More Cuts coming to Akron ...

[ZipCat]

Article Here.

 

This stuff makes me sick. The utter incompetence of the Board of Trustees, the Administration over years. Absolutely pathetic and infuriating as an Akron Alumni.

 

And you know they're going to balance the budget on the backs of the workers...again. Just pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

[Zip_ME87]

Pathetic that there has been no strategic plan for growth...seemingly, just cuts and more cuts. That's as unsustainable as the debt. Hopefully, Nemer has or can develop a plan and put the right leaders in place to help him.

 

[GP1]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulweinstein/2023/08/28/administrative-bloat-at-us-colleges-is-skyrocketing/

 

The growth of non faculty staff in recent years isn't isolated to Akron. They need to focus on non faculty and prioritize the cuts there. 

[Hilltopper]

19 hours ago, ZipCat said:

Article Here.

 

This stuff makes me sick. The utter incompetence of the Board of Trustees, the Administration over years. Absolutely pathetic and infuriating as an Akron Alumni.

 

And you know they're going to balance the budget on the backs of the workers...again. Just pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

It's a business, not a charity. There are departments that have very few students and cost millions to operate. And don't try to equate athletics to this. By virtue of accounting methods, athletics is in a different place. They get charged full rate for every scholarship but get zero credit back for every athlete paying their own way. 

[ZipCat]

25 minutes ago, Hilltopper said:

It's a business, not a charity. There are departments that have very few students and cost millions to operate. And don't try to equate athletics to this. By virtue of accounting methods, athletics is in a different place. They get charged full rate for every scholarship but get zero credit back for every athlete paying their own way. 

 

No, it's an institution of Higher Learning, not a Business. And treating educational institutions as if they are businesses is what has led to their decline.

 

I mean, we can equate athletics to this. The amount of debt accepted by the U to expand athletics when you couldn't ever actually be competitive in it (football) is one of the biggest blunders in the history of the University. But it's fine, we'll just continually cut the people who do the real work of the University (educating students) and balancing the budgets on their backs, so administrators can make absurd salaries padding their resumes so they can move onto something more lucrative somewhere else and fund their yachts.

 

It's sick, and the fact that you can even attempt to defend it is sick.

[GP1]

5 minutes ago, ZipCat said:

 

No, it's an institution of Higher Learning, not a Business. And treating educational institutions as if they are businesses is what has led to their decline.

 

I mean, we can equate athletics to this. The amount of debt accepted by the U to expand athletics when you couldn't ever actually be competitive in it (football) is one of the biggest blunders in the history of the University. But it's fine, we'll just continually cut the people who do the real work of the University (educating students) and balancing the budgets on their backs, so administrators can make absurd salaries padding their resumes so they can move onto something more lucrative somewhere else and fund their yachts.

 

It's sick, and the fact that you can even attempt to defend it is sick.

It's more than a place for higher learning. It's a taxpayer supported public institution. As such, it needs to be responsible with the taxpayers of Ohio money. I find it disheartening that only one in three employees are full time faculty. The scandal is not the cutting. The scandal is the poor management of universities throughout the country. This mismanagement has resulted in students having to pay an enormous amount in tuition and fees to support a bunch of people nobody can exactly figure out what they do for a living, or what their value is to the students. These additional fees have largely been paid for with student loans that harm both the student and society long term. 

[ZippyRulz]

The Ohio taxpayers vote for the clowns in Columbus that appoint the university trustees. They haven't a leg to stand on.

 

[zippy5]

19 hours ago, ZipCat said:

 

No, it's an institution of Higher Learning, not a Business. And treating educational institutions as if they are businesses is what has led to their decline.

 

I mean, we can equate athletics to this. The amount of debt accepted by the U to expand athletics when you couldn't ever actually be competitive in it (football) is one of the biggest blunders in the history of the University. But it's fine, we'll just continually cut the people who do the real work of the University (educating students) and balancing the budgets on their backs, so administrators can make absurd salaries padding their resumes so they can move onto something more lucrative somewhere else and fund their yachts.

 

It's sick, and the fact that you can even attempt to defend it is sick.

That debt isn't going anywhere, regardless of it was a good idea or not

[ClevelandZip]

They can cut and cut until there’s nothing left. I just hope this new president can help come up with a good marketing plan to get enrollment/revenue up. I would have loved to do my master’s at Akron but they don’t offer a master’s in my program. Meanwhile, I’m doing it at Kansas State, all online, where they have hundreds of people in the program from across the world.

 

We can crap on Scarbie all we want, but he did at least see the value in online education. It’s low cost and high profit. A broken clock is right twice a day, I suppose.

[GP1]

3 hours ago, ClevelandZip said:

online education. It’s low cost and high profit. 

Don't forget low value. Look, I have a masters degree back from when they weren't required. Today, people have them to trick the AI in Workday so your resume moves forward. 

 

For universities, masters programs are little more than money grabs adapted to the changing work requirements. 

[ClevelandZip]

48 minutes ago, GP1 said:

Don't forget low value. Look, I have a masters degree back from when they weren't required. Today, people have them to trick the AI in Workday so your resume moves forward. 

 

For universities, masters programs are little more than money grabs adapted to the changing work requirements. 

Mine has been very worthwhile and very affordable.

[ZippyRulz]

4 hours ago, ClevelandZip said:

They can cut and cut until there’s nothing left. I just hope this new president can help come up with a good marketing plan to get enrollment/revenue up. I would have loved to do my master’s at Akron but they don’t offer a master’s in my program. Meanwhile, I’m doing it at Kansas State, all online, where they have hundreds of people in the program from across the world.

 

We can crap on Scarbie all we want, but he did at least see the value in online education. It’s low cost and high profit. A broken clock is right twice a day, I suppose.

 

Need to get the educational ranking up in order to increase applications/enrollment. It's hard to get the ranking up with budget crises caused by declining enrollment. We're in a bad Catch-22 and yes, we lack corporate support let alone state support. Hopefully Nemer can recognize the issues and formulate a plan of action.

 

[GP1]

1 hour ago, ClevelandZip said:

Mine has been very worthwhile and very affordable.

I got mine in 1993 and remember almost nothing. It did help me get jobs in my younger years. I also got a full scholarship so it was very affordable. One of the best hoops I've ever jumped through. 

[ClevelandZip]

11 minutes ago, GP1 said:

I got mine in 1993 and remember almost nothing. It did help me get jobs in my younger years. I also got a full scholarship so it was very affordable. One of the best hoops I've ever jumped through. 

That’s fair. I’m sure many programs can just be a matter of how much effort is put into learning the material, and some may be a waste of time. But my point is if other colleges are picking up easy revenue from this, why not Akron? I believe Akron launched an online MBA recently, but should have 10 years ago and gotten ahead of the curve to differentiate themselves. Now they’re playing catch-up with established “brands.”

[GP1]

9 minutes ago, ClevelandZip said:

That’s fair. I’m sure many programs can just be a matter of how much effort is put into learning the material, and some may be a waste of time. But my point is if other colleges are picking up easy revenue from this, why not Akron? I believe Akron launched an online MBA recently, but should have 10 years ago and gotten ahead of the curve to differentiate themselves. Now they’re playing catch-up with established “brands.”

I would prefer they focus on scholarship so I prefer the programs such as joint MBA and JD programs. 

 

While I think online MBA programs are a joke, corporate America is unnecessary driving it. Most corporate jobs mid level managers and below don't need mbas. 

[zip-O-matic]

It seems like only yesterday that Proenza was telling everyone that UA was on the cusp of replacing Ohio State as the state's flagship.  We've had some bad Presidents since, but that guy was all talk, all spend and no accomplishment.  

[GP1]

52 minutes ago, zip-O-matic said:

It seems like only yesterday that Proenza was telling everyone that UA was on the cusp of replacing Ohio State as the state's flagship.  We've had some bad Presidents since, but that guy was all talk, all spend and no accomplishment.  

There were hundreds of guys like him working at MAClike schools across the country back then. 

[zip-O-matic]

28 minutes ago, GP1 said:

There were hundreds of guys like him working at MAClike schools across the country back then. 

 

Which is why a California type system is best.  Institutional roles are legally defined.  There's no wasteful empire building.  And everyone knows to stay in their lane.  Imagine a President of San Diego State or even UC-Davis going around calling for "multiple flagships."  How long would he stay employed?

[Hilltopper]

2 hours ago, zip-O-matic said:

 

Which is why a California type system is best.  Institutional roles are legally defined.  There's no wasteful empire building.  And everyone knows to stay in their lane.  Imagine a President of San Diego State or even UC-Davis going around calling for "multiple flagships."  How long would he stay employed?

I think this is the mindset of the current BOT and trustees. Concentrate on a few majors and cut out the ones where we will never be able to attract enough students to justify their existence. 

[zip-O-matic]

Ohio's system was broke in the 60s.  Because of the empire building, we have the same number of public university law schools as California and only one fewer medical school.  There are tons of redundant Ph.D programs that--outside of Ohio State--don't crack the top 100, even at Cincinnati.  Because Ohio State had one, Miami felt the need to have a Russian Studies major, despite having only a single historian in the field and nobody in political science.  They don't even have a Russian major, much less other Slavic languages.  But Ohio State had one, so they needed one too.

[ZipCat]

On 11/4/2024 at 8:30 AM, zippy5 said:

That debt isn't going anywhere, regardless of it was a good idea or not

 

But it's important to point out the bad decisions that created it, the decision making process that made it, the philosophy that made it, and call it out. It's important to make sure to properly assign the blame or why it exists as bad as it does and not shitf the blame to things that didn't cause it.

[ZipCat]

On 11/5/2024 at 7:57 PM, zip-O-matic said:

Ohio's system was broke in the 60s.  Because of the empire building, we have the same number of public university law schools as California and only one fewer medical school.  There are tons of redundant Ph.D programs that--outside of Ohio State--don't crack the top 100, even at Cincinnati.  Because Ohio State had one, Miami felt the need to have a Russian Studies major, despite having only a single historian in the field and nobody in political science.  They don't even have a Russian major, much less other Slavic languages.  But Ohio State had one, so they needed one too.

 

Which is political decisions that should be solved through competent state legislation. Essentially the State institutions were thrown bootstraps and a Laissez-faire, Ayn Rand free market competition, instead of coherent planning strategy by competent management who gives a damn about it.

[zip-O-matic]

2 hours ago, ZipCat said:

 

Which is political decisions that should be solved through competent state legislation. Essentially the State institutions were thrown bootstraps and a Laissez-faire, Ayn Rand free market competition, instead of coherent planning strategy by competent management who gives a damn about it.

 

Yes.  At the same time Ohio was undoing any regulation and structure to its system, California was instituting the exact opposite called "The Master Plan."  Guess who ended up with the better and more affordable system.  The problem is how do you put that toothpaste back into the tube.  Get the colleges to just finally and formally accept that Ohio State is Ohio State and that they are not.  And don't get me started on the tantrum that the Toledo Blade would throw.

[egregiousbob]

You do realize that the political considerations you criticize are responsible for making UA a state university in the 1960s.  There's a legitimate case to be made that 2 state universities within 12 miles of one another was simply bad business.

 

As for current round of budget cuts, I have heard there's growing sentiment among trustees and the administration that it's time to de-emphasize football.  Simply no ROI in the existing business case.

 

 

[ZipCat]

16 minutes ago, egregiousbob said:

I have heard there's growing sentiment among trustees and the administration that it's time to de-emphasize football

 

That would certainly be welcomed news, but 16 years too late. Football should have been de-emphasized when you had a dilapidating stadium.