Herbst to give state of university address on Thurs...last yr, no mention of CR

[Rumrunner]

President Herbst gives her second annual state of the university address Thurs., April 4.

http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2013/03...econd-annual-state-of-the-university-address/

Last year's address is found here

http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2012/04...in-inaugural-state-of-the-university-address/

The text of last year's speech is lost on the UConn site somewhere, but in it she did not mention UConn's conference problem, nor did she make any arguable allusions to it. I guess that snub of the issue was prophetic and perhaps intentional.


Likea a good Warde disciple, I'll be monitoring this year's speech for any hint of UConn's future. Last year's was admittedly a big disappointment, and I remember some here stating that the speech wasn't the proper place for her to enlighten the UConn community to any degree on that issue. However, if not during the state of the university address, then when? So here's to any glimmer of hope she can provide.

 

[Husky25]

...
The text of last year's speech is lost on the UConn site somewhere, but in it she did not mention UConn's conference problem, nor did she make any arguable allusions to it. I guess that snub of the issue was prophetic and perhaps intentional.


Likea a good Warde disciple, I'll be monitoring this year's speech for any hint of UConn's future. Last year's was admittedly a big disappointment, and I remember some here stating that the speech wasn't the proper place for her to enlighten the UConn community in any degree on that issue. However, if not during the state of the university address, then where?

Last year at this time, I don't recall UConn and the C2bNL being in such a precarious position as they are today.

 

[Nostical]

I remember some here stating that the speech wasn't the proper place for her to enlighten the UConn community to any degree on "CR". However, if not during the state of the university address, then where?

It's implausable for her to talk about it there. "As for the state of our university's athletic conference affiliation, here's the latest. We're excited as all heck to be in our new, yet unamed conference, but you should know that we are (and will continue to be) working round the clock in a relentless effort to get out."

 

[noeynox]

I still don't think you should expect to hear anything because there is no secret invite were sitting on. I think obviously she is trying to position the school in the best possible spot to to make us attractive to other conferences. Our athletics accomplishments haven't done the trick, so she ifs trying to elevate the academics. Only time will tell how successful she is.

 

[freescooter]

Um, she's trying to elevate academics because UConn actually is short for the University of Connecticut and academics is really the purpose of a University...

 

[CL82]

Is it me 'scooter or I have been agreeing with you a lot lately? Conference realignment must have made me cranky.

 

[CL82]

It's implausable for her to talk about it there. "As for the state of our university's athletic conference affiliation, here's the latest. We're excited as all heck to be in our new, yet unamed conference, but you should know that we are (and will continue to be) working round the clock in a relentless effort to get out."

I'd expect that that she'll touch upon the successes, WBB, MBB inspiring run this year, football having best recruiting class, soccer, baseball, and the new hockey affiliation etc. She will specifically address academic successes of the players. She'll make some comment that we are constantly reevaluating the program to do what's best for the university...we are an enthusiatic member of the league (to be named) , and that the tradition of excellence at UConn will continue. Probably spend no more than 3 minutes on it.

 

[Rumrunner]

If we had a secret invite that you knew of then it wouldn't be a secret, eh?

I like to think of the "secret invite" as less of an invite than a dialogue amongst a few select individuals representing UConn and other similarly high level people of a prospective conference in which UConn has polled their interest under a variety of circumstances and conditions, and received a favorable response.

But with respect to the State of the University Address, the AD represents a significant portion of the revenue and expense of the university as a whole, and arguably is the university's most visible face to the world, so to not mention once athletics, the athletic department, nor its future seems odd. I have no idea if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but it is an odd thing.

 

[CTGoonie]

I still don't think you should expect to hear anything because there is no secret invite were sitting on. I think obviously she is trying to position the school in the best possible spot to to make us attractive to other conferences. Our athletics accomplishments haven't done the trick, so she ifs trying to elevate the academics. Only time will tell how successful she is.

If there is a "secret invite" she obviously wouldn't talk about it because then, well, it wouldn't be secret anymore. Just sayin...

 

[noeynox]

If there is a "secret invite" she obviously wouldn't talk about it because then, well, it wouldn't be secret anymore. Just sayin...

Yeah i get this. I just don't know what people expect her to say. Does she come out and say our current conference is unacceptable? That would alienate the current schools in our conference. She is literally in a no win situation here.

There are two things I wish she did different. Hire a mover and shaker as an AD, and not give the impression of passivity when the ACC picked Louisville.

Scooter, your right as president of the school its her job to elevate academics. Not disagreeing there.

 

[ZooCougar]

That's so Novel! Thanks. Will Monitor!!!!

 

[businesslawyer]

Yeah i get this. I just don't know what people expect her to say. Does she come out and say our current conference is unacceptable? That would alienate the current schools in our conference. She is literally in a no win situation here.

There are two things I wish she did different. Hire a mover and shaker as an AD, and not give the impression of passivity when the ACC picked Louisville.

Scooter, your right as president of the school its her job to elevate academics. Not disagreeing there.

It is extremely unlikely that having a less passive public face when we lost out to Louisville would have changed anything. I understand it would have made many happy, but it would not have changed anything.

 

[noeynox]

Your probably right. We will never know, and I will always say if it didn't matter why was Louisville so vocal?

 

[Rumrunner]

I would have settled for a passive face so long as it wasn't an idiotic face:


https://twitter.com/jacobscourant/status/273658325579747328

Jeff Jacobs ‏@jacobscourant
Per report ACC vote in am and Louisville likely to win, UConn AD Warde Manuel said, "I think we are the best choice by far but I am biased."

It is extremely unlikely that having a less passive public face when we lost out to Louisville would have changed anything. I understand it would have made many happy, but it would not have changed anything.

 

[Fishy]

Screaming "Pick us! Pick us!" wasn't going to work.

Academics and markets were thrown out the window in a big, bad way and they let the southern-most football schools have their pick.

This is not hard to understand and yet it seems to be.

 

[The Funster]

It is extremely unlikely that having a less passive public face when we lost out to Louisville would have changed anything. I understand it would have made many happy, but it would not have changed anything.

One could say that had we a less passive face we would have looked much much worse. Imagine how we would have looked if campaigned hard and still lost. There was no way we were winning over Louisville in that scenario

 

[Fishy]

Honestly, there are a couple of people here who will not be mollified until they hear Herbst and Manuel say that this conference absolutely blows and that we're miserable to be involved with it. It's not enough to know that they think it, but they have to actually hear it from them and they won't stop griping until they do.

It can't happen. It'd be fun if it did, but it can't happen.

Suz can't throw a blurb into the state of the school address about anything about trying to move to this conference or that conference. I'd like to hear it, but she can't say it - so be prepared for it.

 

[jostar1]

Maybe she'll say "research university" and "land-grant school" a couple of times and give us some hope.

 

[SAMCRO]

If she references a big 10 point plan to continuing the growth and stature of our university, making it one of the top public land grant research instituations in the nation, with our anchors in the greater NY metropolitan and New England research markets.... there's your sign.

 

[NHUConnfan]

If she says anything about athletics it will be this:

• Unveiling of new logo
• Women in another final four
• Opening of the new basketball facility

 

[Rumrunner]

While the text of last year's speech is unavailable and I haven't watched the video replay, it's my recollection that there was no mention of athletics, in any form, much less CR. So if she mention's wbb, baseball, ollie, calhoun, anything, it will be more than what she did last year.

She purposefully did not mention athletics, and I say purposefully, because it is a state of the university address, and while academics are the primary function of a university, the athletic department isn't a separate entity. Herbst isn't an idiot when it comes to communicating with the public.


As far as mollifying the pavlovian cavemen of sports, it is an understanable expectation that leaders lead. I guess we can can go down the road of "what do you expect her to say, 'the metro is a mid major conference that will inexorably doom UConn to irrelevancy as it attempts to compete with its former peers making 20x the revenue from tv and playoff revenue"? But that's a red herring. I don't expect her to say that; likewise I don't expect her to say that she is excited about this new conference and the novel ways in which it will compete. The former is a politically incorrect statement, the latter a disingenuous one.

What is not too much to ask is to be told (after all that is what leaders do to those who are being led) what is the vision for UConn going forward. Cf what Cincy has been up to. Call it simple feel-good publicity, but never forget that an army marches on its stomach, and right now for UConn fans, the only food available to us is hope.

We all aren't idiots here, and I doubt any of you would be completely disinterested in what she has to say Thursday. And for those whose first instinct is to mock by clever words those who look forward to her speech, why then did you bother to read this thread?

 

[NHUConnfan]

You also have to remember that she was relatively new at that time last year. Her first priorities were cleaning up the messes left by Hogan. She's been doing a good job, UConn is heading in the right direction. The athletic program is took a wrong turn somewhere, but I'm very positive it'll find its way back.

When all is said and done, UConn will be somewhere good by the end of CR. Just have to wait for the Pac-12 to kick off another round. Until they get to 16, CR will be at play. Right now, being in the B12 and ACC is pretty close to being in the Big East last year...they're prime for poaching by the SEC, Pac-12, and B1G. At the very least, what we're getting next year is a little stability. We won't be forgotten. In fact, I'm hoping that this NBE is what the doctor ordered to get our football program back in the right direction...either by owning the league or actually giving Warde Manuel the reason to fire PP once and for all.

 

[CTGoonie]

For those of you looking for hidden messages the event will be streamed live here at noon today.

 

[jostar1]

 

[Rumrunner]

Unlike last year, she addressed CR and athletics. Very short:

When she spoke of the challenges UConn faces, she mentioned conference realignment and that it "won't be settled for a very long time, so be patient"
-Counts her blessing for Geno (man with one name), Kevin Ollie, Penders, Ray Reid




Her speech touched on:

-7k students graduating in next couple of months, 200k alumni total, many in northeast
-hits research as first major theme
-faculty: growth of UConn was being held back by faculty, so she started expanding faculty, contribute to 500 new faculty
-adding faculty is her number one priority
-profiled some of the new hires
-gave credit to nonfaculty staff
-outlines UConn's economic contribution to economy
-increased grants to UConn students important to attracting students, that has doubled in past 7 years
-Sandy Hook fund is now standing at more than $1m
-state of the univeristy is strong. agents of our own destiny. won't settle for being good enough
-mentions Berkeley and Michigan as schools Uconn should stand with, become top 10 public institution
-Highlights STEM legislation, if it passes, how impactful it would be on UConn
-relocation of West Hartford campus, highlights the benefit to Hartford, where it will be will be decided by summer
-says the sour grapes of ct state universities are misplaced, UConn is unique
-Jackson Labs and building out at UConn Health Center, increasing emphasis on bioscience
-UConn Tech Park at Storrs getting off the ground, advanced manufacturing, genomic, nano tech and media. 900k square feet is the goal
-says nonSTEM faculty just as important as STEM
-Communication- marketing and branding of the University. She gets queasy, but Not a breakfast cereal, not a detergent, need to compete in the world, need to present ourselves at the very best. how the audience perceives us influences their choice.
-UConn branding, not a bad thing
-UConn is being adopted as one primary mark, still the University of Connecticut in its formal name, but the brand is UConn
-She lays out the history of the husky, from the 1950's on, next generation improved on it, will not be mean, snarling, not frighten small children, sleek beautiful animal, will be unveiled April 18, designed by Nike on their dime
-While a lot of positives, UConn faces share of challenges
-state funding always a challenge, but manageable
-Endowment needs to be larger, looking for new president of UConn Foundation, wants to be $1 billion
-Athletics, Conference realignment, won't be settled for a very long time, so be patient
-Counts her blessing for Geno (man with one name), Kevin Ollie, Penders, Ray Reid