KNCLZip

Email just now: Dear KNCLZip, I want to share some information with you that I believe you would want to hear from me directly. Earlier today, I submitted my application for the presidency of the University of Central Florida. UCF has posted the list of semi-finalists for this position and that list includes my name. Please know that I am just exploring this opportunity at this point, and that I will continue to move UA forward with all of my energy. Having lived in the Orlando area previously, my family and I have always had the mindset of retiring somewhere in the area. I practiced law in Orlando earlier in my career so I still have many good connections there. Our two youngest children were born in Orlando as well. This position at UCF has been filled for 26 years so it is not something that comes around often. In my mind, it is at least worth having the conversation. It would be an honor to remain at UA as I thoroughly enjoy the University community and students. We love UA and the area too. Also, I appreciate the chance to lead and transform a world-class comprehensive university here at UA that is again on an upward trajectory. I wanted to make sure that you heard the news from me first. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. Sincerely, Matthew J. Wilson President The University of Akron

Fall Chem labs are far "worse" on Fridays. Friday 2:15-5:00 labs last fall were fully used. Spring chem labs are always a little lighter because not everyone takes Qual, and the Qual meets MW or TR. However, I could see a shift to Friday for many more labs if the scheduling requires it. The big unease about this is that it is not a zero-sum game of time we are playing here. We are indeed losing a day for classes so there will be crunching required to fit in the 25 minutes to add to MW classes that used to be MWF. Could classes start at 7:30 instead of 7:45? Might help along with evening classes starting a little later (5:30 instead of 5:10, for example, to let the daytime classes finish up). It will be interesting to see what happens, for sure. I know that fewer, larger sections of some classes would ease the burden of scheduling somewhat--might as well pack MGH 111 with 255 twice instead of 170 three times if you need to get 510 students through and time is crunched.

An email from Wilson to faculty on January 9 did address labs: "If possible, these would be scheduled Monday through Thursday to maximize student benefits. Scheduling labs on Friday would still be possible, because that is consistent with the experiential learning concept associated with Five-Star Fridays." So 3-hour labs wouldn't necessarily have to be squeezed into already-packed days. I could see labs being on Fridays a lot now if scheduling demands it.

A lot of FAU "fans" have been leaving since 34-3. Why wouldn't you stay if you were enjoying your team administering a beatdown? Kiffin going for 2 is being a total @$$#0/€. Other coaches need to remember that and take advantage when they can to put him in his place. It is not necessary and shows the kind of person he is.

Am at the game. Zips band is much more powerful and just better than FAU's. How was the targeting not targeting? Every replay on the big screen seemed to confirm it, never mind seeing it live. Giving up 3 TDs on 4th and goal is brutal. Only thing worse has been not being able to run out the half. Sigh. Official said the booth buzzed them about 4th down call, so no challenge. Doubt we get that benefit of the doubt.

Booked flights, hotel, and rental car last Monday and already have game and pregame party tickets. Anyone flying CLE-MIA at 6:30am next Tuesday (on American) or FLL-CLE the day after the game at 11:17am (on United)?

Good question! I know that in my department, there is no staff left to cut that wouldn't leave a huge hole and make it impossible to teach.

Guess the "abolishment of filled positions" means getting rid of people who are currently employed, vs. letting unfilled positions remain unfilled. Basically layoffs without using that word--although he uses that word in the next clause in the same sentence. "Abolishment of filled positions" sounds so weird. Hmm.

Email from Scarborough to faculty and staff at noon today. Note the second bullet. TO: Faculty, staff and students 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.” 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,

TPIR 5-16-10 ~12:40 mark A quick shoutout but it was nice to see. They even put Sarah's segment as its own clip! Sarah's pricing game, plus shoutout to Zakuani

There was a shout out to Zakuani by Drew Carey on today's episode of The Price Is Right. One of the first four contestants was an Akron student and when she won her way onstage and said that she was an Akron student, Carey gave Zakuani a shout out. Carey is part-owner of the Sounders; this TPIR taped just days after the injury. Sometime this evening CBS.com will have the show online for viewing, in case one wanted to see.

Game time on Friday: 1:30pm EDT (12:30 CDT in Chicago), broadcast on TBS. http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/20...ess-tv-schedule

Will be there. Purdue alum, UA faculty and fan....will be supporting Purdue AND Akron on Friday in person, hoping for the two to meet in the Sweet 16. Bought a couple all-session tickets on Ticketmaster just now...nosebleed seats but with ND so close to Chicago, their fans will probably be scooping up tickets fast and furious. Figured I might as well buy asap. Purdue doesn't care for ND (Digger never would schedule a game against Purdue, saying there were no roads from South Bend to West Lafayette), so hopefully I can get any Purdue folks who will be in attendance at the Zips-Irish game to pull for the Zips. Hope to see some fellow Zips there on Friday!

Kofi was a student of mine and I am proud of him and every other member of this team and staff. YESSSSSS!!!!!!!

The June 19 UA Email Digest mentions that the visitor wireless would be getting a new server and name. Many didn't know that there was guest wireless! I don't think I did!Of course, the wireless is useless in my office and the whole corner of my building (KNCL). It's too weak to get a useful signal--a colleague sometimes sits in the hall to get a signal!Whether laptops would be allowed in the stadium is interesting. I'd imagine that they would be cool to that.

May very well be Andy Baskin.....I believe he's lurked here before.I thought that on Tuesday night our game was mentioned on 19 including clips, which was good as it had just ended. At least that's what I think I remember.

Just a minute ago Zippy was leading by only a couple dozen votes. It's gonna be a close one....Vote now!

When I first saw the ad on channel 5 for that game, I said to myself, "they'll never show the whole thing." Darned if I wasn't right.I can almost understand (but still not excuse) cutting away to the OSU game. (It's even less tolerable when a team from the viewing area--us or [gasp] Can't--is playing in the game they leave in progress.) But cutting away to show a few minutes of commercials first is even worse. I wonder if in a parallel universe WKYC might pre-empt NBC's ND games to show MAC games. They'd get a better game and better ratings. ;)Didn't WOIO and WUAB used to carry ESPN+ games (primarily Big Ten ones before the BTN came along)? Maybe one of those channels would be better....there wouldn't be the conflict with OSU all the time since CBS doesn't show Big Ten games......

What's with this Kalamazoo Gazette posting videos to YouTube of what they say are blown calls? Don't they have anything better to do ? Like someone commented there, what fair and balanced journalism to not show any blown calls the other way.....Wah, wah, wah.....WMU lost....deal with it. Oh, and still!

As I told you Saturday...I got my buddy Purdue Pete voting for you too...and after a class today (that I was covering for another professor) a couple students mentioned the voting. Word is spreading; Zippy can go undefeated in this thing if we keep it up.I haven't been keeping track; has Andy Baskin been involved in pushing this? He's generally been pretty responsive to things, or at least he was at Channel 3.Has UA made any promotional knick-knack things like buttons to wear? That might be useful too--wearing something every day gets noticed by different people every time.

Up by only 40 votes out of over 70,000 cast....still a dead heat. We need to get out the vote overnight. Find anyone you can and get them to vote......

I'm both faculty and AK-Rowdies member. I have a reserved ticket for the home side (and in a pretty decent location too) but stand with the Rowdies. Never been any problem. If you tried the opposite, they'd probably have a problem with it....It's funny how in the student section people stand for the game and sit at halftime while on the other side it's the opposite....I wonder if the Rubber Bowl staff can do a better job on 10/13 about "regular" GA seating folk sitting in the student/Rowdies section and then complaining about the Rowdies standing? Those sections are clearly marked on the ticket materials but once inside the stadium it's less clear to folks where regular GA is versus the Rowdies section......

Still down by about 150. We need a push tonight here.....

I can't use my OSU/UA game ticket.....only want to get its face value for it. Does anyone here need one or know anyone who needs one?I work on campus, so if you're at UA the ticket can be handed off at school.Sorry to ask this here, but I want it to go to a Zips fan if at all possible......

An old-school jersey. OK, not super old-school, but not the current colors.The Russell and adidas logos together are weird-looking somehow. Can someone remember specifically the jerseys carrying both logos?I still like my jersey the best. The model of white jersey we wore on December 1, 2005.