Oregon State has "announced significant cutbacks" to its athletic department, "including 23 staff positions, in response to an expected revenue shortfall due to an impact from the coronavirus outbreak," according to Nick Daschel of the Portland OREGONIAN. Included in the budget reductions, announced Wednesday, are "salary cuts, operation cutbacks of up to 20 percent and a hiring and salary freeze." The 23 staff positions "include layoffs, retirement, non-renewal of positions and selective hiring freezes." A source said that "16 current employees were laid off," adding that "among the layoffs" is Deputy AD/Administration & Senior Woman Administrator Marianne Vydra, who twice served as interim AD at Oregon State, in '15 and '16 (Portland OREGONIAN, 6/4).
LEAD THE WAY: In Portland, John Canzano writes "more than at any time of his tenure," OSU needs AD Scott Barnes to "come up big amid the downsizing." Barnes "must lead" with "shrewd ideas, passion, and by outworking and out-thinking his conference peers." Football provides "roughly 80% of the revenue for OSU’s athletic department." As such, Barnes has to "insulate" football coach Jonathan Smith's program from the "money suck going on elsewhere." But he must do so while "somehow not making the campus’ more successful non-revenue generating sports (i.e. women’s basketball and baseball) feel like afterthoughts." Canzano writes moving forward, Oregon State’s athletic department "needs to operate more like a nimble team of elite special forces on a night mission and less like a traditional army operating and plodding along in broad daylight" (Portland OREGONIAN, 6/5).
