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Scarborough's next move...


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From story:

UA Vice President Nathan Mortimer said the house repairs were predominantly paid through an endowment, fundraising efforts and internal labor. There were costs to the university.

“We had some raised dollars last year, about $141,000, to help furnish the house, and there were some university monies used as well,” said Mortimer, who also is treasurer of the University of Akron Foundation.

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Just received this link in an email from alumni@uakron.edu

http://www.uakron.edu/just-the-facts/

Edit: I'm disappointed that there's nothing at that site, yet, about the $500+ olive jar. ;)

Hell Yes! :gun: As far as the media, social and so-called professional, I think Teddy Roosevelt summed it up quite well in 1906.

Now, it is very necessary that we should not flinch from seeing what is vile and debasing. There is filth on the floor, and it must be scraped up with the muck rake; and there are times and places where this service is the most needed of all the services that can be performed. But the man who never does anything else, who never thinks or speaks or writes, save of his feats with the muck rake, speedily becomes, not a help but one of the most potent forces for evil.
It is because I feel that there should be no rest in the endless war against the forces of evil that I ask the war be conducted with sanity as well as with resolution. The men with the muck rakes are often indispensable to the well being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck, and to look upward to the celestial crown above them, to the crown of worthy endeavor. There are beautiful things above and round about them; and if they gradually grow to feel that the whole world is nothing but muck, their power of usefulness is gone.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Man_with_the_Muck_Rake

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My 2 cents on the discussion concerning the $900,000+ remodel of the university president's home...

At a time UA is tightening its expenditures, spending $900,000+ on renovations is beyond stupid. Perception alone makes us all look foolish. Furthermore, that fund should not pay for an in-law suite and other desires specific to President Scarborough or any UA president. It should have paid for reasonable repairs and updating. Money should have remained in that account to fund future needs to maintain that home.

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The main argument in favor of a first class university-owned presidential home is for its use in entertaining wealthy benefactors to the university. UA's presidential home was in a run-down condition because the Proenzas didn't want their home life disturbed by major repairs. The original ABJ story said there were even leaking water pipes that could have caused structural damage. That raises two questions:

1. Exactly how much did Dr. Proenza leverage the presidential home to solicit private funding? Obviously more private funding would have helped UA expand without going so far in debt. If he was more focused on the structure as a place to live rather than a place to entertain and solicit funding for UA, then it could be argued that the property was not being properly leveraged.

2. Exactly how much is Dr. Scarborough going to leverage the extensively remodeled presidential home to solicit private funding? A million dollar remodeling that will keep the home fit for entertaining the wealthy and powerful is a small price to pay compared to the funding a good salesman can generate with the proper tools. Unfortunately it will take time to measure the results.

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2. Exactly how much is Dr. Scarborough going to leverage the expensively remodeled presidential home to solicit private funding? A million dollar remodeling that will keep the home fit for entertaining the wealthy and powerful is a small price to pay compared to the funding a good salesman can generate with the proper tools. Unfortunately it will take time to measure the results.

Fixed.

$1M is a helluva lot to expend renovating any home. If the $500+ olive jar is any indication of the itemized prices, I'm not so sure the funds were judiciously spent. Not to mention the questionable uses for the in-law suite when "entertaining" the wealthy and powerful. :eek:

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I completely understand the anger over the details. My focus is on the bigger picture. If Dr. Scarborough leverages the "expensively" remodeled presidential home into many millions of dollars of private donations to UA, it will all have been worth it -- including the in-law suite and the olive jar. If he doesn't, all the criticism will be well-deserved.

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I completely understand the anger over the details. My focus is on the bigger picture. If Dr. Scarborough leverages the "expensively" remodeled presidential home into many millions of dollars of private donations to UA, it will all have been worth it -- including the in-law suite and the olive jar. If he doesn't, all the criticism will be well-deserved.

It's not just the details, it's the total. $1M is EXCESSIVE. I would contend that Dr. Scarborough could leverage <$500,000, for example, in renovations as effectively as $1M. What will we use as the descriminator to ever say that extra $500,000+ was money well spent?

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$450K for 15 years of Proenza's tenure in which he didn't renovate (requiring major updates), and $450K to last for another 15 years or longer comes out to $30K per year, chump change relative to the annual budget. And most if not all of it was from the separate endowment. Of all the issues to worry about, this ranks at the bottom.

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It's not just the details, it's the total. $1M is EXCESSIVE. I would contend that Dr. Scarborough could leverage <$500,000, for example, in renovations as effectively as $1M. What will we use as the descriminator to ever say that extra $500,000+ was money well spent?

OK, I completely understand the anger over the details and the total. Will anything ever prove to everyone that the exact number of dollars was well spent or not? Nope. Some things in life come down to judgment, and different people judge things differently. ZippyRulz did a nice job of trying to put the total cost into perspective on an annual cost basis. But I understand that not everyone is going to buy into that.

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3. How will the expenditure of well over $100,000 for a mother-in-law suite help in the solicitation of private funding.

If I were in his position……I would want to keep my mother-in-law away from any influential people :rofl: A hut in Alaska would be good for mine. ;)

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ZippyRulz and DiG ... those who feel entitled can rationalize anything. The $950,000 spent on the president's home in and of itself may not be a big deal. However, when the university is dealing with a $60M shortfall, fees are being raised (albeit rescinded after a backlash from state lawmakers), cutbacks are being made, people are losing their jobs, and students are taking out loans equivalent to some mortgages, it is poor judgement to spend that amount of money renovating a home, especially when it includes any amount of university funding. They should have stopped short of expending university funds. For example, what effect on fundraising does renovating and refurnishing the president's bedroom have, or as has been pointed out, providing an in-law suite? I'm happy you are both so well off that you're totally comfortable with this. People who lost their jobs and students/parents struggling to pay for their education aren't so fortunate. We are a country of excess. $18 trillion in debt and counting. Those in the public sector rationalize their overspending as helping the poor and destitute. In reality, they're enabling people to not take responsibility for themselves and work for a living. Then they add to the problem by heavily taxing the middle class and pushing them into poverty. Some say Ronald Reagan was a great president because economic times were good. No, the US just started the huge deficits at that time. Everything looks great when you first start borrowing. Later, when you've borrowed too much, it's not so pleasant. I give Scarborough credit for making tough decisions to get a handle on UA's finances and taking the heat for cleaning up a mess he didn't create. However, he and his leadership team need to be diligent in exerising good judgement in every expenditure they make. Some will have have risk worth taking and may not pay off. In the case of these renovations, I can't see spending any university funds to have been necessary. Stopping at the limit of the private funds should have been sufficient.

I'll drop it now because it's done and not worth discussing further.

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... I'm happy you are both so well off that you're totally comfortable with this. ...

In my case that would be a bad assumption. Pointing out that return on investment (ROI) is the single most important element in evaluating an investment is not the same as being totally comfortable with the nature and timing of the investment. In the court of public opinion $500 olive jars and $100,000 mother-in-law suites are horrible counterpoints to dumping working class people into unemployment lines. UA will have to live with that and I make no apologies for how it's been handled.

If you go back more than a year to our discussions on a new UA president, I was the one who dug up and shared all of the background data on Dr. Scarborough's record at DePaul and Toledo. I said back then that looking at his past record would give clues as to how he would operate at UA. The upside was that UA was in a situation that could benefit from a leader with financial experience to improve the university's economics, and Dr. Scarborough certainly has a strong financial background. The downside was that many of the decisions he made at DePaul and UT were controversial and unpopular with students and faculty.

So I guess you could say that I'm the least surprised person on ZipsNation when it comes to the subject of recent controversial moves that are proving unpopular with some UA students, faculty and supporters.

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Whatever good ideas and initiatives he has had or will have are also now less likely to be implemented. He's lost political capital in Columbus, alienated the other Presidents, pissed off the alumni, raised serious scrutiny with his privatization schemes and become something of a national poster boy for the Imperious 1% University President. The missteps and tone-deaf leadership have essentially put him into a hole that's going to require the next year or two to dig out of rather than focus on actively putting forth an agenda to move forward.

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I liked its Facebook page. Along with 750 other people at the moment.

This shit storm is going to get worse before it gets better. If the Prez wanted to garner more attention to the University, he accomplished that. e5142633.gif

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I am amazed at how many stories were written in the ABJ about the "negative" news coming from UA. They were never interested in covering all the great things happening in the University but very eager to tear it down whenever they see an opportunity. Even if they have to make up lies (like EJ Thomas and the Press shutting down).

Regarding Scarborough and his actions. I am not going to defend him and I don't care if he gets impeached tomorrow morning. And you, you can like or dislike what he's doing, but if you care about this university and its reputation, you should refrain from publicly ridiculing it and its president in public forums and social media outlets. You should know that what you write is being read by prospective students and their families and is directly hurting the University you claim to support and care about. Feel free to use all the appropriate channels to voice your concerns. Call, visit, or write to trustees, state legislators, UA administrators, or anyone who can make a difference, without destroying the most valuable asset in our university: its public reputation.

An important thing to consider is that Scarborough is not in Akron to be popular. He's not running for office and doesn't need our votes. He was in Toledo when my wife was working there. She and everyone else in her office and most of the University of Toledo absolutely hated his guts. He didn't care because his work put UT in a good financial situation (only a few universities in the state of Ohio can say that). That's what the trustees saw in his resume and that's why he moved up to become president at UA.

I know that the home renovation doesn't look good, and I know that everyone is having a field day with the olive jar. The bottom line is that the university has a yearly operation budget. The administration created a $1M line for the renovation. The finance committee (made of faculty members) must approve this budget and then the board of trustees also have to approve it. And they all did. Just like you, I don't like it and I am not going to defend it. But it was done. Does that mean that Scarborough should not work on reducing the budget for the upcoming years?

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I am amazed at how many stories were written in the ABJ about the "negative" news coming from UA. They were never interested in covering all the great things happening in the University but very eager to tear it down whenever they see an opportunity. Even if they have to make up lies (like EJ Thomas and the Press shutting down).

Regarding Scarborough and his actions. I am not going to defend him and I don't care if he gets impeached tomorrow morning. And you, you can like or dislike what he's doing, but if you care about this university and its reputation, you should refrain from publicly ridiculing it and its president in public forums and social media outlets. You should know that what you write is being read by prospective students and their families and is directly hurting the University you claim to support and care about. Feel free to use all the appropriate channels to voice your concerns. Call, visit, or write to trustees, state legislators, UA administrators, or anyone who can make a difference, without destroying the most valuable asset in our university: its public reputation.

An important thing to consider is that Scarborough is not in Akron to be popular. He's not running for office and doesn't need our votes. He was in Toledo when my wife was working there. She and everyone else in her office and most of the University of Toledo absolutely hated his guts. He didn't care because his work put UT in a good financial situation (only a few universities in the state of Ohio can say that). That's what the trustees saw in his resume and that's why he moved up to become president at UA.

I know that the home renovation doesn't look good, and I know that everyone is having a field day with the olive jar. The bottom line is that the university has a yearly operation budget. The administration created a $1M line for the renovation. The finance committee (made of faculty members) must approve this budget and then the board of trustees also have to approve it. And they all did. Just like you, I don't like it and I am not going to defend it. But it was done. Does that mean that Scarborough should not work on reducing the budget for the upcoming years?

I disagree with not talking about this on public forums and social media. I love UA as much as anyone, so when I see the President/Trustees doing things I believe to be wrong, I'm going to call them out. Prospective students are swayed by what they see going on, not by my post on Facebook or Twitter. In my eyes, stepping up the criticism now may give us hope in fending off his next move of trying the name change again. And that is coming.

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I am amazed at how many stories were written by the ABJ about the "negative" news coming from UA

I don't think it's necessarily they're writing the negative ABOUT UA, it's more this guy comes in from out of town and doesn't understand how important these things are that he's taking away.

They don't understand (or don't care, pandering to public perception and trying to sell papers/hits) that the board is making, or at least helping decide on these cuts. Or that it was the beloved Luis who got the univ into this mess. Or that the beloved Tress was a VP at the time, charged with increasing contributions, and seemingly failing.

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