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And, scoring fewer points than the opponent.

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/university-of-akron-not-only-college-going-polytechnic-1.596372 I guess Purdue voted to change the name of its College of Technology to the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. That goes in the face of all the rhetoric of "polytechnic" encompassing a broad range of academic programs. Also, the president of the Akron chapter of the American Association of University Professors is named John Zipp. Not really related to the discussion at hand, but I thought it should be noted.

A simple look at attendance, or noting the size of the student section would work.

I sure hope the plan includes a charter flight or two. Zips loss to Penn State this year was directly related to to travel.

I got ya. I haven't made final judgment either. Just my professional and personal opinion at this point. But, I really have wanted to point out that this shouldn't be some great revelation that a major University is taking a stab at a marketing/repositioning/differentiation, or whatever anyone wants to call it. I'd be disappointed if they weren't always examining potential ways to better themselves. I don't think you are seeing emotional reactions though. I think that people who have received degrees over the preceding decades, and those who are actually paying for degrees right now, have some very legitimate concerns over the value of what they have paid/paying for. EDIT: More information in the Beacon today. Interesting part concerns my point above. Finally, a school of some stature, The Univ. of Purdue, is giving this "Polytechnic" designation to their Tech School ONLY. I think this validates the concerns of those outside of the STEM academic areas. I also found it interesting that a UA vice president acknowledged that this roll out of the definition of "polytechnic" is going to be "a marathon".

Skip - I agree, you all are the majority right now. Trust me, when I first heard the news (as I sipped from my A-Roo mug ;-) my first reaction was…WTF!!! All I am saying is that I think people should reserve judgement until all the facts and research have been presented…..and I do understand the emotional reaction to the announcement. Unfortunately, I don't think this has initially been presented to the public in an ideal fashion (a leak that had to be addressed). I am not even saying I agree with anything at this point, I am just saying that based on the research I have done the vision makes sense to me. When the strategy and plan are rolled out, I may say….that's really stupid ;-) Others might hear it and say….that makes a lot of sense. I just don't think we know enough at this point. I think we can all agree that enrollment has gone down, the academic prestige is not where we would like it to be and the support for our sports teams are not the greatest.