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Akron Alumni Summer Social Thursday Aug 10th


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The university is having an alumni and friends social tomorrow in Columbus at Standard Hall on High Street in the Short North district. Do any ZNO members plan on going? It would be fun to talk Zip sports with any of our members. If going PM me.

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I went to the event. Here's what I learned.

 

This was the second year UA held an alumni event like this in Columbus. By all accounts the alumni association seemed to be pleased with the turnout. About 80 people came during the two hours it was held. The location, Standard Hall, was nice. We had our own room and bar. The food was first class and the drinks were ample. In addition to the strong alumni association showing there were many faculty and staff from the Bliss Institute for Applied Politics. That stands to reason with Columbus being the center of state government. The highlight of the evening was a talk from Matt Wilson. He noted the following:

  • freshmen attendance is up 10% over last year
  • transfers are up 15% over last year
  • the goal of covering a $30 M deficit has been achieved and an additional $5 has been placed in a surplus fund
  • next year a budget deficit of $29 must be covered and the U of A will be out of the deficits for good
  • the dorms are at full occupancy
  • the law school will host an international on-line symposium that will be attended by people from the five major continents
  • the university wants to get more active in state politics. To that end Willy Kollman has been named executive director of Gov't and Alumni Relations
  • he made no mention of sports

I tried to talk with Matt but he needed to spend time with the state elected officials that were there. He did comment that we had to have a stronger presence in Columbus and it appeared he was working on it.

 

It was a surprise to me how many of the alumni who attended wanted to talk about Zip sports. I thought they would be indifferent but the opposite was true. They all wanted to talk about Zip teams winning the MAC. Most were not as informed as the average ZNO member but they were hungry for a winner. They took pride in their school. The event ended at 8:00 pm.   I'm looking forward to another next year. 

 

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10 hours ago, 72 Roo said:

I went to the event. Here's what I learned.

 

This was the second year UA held an alumni event like this in Columbus. By all accounts the alumni association seemed to be pleased with the turnout. About 80 people came during the two hours it was held. The location, Standard Hall, was nice. We had our own room and bar. The food was first class and the drinks were ample. In addition to the strong alumni association showing there were many faculty and staff from the Bliss Institute for Applied Politics. That stands to reason with Columbus being the center of state government. The highlight of the evening was a talk from Matt Wilson. He noted the following:

  • freshmen attendance is up 10% over last year
  • transfers are up 15% over last year
  • the goal of covering a $30 M deficit has been achieved and an additional $5 has been placed in a surplus fund
  • next year a budget deficit of $29 must be covered and the U of A will be out of the deficits for good
  • the dorms are at full occupancy
  • the law school will host an international on-line symposium that will be attended by people from the five major continents
  • the university wants to get more active in state politics. To that end Willy Kollman has been named executive director of Gov't and Alumni Relations
  • he made no mention of sports

I tried to talk with Matt but he needed to spend time with the state elected officials that were there. He did comment that we had to have a stronger presence in Columbus and it appeared he was working on it.

 

It was a surprise to me how many of the alumni who attended wanted to talk about Zip sports. I thought they would be indifferent but the opposite was true. They all wanted to talk about Zip teams winning the MAC. Most were not as informed as the average ZNO member but they were hungry for a winner. They took pride in their school. The event ended at 8:00 pm.   I'm looking forward to another next year. 

 

Thanks for attending and providing feedback. 

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Balsy, you sure have a charming way of pointing out mistakes. Of course it was $5 million. My bad. My mistake. It's all on me. I thought I was doing something nice for the rest of the board in filling them in on what went on. I'll be more careful in the future.  

 

I, for one, am proud that our university has corrected the deficit for this year and found a way to squirrel away an additional $5,000,000. 

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16 hours ago, 72 Roo said:

Balsy, you sure have a charming way of pointing out mistakes. Of course it was $5 million. My bad. My mistake. It's all on me. I thought I was doing something nice for the rest of the board in filling them in on what went on. I'll be more careful in the future.  

 

I, for one, am proud that our university has corrected the deficit for this year and found a way to squirrel away an additional $5,000,000. 

 

Hey, it was a playful jest.  Don't take it too personally.  ;)  Just like how on another thread I posted the wrong word because I shifted two vowels, which lead to a paint picture of people praising poop.  It's all in good fun, it's an Internet forum afterall...

With all the financial problems the U has had over the years it's totally believable they would only have $5 left (hence being playful...).  And yes, thank-you for sharing it's good to know they have corrected the financial problems.

Edited by Balsy
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8 hours ago, Balsy said:

 

Hey, it was a playful jest.  Don't take it too personally.  ;)  Just like how on another thread I posted the wrong word because I shifted two vowels, which lead to a paint picture of people praising poop.  It's all in good fun, it's an Internet forum afterall...

With all the financial problems the U has had over the years it's totally believable they would only have $5 left (hence being playful...).  And yes, thank-you for sharing it's good to know they have corrected the financial problems.

We are good. You were having fun with my typo and I probably would have done the same thing had I read a post like mine. The good news is we can see better days ahead for UA and it's fall!That means football. Hope springs eternal for all Zips, even though I do not have confidence in this team. I want to be proven wrong and enjoy admitting I was wrong. C'mom TB, gives us something to cheer about. C'mom TW, get your arm back! :champs: I wish! 

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On ‎7‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 5:09 PM, 72 Roo said:

 

  • transfers are up 15% over last year
  • he made no mention of sports

 

 

I see a contradiction here on the part of 72Roo that stands out like a sore-armed QB:

Did anyone ask how many of those transfers are incoming basketball (&/or football) players??  Hey -- jus'playin' with the Roo from C'bus, here.  Nothin' to get upset about, folks!!

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Z.I.P. are you tweaking my Columbus nose? :rofl: The transfers have to be for roundball cuz TB struck out this year in football, at least in graduate transfers. BTW, bring us some island healing for our sore arm (shoulder) QB. We need it.

 

Mahalo

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Thanks for sharing the tidbits. I was not able to make the Cleveland meet up this year and probably won't be able to make the Akron one either, but I did enjoy myself at last year's in Cleveland. Never thought of checking to see if any Zn.O members were going.


I need a little more clarification on how we were able to beat the 30 million deficit last year, but still face a 29 million deficit this upcoming year. I've read maybe one article about it, and it basically said the U refinanced debt, got some unexpected state funding, and did not fill positions that were created due to departures. Seems to me that 2 out of 3 of those could be considered "fixed" expense reductions, so I just don't see how it is still such a big deficit.

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20 hours ago, LZIp said:

Thanks for sharing the tidbits. I was not able to make the Cleveland meet up this year and probably won't be able to make the Akron one either, but I did enjoy myself at last year's in Cleveland. Never thought of checking to see if any Zn.O members were going.


I need a little more clarification on how we were able to beat the 30 million deficit last year, but still face a 29 million deficit this upcoming year. I've read maybe one article about it, and it basically said the U refinanced debt, got some unexpected state funding, and did not fill positions that were created due to departures. Seems to me that 2 out of 3 of those could be considered "fixed" expense reductions, so I just don't see how it is still such a big deficit.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of that has to do with enrollment going down. I believe we just graduated our largest senior class ever. It's going to take 4-5 years to cycle last years really small freshman class through the system. Our incoming freshman numbers are trending upwards again, but they still aren't at the levels they were 3-4 years ago.

Edited by kreed5120
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1 hour ago, kreed5120 said:

I wouldn't be surprised if some of that has to do with enrollment going down. I believe we just graduated our largest senior class ever. It's going to take 4-5 years to cycle last years really small freshman class through the system. Our incoming freshman numbers are trending upwards again, but they still aren't at the levels they were 3-4 years ago.

Good point. Hearing that U just graduated their largest senior class ever is good to hear. I think we were in school only ~30-35% of students who began college at UA ended up graduating. Plenty of room for improvement.

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