a-zip

Shocking you disagree…..what took you so long. What I was referring to were the people that were making criticisms and judgements BEFORE any information came out. Now that information is starting to come out, feel free to complain until your heart's content………you are good at it

YUP!! So, the bottom line is that Dr. SS has to make some changes and some tough decisions (which he has been doing). I understand the emotional side of this for everyone but I don't think it is fair to judge someone and their decisions without knowing all the facts. The information that is starting to come out is the "shit sandwich" I was referring to. Hopefully people will start to be more patient and supportive now that information is coming out and the initial plans are being communicated in a more organized manner. Honestly, I think the letter SS sent out last week was still not what was desired but it had to be done to stop some of the bleeding.

At least it will be a radio interview where everything before and after a sentence is heard ;-)

Here we go. First communication from SS and the plans today…... From: "The University of Akron Alumni Association" <alumni@uakron.edu> Subject: Three-year program to fund growth and address budget issues Date: July 10, 2015 12:12:00 PM EDT To: Reply-To: president@uakron.edu Dear Alumnus, We want to keep you informed of developments at your University. President Scott L. Scarborough sent the following to faculty and staff today. Sincerely, The Alumni Association TO: Faculty and staff FROM: President Scott L. Scarborough RE: Three-year program to fund growth and address budget issues DATE: July 10, 2015 “Our future is bright, but first we need to fix the University’s finances.” Dear Colleagues, Beginning last October, I led a team of colleagues in an exhaustive review of the University’s finances. That team included the leadership of the Faculty Senate, the AAUP, and a representative of the department chairs. Based on that review, we found that our University had a $60 million financial problem. The team developed and proposed a three-year solution that the University’s Board of Trustees approved on June 10. The approved plan reduces University expenses by $40 million, raises graduate tuition and undergraduate fees by $10 million, and projects $10 million in revenue growth by the third year. The $40 million of expense reductions include the following: Eliminating 215 positions via a planned reduction in workforce; no faculty layoffs are occurring.Eliminating baseball.Eliminating non-academic programming in EJ Thomas Hall, except for rentals.Outsourcing dining services.Renegotiating healthcare plans.Increasing the cost share of retiree dependent coverage.Changing the University’s retire/rehire policy.Centralizing course scheduling.Reducing central costs, such as legal fees and University memberships. Reduction in force The most painful, but necessary reduction is the abolishment of filled positions. We are working hard to make sure that our colleagues whose positions are being eliminated are shown the respect and courtesy they deserve. We owe them our thanks for their service to this great University. Tuition and fees We worked hard to solve our financial problem by cutting expenses. In the end, however, we needed to increase graduate tuition and undergraduate fees by $10 million to cover the higher costs of these programs and courses. Central to the entire budget process was our commitment to protecting and enhancing academic quality. Higher tuition and fees were necessary to honor that commitment. A bright future Our future is bright, but first we need to fix the University’s finances. We believe the new budget does that. In addition, the new budget funds college strategic plans, leverages our University’s historical strengths, funds new initiatives to grow future revenue streams, and includes funds to hire the faculty who will keep our University strong. Our future depends on our ability to be distinctive and better. The University of Akron is a strong polytechnic university. As such, we provide students a better educational experience—better in terms of career-focused experiential learning and connectedness to industry, technology, and jobs—in the arts, the sciences, the humanities, and the professions. We know that the next few weeks will be tough. After that, we will refocus our efforts on the mission ahead—to become a great public university for all of Northeast Ohio and the world. Our future is bright because our faculty, staff, and students are great. That will always be the case. Thank you for all you do. Have faith. With faith, everything is possible. Sincerely yours,

I certainly hope you are right about TB. The only thing I am saying is I am quite sure SS has a plan, it is being formulated and likely implemented by a new AD. As with all the hubbub around the rebranding and other issues, I don't expect them to reveal the whole plan until it is fully baked. Things get leaked, sentenced are printed out of context and everyone here goes crazy. These things need to be done behind closed doors, scrutinized behind closed doors. Now, if they are not working on a plan I would agree with everyone…..that would be bad….but I highly doubt that is the case. I DO have a problem with the previous administration that DIDNT have a good plan. There are already some noticeable changes - no TW and the schedule seems to be much better.

Spin, if an aggressive marketing campaign is all it took to get people into the Rubber Bowl or Infocision….why hasn't it been done? There has been marketing, we have an amazing charismatic coach who is out promoting, we give away scholarships, we have a winning basketball team….nobody seems to care. I played for the Zips during a time when we probably had the highest attendance ever and we were division 1AA, making the move to D1. It still used to piss me off when we would come out of the locker room and you could hear people having conversations in the stands because of how small the crowd was. The last game at the Info had announced attendance of 5,400, we opened the season with 9,100!!!! Anybody at the last game would tell you there were not that many people at the game. I played in front of more people in high school. Once again, do not misrepresent what SS has said or what I have said. Neither one of have EVER said "Lets cut football". What I have been saying for decades (warning against) is that if some of you people in NEO don't get your asses to support Zips football and basketball, you are going to lose it. I have warned against losing TB and KD……everybody says "NO WAY a-zip they are here to stay". BULLSHIT, they are too good to go down on a sinking ship. I DONT WANT THAT TO HAPPEN but it is inevitable if the trend continues. We can't keep pumping money into athletics!! While you folks put blinders on I am simply stating reality and you don't want to hear it. I firmly believe if people would have shown up to support, we would have won more games at home, we would have better recruits, we wouldn't be in as bad of a financial mess and more than likely we would be further ahead on getting a new basketball arena. Instead we are being embarrassed by articles being written about having the worst attendance in college football. I am more pissed at the previous administration for building the Info and then sitting on their asses. Seriously, I think they watched "Field of Dreams" too many times….."build it and they will come seemed to be their marketing strategy. Now, SS is taking the blame when the previous administration were the ones that did not whack TW and try to stop the bleeding. The classes I took taught me about supply and demand. They taught me about running a business. They taught me about making sound/responsible business decisions. They taught me about ROI. They did teach me about marketing too but part of successful marketing begins with having a product people want. The defeatist attitude lies right in Akron…..if cuts have to be made Joe Akron will have to look no further than the mirror to find someone to blame.

Interesting article……. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/12/01/akron “We had a first-year coach, and we also weren’t as competitive on the field as we’d hoped for,” Bach said. “That resulted in lower ticket sales and lower ticket revenue. That’s disappointing to all of us. But, when we look two, three and four years down the road to where we think the program will go, we think we’ll make our revenue goals and hopefully set off some of the losses we’re seeing now.” Bach said that the athletics department “was not scrambling” to find ways to resolve the shortfall, adding that he and his colleagues are mulling a number of options right now -- long before the budget year is slated to end -- to trim enough to meet it. He also said the department is already thinking about how much revenue it should expect from football ticket sales next year. The comments below the article are interesting (prophetic)…... "With 71% of the Athletic Department's budget coming from student fees, did anyone think to consult the students about this? It appears that they have been voting with their feet anyway, not attending the games in very large numbers. So, it seems, students are being asked to pay the price for whose entertainment exactly?"

So you don't agree he got rid of TW? Huh

Do you all think there would be an outcry in the community (like at UAB) if Akron announced it was dropping football? Maybe a good poll... http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/06/national_pundits_scoff_at_retu.html http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/25201823/uab-football-is-back-future-questions-remain-about-reinstatement

The point is….the information in those article paints a pretty harsh reality for the future of college athletics. The previous administration had that information, right? They took that information and felt it was a wise decision to build that stadium for $65M when we had never even approached 30,000 in attendance. We all agree renovating the Rubber Bowls did not make sense. The question is…..was it a smart decision to continue to pursue D1 football when your community does not support ANY of your programs. For schools like ODU (who is planning a new stadium) it is a different story because they sell out their existing stadium. This isn't the FIELD OF DREAMS movie. Dr. SS got rid of TW for a start right?!? Isn't that something we can ALL agree should have been done years ago?!?! To me, he has addressed the MAJOR issue pretty quickly. If you are expecting in depth information on the other plans, be prepared to be disappointed. I wouldn't expect any major announcements until a new AD is in place.

This is the reality I am speaking of…. (embarrassing again we are used as an example of why NOT to build THAT stadium) http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/01/05/temple-university-stadium-100-million-dollar-bad-idea/ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/14/sports/ncaafootball/fresno-state-faces-the-task-of-keeping-up-with-the-big-5s.html?_r=0 http://articles.philly.com/2015-01-05/sports/57711037_1_infocision-stadium-football-stadium-stadium-decision

You continue to ignore the fact that we have NEVER had good attendance in ANY of the major sports. NEVER!!!!!

OR The people that take ONE SINGLE sentence from an article to characterize Dr. Scarborough as someone who is a poor leader, doesn't support athletics, doesn't have a plan and is out to destroy UA athletics (when all he did was speak the obvious)The people that ignore Akron's football attendance in….FOREVER and say at 30K seat/$60M stadium is justifiedThe people that ignore the embarrassing article showing us as having the worst attendance in the NCAAThe people that ignore Akron's winning basketball team's attendance in FOREVER and say the community would support a new basketball arenaThe people that blame poor attendance on weekday games, iCoach, poor opponents, OSU conflicts, old stadiums, bad weather, not winning in post season, too many logos, etc.

All 5,400 of them

You all are taking a SINGLE statement "I would not have built THAT stadium" and characterizing Dr. Scarborough as someone who leads from behind. The fact is he is right about not building "that" stadium, by stating it doesn't mean he is not dealing with it (or leading). The fact is he made the one substantial change everyone has been crying about for years in the athletic department - getting rid of TW. The fact is he is taking the lead with rebranding, program changes, curriculum changes to try and deal with the changing times Seems to me he IS someone who is taking his current situation and innovating and building something that will work. The previous administration built shiny new buildings/stadiums and racked up a ton of debt during brutal economic times.

Yea, sorry to sprinkle logic into the mix. I have a new image for you Captain (and a new suggested name) - please tell me again how much you like TW…..please tell me again how he is the one who single handedly devastated Zip Athletics……. Captain Obvious

Thanks Lee… I ran out of my "likes" for the day.

Based on these numbers; Average attendance - 13,266 11 games under 10,000 at a game 24 games under the NCAA 15,000 Last game played at Infocision 5,400 people With those numbers (knowing there were not even that many people in the stadium) My conclusion………I would not have built THAT stadium.

We ended the 2014 season winning 4 out of the last 5 games to include a win over Can&#39;t State. Did that get anybody excited? We opened up 2015 with a win over Howard (attendance 9,100)….I guess not. We then went to play at Penn State in front of 97,000 people and put up a respectable fight losing 21-3. Did that get people excited? Nope, because we came home to play Marshall in front of 13,000 (made up of primarily Marshall fans). We then went to Pitt and beat them in front of 40,000 fans……did that get people excited? Lets see, we played (and beat) Eastern Michigan at home in front of 8,400 people…..I guess not ____________________________________________ At this point we are 7-2 in the last 9 games with the losses coming to Penn State and Marshall. ____________________________________________ Time to come home………..what happens….. A win against Miami O in front of 8,200 people. What is embarrassing is not the single sentence Dr. Scarborough made about not building "THAT" stadium it is the fact that we have the worst attendance and fans in all of college football no matter how nice of a stadium we have or what day the game is played.

I had never seen this. Very well done tour…campus looks great….one of the nicest online campus tours I have seen. Well done.. http://www.uakron.edu/tour/

Ha, today is his 1 year anniversary as UA's President.

Well, I guess the good news is there are apparently not a lot of fans to read into his comments :-P . http://www.ohio.com/news/local/university-of-akron-football-attendance-lowest-in-nation-1.603992 Isn't he focusing on solutions for the future already? Seriously, he got rid of the biggest cancer in the athletic department right? He is also making lot of other strategic moves for the school's future. One sentence taken out of context and everyone is up in arms. Geez

First of all he did not say "I wouldn't have done this thing" He said "I would not have built that stadium". Please don't misquote because there is a big difference between what you just inserted Zach and what was actually quoted. At this point we don't know what he said before that sentence and after it, once again everyone is getting fired up about a single sentence. He did not say he would NOT have built a new stadium. He did not say he doesn't support athletics. I think it is safe to assume he is saying he would not have spent $60 million dollars on the 30,000 seat Info. I'll go out on a limb and say I bet he is thinking a $30 million dollar 20,000 seat stadium with room for expansion would have been the smart thing to do. Again, I bet he is also thinking "I would have canned TW years ago".

Benefit? That the university is in the hands of a person who is financially responsible and makes sound responsible decisions.