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Here are some high school highlights

really don't care either way, but picking something and sticking with it would be nice.

my point is that there is a 95% chance it's a bluff and I'm calling it. It's an excuse for Scarborough to get what he wants. I've stated my opinion all over this thread, that the amount of majors offered is over saturated and cuts need to be made. I am not in favor of some mass repositioning. Who is the last major state university to go "belly up"? I've honestly never heard of it. What about the cost of education? Didn't we just offer a deep discount on our gen Ed courses, you know courses that you spend nearly half of your time in college completing?To answer your last question, I am from Ohio and chose to go to Akron due to my major in a business related degree being ranked top 75ish nationally, being located in the most populated region of the state, and being less competitive than the school that everyone loves on here so much down in Columbus. It worked out pretty well for me. I had a great job waiting for me out of college and have had exposure to many well known corporations regionally as well as internationally.

Well seeing how we are the only ones attempting to making a change, I will dread the day that Toledo, OU, BG, and Can't cease to exist.Psyche. Not going to happen. Hasn't anyone learned politicians are full of shit yet?

Interesting read right here http://www.10thperiod.com/2015/05/should-university-of-akron-put-faith-in.html?m=1

Well the event would have been last night if I'm not mistaken. Any word on how it went?

Interesting that Dr. Z doesn't have any thoughts on this

sheesh. these people are a joke.

Here you are sir. 538 has some pretty interesting stuff. (Today I learned Lebron is the most clutch shooter of his generation, even though he is often referred to as a choke). http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/enough-already-about-the-job-hopping-millennials/

I didn't realize they are playing Tennessee after us. They should be the real deal next season and the next few years. A lot of young talent. Hopefully we catch them overlooking us! Interesting that they see Pohl as our best offensive player when he may not even start. The sad part is, there is really nobody else to choose at this point.

I'm a little shocked at the suspension. I would have figured if anything, one or two games. Just another weird suspension by Goodell. Apparently being indirectly involved in altering football air pressure is twice as bad as knocking your fiance out.

Right. As far as I know Akron is in a similar position as the above mentioned, at least for the most part. Constantly expanding, enrollment at or near record highs, and quality of students as high as its ever been. I'm still waiting for somebody to explain to me why we need to be in this "survival mode" and what is going to happen if we aren't in it.

I'm really enjoying this discussion. I might get into more detail later regarding the last paragraph of your post, Balzy. I actually read a study not too long ago on FiveThirtyEight I believe it was that shows millenials aren't jumping anymore than people did in the 70s. As for the main point of you and Mark's post. Maybe we disagree, but I feel a college education's primary purpose is to prepare somebody for a professional career (if not, why do we have majors?). Getting a well rounded education is a bi-product that is produced from various general education courses. For example, I learned enough in my Humanities, American Diversity, and Earth Science classes that I would consider to have gained knowledge in each subject and maybe even consider myself "well rounded". What makes you more well rounded if you are a Dance major rather than an Accounting major? Nothing in my eyes. Each chose a specific focus and concentrated on that. If people want to consider college as more about getting an education in whatever you want than prepare you for a professional career, I don't want to see you complaining when you're degree in Dance landed you a gig as a barista at Starbucks with 50k in student loan debt. Having a degree in dance doesn't warrant you to get a job at some engineering, law, or accounting firm over people who dedicated 4+ years of their life to learning the subject. I've also experience firsthand that companies look for people who have a strong basis in whatever field they are related to, but they are also looking for quality individuals they can stand to be around 8+ hours a day as well. If you're a star student at your university, but have zero personality/are uncapable to think for yourself and show some initiative/work hard you are either not going to get hired or you aren't going to make it very long.

Nope, nothing to be excited about. I see it (and I'm sure the coaches do) that we have some extra scholly's and its worth it if he ends up being able to contribute. Plus anything we can do to strengthen the SVSM pipeline..

This is what I was referencing (first time test takers rate). http://www.uakron.edu/law/admissions/information/bar.dot For the record, I'm all for cutting out some programs that have shown to have very little to no value in the workplace. Kids are told they can go to school and be anything they want, but that just isn't the case anymore. There is only so much you can do with a Fashion Merchandising degree, especially in Ohio, so don't be shocked if you have to take a job at Starbucks upon graduation. If my memory is correct, some of this has actually happened towards the end of Proenza's term. The U currently offers about 200 undergrad degrees. Seems way over-saturated to me when I look at the list. I'm not a scientist, but I'd be shocked if there anything other than a minimal difference between Earth and Environmental Science. I took both classes in undergrad. Basically the same thing as far as I could tell. I wonder what they employment rate out of college is for our Fashion Merchandising grads? Painting and drawing? Don't even get me started there. Many of the art majors seem a bit redundant. There is quite a bit of "trimming" that I think can be done. If the state is looking at something like you stated above, I think a good suggestion would be to let major common colleges/common majors within those college be offered by whoever wants to offer. When we're talking about not very common majors such as Polymer Engineering and Fashion Merchandising, it might make more sense to restrict them to the programs in the state that have shown to be strong on a national scale.

I see where you're coming from now, and its an interesting concept, but I'm still failing to see anywhere near the same amount of pros than cons. You know what NC and CA have in their systems? Flagship schools. Berkley (and UCLA for other reasons) and UNC-Chapel Hill are the only Universities your average person has heard of on a national scale. If we are going to be a flagship university of the NEOU, then I might be able to be talked into it. Under the same leadership sounds nice on the outside, but like I said earlier, there will be many conflicting interests and agendas (See Alabama shutting down UAB football). I sure as hell don't want to turn into some UC-Irvine or UNC-Ashville.I bet UNC Pembroke is loving their national brand recognition from being apart of the NC system. These schools and employers don't consider them all equal or the same thing. They are direct competitors with each other in attracting students as well as athletics. Is there a substantial increase in state funding for each member of this system? I've yet to see the real benefit of it pointed out. Specializations in locations is interesting and would be a first time as far as I know. Say Akron becomes the "engineering" campus. My son wants to be an Akron Zip just like his dad, but they don't offer his major. So does that mean he has to revert to the armpit of Ohio (better known as Youngstown) to get his degree in international business? Seems like forcing people to attend one school over another because of a very limited major offering is a great way to build a fan base/alumni donors. I'm actually SHOCKED at how many people on here seem to be open to something like this when 1) Akron has made great strides under Proenza (you're already missed) and still has plenty of momentum going, 2) I have yet to see what the mythical issue is that shows this is needed (nobody seems to know), and 3) I have yet to see a convincing argument on why this should happen. Sorry Dave, I'm not going to revert to the BS cop out that "Dr. Scarborough has done his due diligence (we have no clue what he has done) and I'm going to blindly trust whatever he wants when I have no clue what his motives are." I suppose Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Lehman Bros should have been trusted before the financial crisis because they are paid to do it. Not everybody makes decisions with good faith. As a somewhat recent graduate with a common degree and with many friends who are recent graduates, I've got news for you all. Akron is a well respected institution in the state and the midwest. I work with people who attended Indiana, OSU, Mich St, and Miami (OH). My firm recruits at Akron (even Can't St) just like they do at all of those previously named institutions. You know who isn't respected statewide? Youngstown State and Cleveland State. They're viewed as nothing more than glorified community colleges. We shouldn't strive to partner with them. If anything, they need us, not the other way around. Trading away your identity for a marginal at best increase in a very narrow scope of academics (seems to be the only pro) doesn't make sense at all to me. #ThinkSmaller

Interesting thoughts LA. I'm going to need you do get more specific though. 1) I'm calling BS. But if there is some substance behind it, What is making the Toledo's, OU's, and Akron's unsustainable and undesirable all of the sudden? What is the "change" that will happen? 2) Do you mean UA's position against whatever changes? Or are you including Scarborough's position as UA's position? If its the latter, yes our Polymer is not only tops in the state, but also in the nation (or close to it). Our Engineering programs are pretty great in general. However, UA has a lot of great programs. Nursing and Education are ones I believe. The business school overall is top 100 in the nation, with many of the programs within it top 100 as well. A couple current notable alums just in accounting off of the top of my head are Lt. Governor Mary Taylor and Brad Dickerson (Under Armour CFO). I believe UA was the first Ohio school to implement as Master's of Tax program. You can look now and see that most other Universities in the state have followed suit. The Law school isn't held in high regard nationally I don't believe, but what I do know is Akron students continuously rank #1 in the state in passing the BAR for first time testers. 3) Present state, it is kind of unfortunate that Can't and Akron have to split the regional power base. What or who do you think they will end up being absorbed by if the status quo is maintained? 4 and 5) You point out that you don't want the university to be some satellite campus, but then you go on to say all of the NEO universities need to somehow merge, which will, in essence, make UA into a satellite campus. You mention Can't and Akron somehow combining. How is that going to work? One sports team? A whole new name? Are two separate campus' really cost effective? Have you ever seen what happens when two rival high schools have to consolidate? Its a mess. There are so many conflicting interests along with agendas, not to mention a ton of money involved, I don't see how its plausible at a mega-state university level. What does is the benefit of merging anyways? There seems to be very little opportunity to cut expenses from this (administration seems to be about it assuming you're going to want to keep two separate sports programs), and a ton of expenses in rebranding. I would have to imagine alumni donations would take a huge hit as well. Why would I donate to a school that I have no connection to? New York does it as well. What is the benefit of this system? If it is so good, why are so few states doing it? California isn't a state I'd want to follow when it comes to the topic of fiscal responsibility or "branding" schools for that matter. For every UC- school you have heard of, there is at least one you haven't heard of. Akron is a lot more recognizable UC-Riverside on a national stage. Not to mention, CA has the Cal State- system as well. Which most have probably very little familiarity with any of them.

I was thinking the same thing. We should strive to be as well known as UW-Stout and Florida Polytech. Clearly has worked out well for them! I'm still waiting for an answer on what this "survival" mode is supposed to mean. Is UA going to cease to exist if there isn't some drastic change?

Sorry, hate it. Still leaves the door wide open to a name change in the future, even makes it probable in my eyes. You can concentrate your resources more polytech/STEM/whatever and not have to change the name to go along with it. What exactly does "survival" mode mean?

I'm a huge fan of Homage. Have many of their Cleveland shirts. Not a fan of their Akron designs. The one I was looking at, they no longer apparently make.

Balsy talking about his source inspired me to do some investigating myself. I'm sure this will get some laughs (and I don't blame you), but I wouldn't post if I didn't trust the source. My connection has a very good connection with somebody who is directly associated the Scarborough family. The name change was/is a consideration. Apparently Scarborough is pissed that it got leaked and is only back peddling because of the backlash.

These MIT and Boston U physicists agree. http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/01/26/scientists-agree-that-football-will-lose-air-pressure-when-moved-cooler-place/2KfFPHn9dARXXCwMgBMSkO/story.html

Somewhat of a summary of a cost/benefit analysis along with some other interesting tidbits (the MAC covered 4 million in expenses for NIU's Orange Bowl) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leigh-steinberg/is-the-weedeater-bowl-gam_b_2421520.html The actual report if you care enough to purchase http://www.nber.org/papers/w18196

For the record, I don't really care either what what somebody's preference is. Who cares as long as they are using correct football. There are disadvantages to under and overinflated footballs as well. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/01/20/aaron-rodgers-likes-his-footballs-overinflated/

I like football more. The bowl provides teams with an extra month or so of practice, additional exposure, excitement about the program (more involved fan base= more merchandise and ticket sales), and a benefit to recruiting. Teams and Universities feel it is worth the cost. I don't care enough to look it up, but I am pretty sure there is some compensation for bowl games.