UConn - New York City - UCONN Connection

[auggie22]

I like the general idea behind it but you don't really want your President pumping up NYC if you're a Conn. state politician. The whole point behind taxpayer money going to a state university is to educate the citizens of the state so that they will enrich the state in a variety of ways. Can't imagine the pols were thrilled to hear her say that.

On the other hand, it may very well be accepted that many of those who succeed in NYC eventually move back to Connecticut to continue their careers, but I certainly hope there'd be some evidence of that happening.

I would hope ct tax payers would understand the importance of selling NYC on ct.

 

[huskymedic]

Wait til you see UConn Columbus-Ohio Connection video!

It's part of our Big Ten push - it highlights the 11 UConn graduates currently living in Ohio.

Heard it shows SH getting a Block C tattoo on her lower back from some guy who used to run a tat shop in Willimantic but moved because he got an offer to do B1G tats for tOSU.

 

[Sportsman5]

22k alum in NYC seems awfully low. I feel like it has to be a lot more than that.

Probably 22k living in NYC. Living in CT and commuting in to work I'm sure is a much higher number.

 

[ZooCougar]

Need to make that 30 second spot and pump it out during every televised game.

 

[J187Money]

I know most of the people in the video. I've been hammering the NYC point home to anyone that matters at the school. We are making progress but it was ignored for 20+ years other than for the BE tournament week.

Herbst has been spending a LOT of time in the city (she was at a lunch yesterday) and the Foundation folks are trying to make things happen but it has not been easy. Her focus on it is changing how Storrs thinks of it. Lots of years of neglect to overcome.

We now have the largest Alumni chapter outside of CT, we set up an endowed scholarship for NYC kids to go to UConn. Just the beginning. But even 5 years ago there was nothing.

For this to work everyone needs to rally and get involved. Over a long period of time.

 

[Stinger92860]

They need to pump that video, which I thought was good. I'd also like to see UConn market in Fairfield County. I wonder if they would consider a UConn club, much like Penn, etc.

 

[Stinger92860]

It's a good thing that we as UConn fans only focus on the positives!!

 

[J187Money]

They need to pump that video, which I thought was good. I'd also like to see UConn market in Fairfield County. I wonder if they would consider a UConn club, much like Penn, etc.

You mean like the Harvard Club / Columbia Club / Yale Club / etc?

Not a bad idea in theory, but even those clubs have had trouble and many of them have converged or run joint operations now. Too much competition for the entertainment $ etc in NYC, and not as many opportunities for traditional networking. Also time, etc factors into things. Who takes 3H lunches anymore or can take dinner in the city and go home at 10pm? The days of Mad Men are long gone. At some point I'm probably going to join the Columbia Club (where I got my MBA) but it also has a top notch gym and a hotel in it. But even so, it is very pricey and wouldn't scale most likely for UConn.

I could argue, however, that if they really ramp up the NYC fundraising, that it might be worth trying to set up an endowment for some permanent "hub" in the city with some meeting space, even if it isn't something large like a "club"...having a home base to host events could be useful.

(of course the counterargument to that is that NYC people generally like to be wowed, and don't like going to the same place all of the time)

 

[J187Money]

I like the general idea behind it but you don't really want your President pumping up NYC if you're a Conn. state politician. The whole point behind taxpayer money going to a state university is to educate the citizens of the state so that they will enrich the state in a variety of ways. Can't imagine the pols were thrilled to hear her say that.

On the other hand, it may very well be accepted that many of those who succeed in NYC eventually move back to Connecticut to continue their careers, but I certainly hope there'd be some evidence of that happening.

The strange thing is that I live in CT, but work in NYC, and no matter how much money I make nearly ALL of my state tax dollars go to NY, which are credited against my NYC return. To be fair I do spend more "awake" hours in NYC than I do in CT, but other than property/sales taxes NY gets a lot more of my money than CT does.

But the argument I've made to Herbst (which she gets) and others (which some of them don't get or don't care about because for someone in Storrs paying attention to NYC makes their day-to-day job harder and not easier)...is that if someone is good at something, they can make X in CT and some multiple of that in NYC. To keep them engaged means that when it comes to donating they have more disposable income and if they are engaged they are likely to give back to the school. But the school (because of proximity reasons) has to WORK to keep that pipeline open. Because I live in CT and go to all the football games and have MBB tix, I'm not a hard sell. But people in their 50s/60s who work/live in NYC and have lots of $ and have been ignored since they left the state need to be cultivated again, as the school was a dump when they went there and most of the athletic success didn't start while they were in school either.

 

[J187Money]

But to directly address Upstater's point - you have to go where the money is. And if spending X while focusing on NYC brings a positive yield to the school in terms of the endowment (which I'm 100% certain it will), it is a no brainer.

 

[upstater]

But to directly address Upstater's point - you have to go where the money is. And if spending X while focusing on NYC brings a positive yield to the school in terms of the endowment (which I'm 100% certain it will), it is a no brainer.

I agree that you want moneyed NYC people donating to the school. On the other hand, states subsidize education because -- at least in the pre-2008 past -- a good public education system meant more educated citizens and citizens with better skills and more wealth for the state.

 

[buckley503]

aren't there cuter alum in the city that could have been used? just sayin'.

 

[J187Money]

aren't there cuter alum in the city that could have been used? just sayin'.

Tough crowd. Nearly all of them are either officers or NYC Alumni Chapter members. It wasn't an open audition or anything.

(btw everytime I see you post I just laugh at all of the shenanigans that went on in Buckley 503 when I lived there)

 

[J187Money]

I agree that you want moneyed NYC people donating to the school. On the other hand, states subsidize education because -- at least in the pre-2008 past -- a good public education system meant more educated citizens and citizens with better skills and more wealth for the state.

Right. But having a school with a higher profile works two ways. It makes the school/state more attractive to OOS people. And it makes UCONN people more attractive to OOS endeavors / employers. Creating a net positive with more people having "ties" to the state has to be a net positive, even if on a day-to-day basis it is neutral on a population basis. In the pre-Calhoun era, nobody went to UCONN from OOS (especially from outside of New England). Although the student demographics / applicants have changed markedly, there is still a very insular culture in Storrs, and until that layer of long-timers is replaced by staff/faculty that have gone out there and "seen the world"...the perception of the school will change only marginally.

When I was at UCONN, it seemed that virtually everyone I knew was going to "graduate, live with parents and work in Hartford" as if there was no other choice. The fact that I went to work "all the way down in Stamford" made me a maverick. When I started commuting to the city (I've always lived in CT post-grad) it is like I moved to Guam and fell off the map completely. That mindset is what needs to change.

 

[huskiesnyc]

22k alum in NYC seems awfully low. I feel like it has to be a lot more than that.

22k is not accurate and certainly not a selling point, so why does our administration bring it up? Unfortunately our current "leaders" are clueless in the art of sales, negotiation and particularly public relations/marketing. I give the school a ZERO in the PR category.

 

[huskymedic]

22k is not accurate and certainly not a selling point, so why does our administration bring it up? Unfortunately our current "leaders" are clueless in the art of sales, negotiation and particularly public relations/marketing. I give the school a ZERO in the PR category.

What's the right number?

 

[huskiesnyc]

What's the right number?

I don't know but 22k does not sound like a lot in a city of 6 million people. I live here and it seems like there are a lot more than that. No one is impressed with 22,000 fans in NYC so why even bring it up? It's more of a joke than a selling point

 

[specialisthusky]

I don't know but 22k does not sound like a lot in a city of 6 million people. I live here and it seems like there are a lot more than that. No one is impressed with 22,000 fans in NYC so why even bring it up? It's more of a joke than a selling point

any chance the 22k is the registered number of the NYC Alumni chapter? I agree that can not be the total. I know at least 20 students I knew and graduated with that ended up in the city and probably double that number in Boston. About 5 of us ended up in Hartford which was lower than I expected.

 

[Rumrunner]

You guys are all off-base. One thing people forget is that uconn is a small school versus big ten schools. When undergrad pop was 13k ten years ago, puts alumni #'s in perspective.

There are about 10k alumni in New York. 6k in NJ. Aton that live in fairfield cty, work in ny. The ratio in ny is sky high. but total #'s, no



http://www.oir.uconn.edu/Alumni12_State.pdf

 

[pj]

22k is 0.3% of the population ... UConn's enrollment of 21k is 0.1% of the 18-22 year olds in the country ... So it's not completely out of the ballpark. You would expect UConn grads would be more common in NYC than in the country as a whole, but not 10 times as common, so 3 times is probably not far off. ... Of course that's only within the NYC limits, if you count the whole metropolitan area it must be much larger.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

I'd also like to see UConn market in Fairfield County. I wonder if they would consider a UConn club, much like Penn, etc.

In Manhattan, Connecticut alumni association members had / have access to potentially use The Williams Club of New York.

 

[Doggie Style]

In Manhattan, Connecticut alumni association members had / have access to potentially use The Williams Club of New York.

How so?

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

How so?

Read the link - apply, pay (if accepted?).