenever the Cubs play the Rockies, to the great annoyance of the Rockies' manager Warren Schaeffer and Rockies players. But let's face it - well over half the population of Colorado are transplants, and many of them come from Chicago. What do you expect? At least they didn't play Steve Goodman's "Go, Cubs, Go" over the loudspeakers after the Cubs victory. Thank heaven for small favors. And yes, that is indeed the Cubs in the photograph on the right celebrating their win yesterday afternoon as they headed to the dugout and moved above .500 in the standings.

Big Changes Are Coming For The University Of Denver

Today is the last day of finals at the University of Denver, and graduation ceremonies take place this Friday and Saturday. Things seemed pretty normal as I walked across the campus yesterday afternoon, but big changes are coming. Earlier this spring DU announced that it was dealing with a 20-to-30-million-dollar budget shortfall. Much of this is due to reductions in the number of international students, the overall decline in the number of college age students, and the Trump administration's funding cuts. DU has stated that it will be able to balance the 2027 fiscal budget by reducing expenses and leaving vacant jobs unfilled. Plus, over the past two years, 10% of DU staff and faculty have accepted buyouts as the university has cut staff. DU has gone from an enrollment of 14,130 in the fall of 2021 to 11,499 in the fall of 2025. And so yesterday, in order to deal with this trend, DU announced that there will be a major academic restructuring that will involve closing and merging departments and closing schools. This will, of course, result in more jobs being eliminated, but DU did not give out any specifics.

I take a special interest in all of this because I worked as the Finance Manager at the DU Bookstore for almost 30 years before the store was outsourced to Follett Higher Education Group and all bookstore staff were laid off. In my case, I "retired," but with the same result. It now appears quite a few DU employees will be experiencing the same fate. Of course, this financial crisis has not stopped DU from buying The Cable Center, a cable museum and event space located on campus, for 19.5 million, and constructing the STEM Horizon Building, an 80,000 square foot facility for 112 million. Private colleges and universities across the county are dealing with major challenges, and a recent survey has predicted that 442 out of the nation's 1,700 private institutions could close in the next decade. However, Chancellor Jeremy Haefner has stated that DU is not in that group in trouble of surviving, since it has an endowment of around $1 billion. Not much comfort for those who will be going through what Haefner calls "some rightsizing of our employees." And by the way, I took the photograph above of Driscoll South, where the DU Bookstore is located and I spent those nearly 30 years, from directly across the street in the University of Denver Community Commons, which became fully operational in 2021 and cost $54 million.