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Blessed are the cheesemakers. . .

Balsy, agreed on the issue that lack of transparency is a breeding ground for misinterpretation. I'm hearing different views on UA's general transparency under Dr. Scarborough. On the one hand some say he's gone out of his way to meet with various constituencies, seek their input and be open about his planning process. On the other hand some say he hasn't discussed as much with them as they'd like. Realistically a CEO never discusses every issue with every constituency. So I still don't believe I have sufficient data to make a blanket assessment. The single polytechnic issue may be emotional to many, but it doesn't totally define the transparency of the organization. There are competitive issues in every organization that require some degree of confidentiality. Some believe there shouldn't be competitive issues between fellow public institutions of higher learning. But in fact state legislatures are encouraging competition among public universities by tying funding to each university's performance. That makes competitive edges in performance important for each university to develop, and it appears UA believes the polytechnic thing to be a competitive advantage. Obviously you never get a 100% buy-in on anything. But it does appear that there's a consensus at the higher levels of UA that this is a sound plan to help ensure UA's future. I'm certainly keeping my ears open to learn if there is any dissent about the plan from those who are familiar with all the details.

Yep, my parents named me after a great American diplomat who they admired. I need to be more aware of how easy it is for people to misinterpret some things I say, and I apologize for my part in this misunderstanding. As for not taking strong stances, I actually do on issues where I have good knowledge of the whole situation. I've found over the years that strong stances can be misguided when taken without access to all the facts, especially if they're built on misinterpretations and misunderstandings. Anyway, glad we got this straightened out as I think we're not too far apart on many issues. Back to Dr. Scarborough, my hope is that his history with cost-cutting and privatization is out of necessity rather than preference. That is, I hope that he's a strong believer in public education who's had to explore more cost-cutting and privatization because the politicians keep reducing the amount of financial support for public higher education. Certainly in his Cleveland speech he came across as a true believer in the importance of public education. But in the absence of adequate public funding he would be remiss if he didn't explore all other options to make up for the shortfall in government support. As more facts come out I reserve the right to become more opinionated on the subject.

And Saad made his MLS debut near the end of the match.

Very astute observation. Public education can't survive without adequate public funding, which is slowly being cut back with encouragement for more privatization. The politicians who are making these decisions are elected officials, so either the majority of voters is in favor of this or voters just aren't paying enough attention to what's going on. Where are the protests in Columbus?

This forum and social media are perfect examples that most people (general public, prospective students, prospective benefactors, prospective sponsors, not to mention $$ALUMNI$$) do not understand the complete definition of "polytechnic". That is why the rebranding is a very bad idea. And a PR nightmare. Not to mention the constantly backpedalling Scarborough, or his son making an ass out of both of them.

Use of the Z was on the rise before Dr. Scarborough arrived, you know, back in the good old days when folks in Akron didn't know the difference between a polytechnic and a prophylactic.