Kevin Ollie

[UConnDan97]

Then you wouldn't be throwing Herbst's name around like a pawn. Seriously, that's something everyone on this board needs to freaking learn.

If you would be so kind as to inform all of us on the board with what we "need to freaking learn" in the matter of Herbst, please do so. I cannot say that her list of accomplishments is very long at all, although she hasn't been here for very long and I'm sure she will have her chances to perform. I know that she is successfully embarking upon a large faculty expansion to help with the teacher to student ratios, but let's not forget that it comes with a 5%-6% tuition hike on the students as well (although I think it is the right thing to do and necessary for the university).

So again, with all due respect, outside of that accomplishment, I can't wait to hear the long list of achievements that we should all freaking learn about...

 

[upstater]

If you would be so kind as to inform all of us on the board with what we "need to freaking learn" in the matter of Herbst, please do so. I cannot say that her list of accomplishments is very long at all, although she hasn't been here for very long and I'm sure she will have her chances to perform. I know that she is successfully embarking upon a large faculty expansion to help with the teacher to student ratios, but let's not forget that it comes with a 5%-6% tuition hike on the students as well (although I think it is the right thing to do and necessary for the university).

So again, with all due respect, outside of that accomplishment, I can't wait to hear the long list of achievements that we should all freaking learn about...

I doubt the tuition hike is because of increasing faculty. Quite the opposite. Dwindling resources. UConn like all schools has lot faculty over the last 5 years, not added.

 

[UConnDan97]

I doubt the tuition hike is because of increasing faculty. Quite the opposite. Dwindling resources. UConn like all schools has lot faculty over the last 5 years, not added.

No, I was speaking of an actual plan that she has put in place. They are going to raise the tuition approximately 5-6% this year and about 17% over four years in order to increase faculty members and reduce student to teacher ratios. This is a real thing, I'm not making it up:

http://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2012/06/06/uconn-hiring-plan-includes-65-new-faculty-in-fall/

 

[NHUConnfan]

If you would be so kind as to inform all of us on the board with what we "need to freaking learn" in the matter of Herbst, please do so. I cannot say that her list of accomplishments is very long at all, although she hasn't been here for very long and I'm sure she will have her chances to perform. I know that she is successfully embarking upon a large faculty expansion to help with the teacher to student ratios, but let's not forget that it comes with a 5%-6% tuition hike on the students as well (although I think it is the right thing to do and necessary for the university).

So again, with all due respect, outside of that accomplishment, I can't wait to hear the long list of achievements that we should all freaking learn about...

She's successfully cleaned out parts of the administration that were ineffective in their jobs (and this board should know that Hathaway was just one of those folks). She's started an initiative to raise the endowment past $1 billion in the next five years (already about $300 million in the right direction, about half way to our goal). She orchestrated a new lucrative TV deal for the women's basketball team. She also orchestrated UConn hockey into a relevant conference and thus will hopefully grow the potential of that program. She also has continued to see through Hogan's original expansion of the health center to completion.

For one year at the job, it's pretty amazing what she has done. Though she is increasing tuition to increase faculty, there is a larger emphasis on increasing the level of research (and thus, federal money) at UConn. In addition, this will only shoot UConn up the rankings of top public schools in the country (which by the way increased 7 slots since Herbst was hired). She's the best thing that's happened to this university since Jim Calhoun came back in 1986.

With someone with her ambition, we should be grateful for her service. It looks like we have a leader and president for the very long future in Herbst and UConn could really use the stability at a position that has been a revolving door since 2006.

 

[upstater]

Didn't the state of Conn. cut a huge chunk of money for UConn this year? This would make the idea that tuition increase = increases elsewhere questionable. I only say this because we have the same thing going on with the SUNY's. Huge planned expansions, some of these bills even went through the state legislature and were fought over. But in the face of 15% budget cuts, it makes you scratch your head and wonder why the advertising for these increases remains when the tuition hikes simply bring you back to where you already were. Unless, of course, state funding is eventually restored.

 

[Huskymaniac]

Didn't the state of Conn. cut a huge chunk of money for UConn this year? This would make the idea that tuition increase = increases elsewhere questionable. I only say this because we have the same thing going on with the SUNY's. Huge planned expansions, some of these bills even went through the state legislature and were fought over. But in the face of 15% budget cuts, it makes you scratch your head and wonder why the advertising for these increases remains when the tuition hikes simply bring you back to where you already were. Unless, of course, state funding is eventually restored.

I fear we are on the edge of an economic cliff that will feel like a nuclear winter for a couple of years. The thought of my kid having to go to a SUNY scares the crap out of me to the point I am considering moving across the border to PA. I told him he needs to be valedictorian so he can get special deals that schools like UConn give to out of state students who graduate first in their class. CT residents should consider themselves lucky that UConn is what it is.....

 

[upstater]

I fear we are on the edge of an economic cliff that will feel like a nuclear winter for a couple of years. The thought of my kid having to go to a SUNY scares the crap out of me to the point I am considering moving across the border to PA. I told him he needs to be valedictorian so he can get special deals that schools like UConn give to out of state students who graduate first in their class. CT residents should consider themselves lucky that UConn is what it is.....

If your kid is bright, the SUNY's have a pampered Honors school that tries to lure middle-to-upper class kids from the Ivies and top privates. The quality of education is similar as top faculty teach courses with very low student-teacher ratios, while the Honors classes are capped to only include Honors kids. Other than that, the SUNY's are just as good as PA schools and cost about half the price of PA schools.

 

[Huskymaniac]

I went to a graduate school that was the top school for the area of engineering I was studying. They had a policy to not accept SUNY graduates. That may have changed since that was some time ago but SUNYs are not viewed in the same light as UConn, Penn State or even UMass.

 

[upstater]

I went to a graduate school that was the top school for the area of engineering I was studying. They had a policy to not accept SUNY graduates. That may have changed since that was some time ago but SUNYs are not viewed in the same light as UConn, Penn State or even UMass.

Are you talking about the University centers or the satellite campuses?

3 of the SUNY University Centers are top 60 Research 1 and AAU schools with big research budgets.

I'm referring to Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook. Also, a policy not to accept any grads from certain schools is shocking on a practical if not ethical level.

 

[NHUConnfan]

Didn't the state of Conn. cut a huge chunk of money for UConn this year? This would make the idea that tuition increase = increases elsewhere questionable. I only say this because we have the same thing going on with the SUNY's. Huge planned expansions, some of these bills even went through the state legislature and were fought over. But in the face of 15% budget cuts, it makes you scratch your head and wonder why the advertising for these increases remains when the tuition hikes simply bring you back to where you already were. Unless, of course, state funding is eventually restored.

Because UConn is trying to put itself into the very selective crowd of public universities, whereas the majority of the SUNY schools are not. In 15-20 years, UConn will be synonymous with schools like UVa and Michigan.

 

[dapriest]

Also, a policy not to accept any grads from certain schools is shocking on a practical if not ethical level.

Nonsense. Utter Marxist nonsense, which is exactly what I'd expect from you Up, as a person who is in the system and who believes that the incredible rise in college costs over the last 20 years is not due to a dramatic increase in the number of HS kids going to college (in other words, demand).

Harvard Law School does not look at Central Connecticut graduates. And that is completely appropriate. It's done every day every where. UConn would not look to hire a basketball coach who last coached at Westconn, and that's appropriate. It's a simple screening and pedigree process - the screening has already been done by the previous institution, and the next institution up wants a certain pedigree. NBA teams don't look to regional rec leagues for players. In other words, when Harvard Law lists the undergrad institutions that were attended by their law students, they don't want "Central Connecticut" on the list. TOUGH NOUGIES.

That's the way of the world, and I'm (having gone to UConn and therefore not having the pedigree) completely fine with it.

Lord. College administrators like Upstater who claim that costs are not up because so many kids are going to college and who whine about "ethics" when they hear real world truisms are the crazies running the insane asylum.

I relish the fact that college attendance is going to fall off a cliff as the loans dry up and HS students start to figure out that college is a worthless debt trap for about 2/3rds of the kids currently going. Then and only then, when the tide goes out, will it be obvious that the fools holding the college reins are swimming without suits.

 

[NHUConnfan]

Are you talking about the University centers or the satellite campuses?

3 of the SUNY University Centers are top 60 Research 1 and AAU schools with big research budgets.

I'm referring to Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook. Also, a policy not to accept any grads from certain schools is shocking on a practical if not ethical level.

This happens all of the time. Maybe not ethical, but certainly standard practice. I know of programs in music that basically do the same thing.

 

[upstater]

This happens all of the time. Maybe not ethical, but certainly standard practice. I know of programs in music that basically do the same thing.

I want to know their names. It's pretty shoddy stuff. Second-rate stuff. But whatever. If people really think UMass is better than, say, 3 of these AAU schools with big research budgets, let them.

 

[upstater]

Nonsense. Utter Marxist nonsense, which is exactly what I'd expect from you Up, as a person who is in the system and who believes that the incredible rise in college costs over the last 20 years is not due to a dramatic increase in the number of HS kids going to college (in other words, demand).

Harvard Law School does not look at Central Connecticut graduates. And that is completely appropriate. It's done every day every where. UConn would not look to hire a basketball coach who last coached at Westconn, and that's appropriate. It's a simple screening and pedigree process - the screening has already been done by the previous institution, and the next institution up wants a certain pedigree. NBA teams don't look to regional rec leagues for players. In other words, when Harvard Law lists the undergrad institutions that were attended by their law students, they don't want "Central Connecticut" on the list. TOUGH NOUGIES.

That's the way of the world, and I'm (having gone to UConn and therefore not having the pedigree) completely fine with it.

Lord. College administrators like Upstater who claim that costs are not up because so many kids are going to college and who whine about "ethics" when they hear real world truisms are the crazies running the insane asylum.

I relish the fact that college attendance is going to fall off a cliff as the loans dry up and HS students start to figure out that college is a worthless debt trap for about 2/3rds of the kids currently going. Then and only then, when the tide goes out, will it be obvious that the fools holding the college reins are swimming without suits.

This guy's posts are increasingly demented. He also changed his screenname after he embarrassed himself last time. Not surprised at all by that recent batshit crazy post of his in the other thread.

 

[upstater]

Because UConn is trying to put itself into the very selective crowd of public universities, whereas the majority of the SUNY schools are not. In 15-20 years, UConn will be synonymous with schools like UVa and Michigan.

Three of the SUNY centers are already in the AAU.

Schools like UB already have UB2020 which is similar to what UConn's doing, a huge fundraising and expansion effort dedicated to adding 15,000 students and 1,000 new faculty. It's going on everywhere. You're being totally myopic here.

http://www.buffalo.edu/ub2020/about/news_and_progress/tripathi_applauds_govs_signing_suny20201.html

The money that's supposed to come (which I doubt it ever will, given state politics) is over $1 billion.

This is similar to what the state did for UAlbany (the only non-AAU SUNY center) about 10 years ago, which is to give it $1 billion in seed money to start a nanontechnology center. In 10 short years, the school has created a technology boom for chip manufacturing.

http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2011/09/27/44-billion-for-chip-fab-research-in-the-state-and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_of_Nanoscale_Science_and_Engineering

 

[NHUConnfan]

I want to know their names. It's pretty shoddy stuff. Second-rate stuff. But whatever. If people really think UMass is better than, say, 3 of these AAU schools with big research budgets, let them.

I know many of the top schools of music do it. Yale certainly is known to do it. But with grad programs, it's all about doing things that those faculty do...and for instance, if you don't align with them, then you're not going to get accepted no matter how bright you may be.

 

[NHUConnfan]

Three of the SUNY centers are already in the AAU.

Schools like UB already have UB2020 which is similar to what UConn's doing, a huge fundraising and expansion effort dedicated to adding 15,000 students and 1,000 new faculty. It's going on everywhere. You're being totally myopic here.

http://www.buffalo.edu/ub2020/about/news_and_progress/tripathi_applauds_govs_signing_suny20201.html

The money that's supposed to come (which I doubt it ever will, given state politics) is over $1 billion.

This is similar to what the state did for UAlbany (the only non-AAU SUNY center) about 10 years ago, which is to give it $1 billion in seed money to start a nanontechnology center. In 10 short years, the school has created a technology boom for chip manufacturing.

http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2011/09/27/44-billion-for-chip-fab-research-in-the-state-and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_of_Nanoscale_Science_and_Engineering

I really don't care about the AAU. It's like Who's Who for colleges. It's an exclusive club with no clear criteria (because schools like UConn have similar research budgets or larger than quite a few of those schools).

Again, I don't care about SUNY schools either. You work good propaganda, but I don't know many people that would describe them as academically rigorous as you're making it seem.

 

[upstater]

I really don't care about the AAU. It's like Who's Who for colleges. It's an exclusive club with no clear criteria (because schools like UConn have similar research budgets or larger than quite a few of those schools).

Again, I don't care about SUNY schools either. You work good propaganda, but I don't know many people that would describe them as academically rigorous as you're making it seem.

Ok, then, stick with USNWP instead of Carnegie Foundation, AAU, NRC, etc. See where that gets you.

"It's an exclusive club with no clear criteria (because schools like UConn have similar research budgets or larger than quite a few of those schools)"

The above is not true at all. The bottom of the AAU brings in $350 million a year in research money. Quite a few? The very bottom is well above the threshold you're referring to.

You could have ended your post with "I don't care..."

 

[upstater]

I know many of the top schools of music do it. Yale certainly is known to do it. But with grad programs, it's all about doing things that those faculty do...and for instance, if you don't align with them, then you're not going to get accepted no matter how bright you may be.

We're talking about undergrads here. Not MAs. Not grads.

Any school that closes off possibility in such a fashion is shoddy.

Go to MIT for a list of current PhD profiles in Chemical Engineering. I see BS's from Hamilton Coll., U. Waterloo, St. Mary's, Montana St., U. Madrid, Long Island U., etc.

This is how a real school does it. I'm going to guess that, if MIT is accepting PhDs from Hamilton, Waterloo, Montana St., St. Mary's and Long Island U., they are also accepting them from SUNYs.

 

[UConnDan97]

She's successfully cleaned out parts of the administration that were ineffective in their jobs (and this board should know that Hathaway was just one of those folks). She's started an initiative to raise the endowment past $1 billion in the next five years (already about $300 million in the right direction, about half way to our goal). She orchestrated a new lucrative TV deal for the women's basketball team. She also orchestrated UConn hockey into a relevant conference and thus will hopefully grow the potential of that program. She also has continued to see through Hogan's original expansion of the health center to completion.

For one year at the job, it's pretty amazing what she has done. Though she is increasing tuition to increase faculty, there is a larger emphasis on increasing the level of research (and thus, federal money) at UConn. In addition, this will only shoot UConn up the rankings of top public schools in the country (which by the way increased 7 slots since Herbst was hired). She's the best thing that's happened to this university since Jim Calhoun came back in 1986.

With someone with her ambition, we should be grateful for her service. It looks like we have a leader and president for the very long future in Herbst and UConn could really use the stability at a position that has been a revolving door since 2006.

Some of this is very overstated:

1) Hathaway is gone, but if Coach P works out, he wasn't ineffective. He just wasn't Lew Perkins.
2) The new lucrative deal that the women got, while a positive step financially, was not more than 0.5 million more than the CPTV contract, from my understanding. And many people are upset by it due to their lack of access to SNY. I was for it, but let's not make it out to be more than what it is.
3) Our having a 300 million dollar endowment does NOT mean that she is almost half way to her goal. We didn't start at $0!!! And we have a long way to go.
4) Hockey....true.
5) The plans for the Health Center expansion; I'm not sure how much more she added after Hogan, especially since the Jackson Labs deal is mostly Malloy (whether it's right or wrong is a different issue).
6) The increase in tuition will be steep after the next four years. Again, like I said before, I think it needs to be done, but let's not make it out to be an awesome thing.

She's doing some of the right things in my opinion, but when you call out people on the board for not loving on her, I think you are a little off base. Let's hope she continues her upward trend...

 

[NHUConnfan]

Some of this is very overstated:

1) Hathaway is gone, but if Coach P works out, he wasn't ineffective. He just wasn't Lew Perkins.
2) The new lucrative deal that the women got, while a positive step financially, was not more than 0.5 million more than the CPTV contract, from my understanding. And many people are upset by it due to their lack of access to SNY. I was for it, but let's not make it out to be more than what it is.
3) Our having a 300 million dollar endowment does NOT mean that she is almost half way to her goal. We didn't start at $0!!! And we have a long way to go.
4) Hockey....true.
5) The plans for the Health Center expansion; I'm not sure how much more she added after Hogan, especially since the Jackson Labs deal is mostly Malloy (whether it's right or wrong is a different issue).
6) The increase in tuition will be steep after the next four years. Again, like I said before, I think it needs to be done, but let's not make it out to be an awesome thing.

She's doing some of the right things in my opinion, but when you call out people on the board for not loving on her, I think you are a little off base. Let's hope she continues her upward trend...

1) Not just Hathaway is gone, but she basically also forced out several overpaid administrators (they "retired") and the Dean of the School of Medicine within weeks of getting the job.
2) The new TV deal expands the market for women's basketball, which means even though the deal is only worth a little more monetarily, it's worth as free advertising for the university will go much much farther down the road.
3) You read it wrong. We started around 300 million, about 300 million has been raised in our goal. Yes, we do still have a long way to go but we're making huge strides. (At least that is what I had read...it may be that the article I had read mistated.) Regardless, we raised $50 million in 2011 alone which is huge considering we haven't had that big of a growth.

Today, she's having an office hours from 1-3PM in Gulley Hall for any students to meet with her. I urge anyone on this board to utilize this time and get to meet her.

As far as I'm concerned, people tend to on her for all of the wrong reasons. First and foremost, too many people are only concerned about athletics on this board and that she should be held more responsible than the AD or coaches for failure of a program. The fact is, there are so many other things she needs to focus on, like continuing to increase the value of the UConn degree. I really don't care if it means it makes it more expensive to get to UConn. The state of Connecticut has many other state schools that are plenty affordable that offer great educations. I think that making UConn a more selective school only means great things for the state of Connecticut.

 

[NHUConnfan]

We're talking about undergrads here. Not MAs. Not grads.

Any school that closes off possibility in such a fashion is shoddy.

Go to MIT for a list of current PhD profiles in Chemical Engineering. I see BS's from Hamilton Coll., U. Waterloo, St. Mary's, Montana St., U. Madrid, Long Island U., etc.

This is how a real school does it. I'm going to guess that, if MIT is accepting PhDs from Hamilton, Waterloo, Montana St., St. Mary's and Long Island U., they are also accepting them from SUNYs.

See, I wasn't talking about undergrads and neither was the post that you originally responded to. The fact of the matter is that many graduate programs do disregard applications from other schools. Maybe MIT doesn't, but a hell of a lot of them do. To put it in perspective, I'm one of maybe 5 people currently enrolled at my program at Indiana University that didn't receive their Master's degree from Indiana.

 

[UConnDan97]

1) Not just Hathaway is gone, but she basically also forced out several overpaid administrators (they "retired") and the Dean of the School of Medicine within weeks of getting the job.
2) The new TV deal expands the market for women's basketball, which means even though the deal is only worth a little more monetarily, it's worth as free advertising for the university will go much much farther down the road.
3) You read it wrong. We started around 300 million, about 300 million has been raised in our goal. Yes, we do still have a long way to go but we're making huge strides. (At least that is what I had read...it may be that the article I had read mistated.) Regardless, we raised $50 million in 2011 alone which is huge considering we haven't had that big of a growth.

Today, she's having an office hours from 1-3PM in Gulley Hall for any students to meet with her. I urge anyone on this board to utilize this time and get to meet her.

As far as I'm concerned, people tend to on her for all of the wrong reasons. First and foremost, too many people are only concerned about athletics on this board and that she should be held more responsible than the AD or coaches for failure of a program. The fact is, there are so many other things she needs to focus on, like continuing to increase the value of the UConn degree. I really don't care if it means it makes it more expensive to get to UConn. The state of Connecticut has many other state schools that are plenty affordable that offer great educations. I think that making UConn a more selective school only means great things for the state of Connecticut.

You make some fair points, but I just want to point out the following things:

1) Our endowment is not at 600 million. It's around 330 million:
http://today.uconn.edu/blog/2012/02/a-reflection-of-uconns-strength/

2) It is still unclear to me (and others) as to whether she was responsible for getting rid of Cato Laurencin (former head of the Med School) or whether it was the Med School commmunity at large with their vote of "no confidence":
http://articles.courant.com/2011-06...-laurencin-uconn-health-center-medical-school

3) I love that my university is growing and building a top-notch reputation academically, but I don't want my university or the state to forget its true mission; to provide a quality education primarily geared towards the people of the state of connecticut, since it is a state public school (hence the tuition break for "in-state" students). Affordability is part of that equation, and it shouldn't be forgotten.

I have nothing against Susan Herbst, and again, I hope she continues the upward trend of the university. But she still has a ways to go in terms of achieving her vision...

 

[upstater]

See, I wasn't talking about undergrads and neither was the post that you originally responded to. The fact of the matter is that many graduate programs do disregard applications from other schools. Maybe MIT doesn't, but a hell of a lot of them do. To put it in perspective, I'm one of maybe 5 people currently enrolled at my program at Indiana University that didn't receive their Master's degree from Indiana.

Indiana is a very good great school. If you're there for music, that's an excellent program. I've had friends that went through it. That being said, accepting your own is a kind of in-breeding that's looked down upon, and that it happens at Indiana is quite surprising, given the rep of the music dept. there. In fact, many grad programs I know would never do this precisely because of the job market for PhDs. Hiring committees look askance at people brought up in one program.

I'm not sure what you mean by, "I wasn't talking about undergrads." Undergrads are the ones who apply to grad programs. Even in the case of PhDs, it's mostly undergrads applying to such programs, not MAs. That being said, at a top school like MIT, you MUST have a MA degree before applying to their PhD programs. Also, the original poster I responded to WAS referring to his children and SUNY, so he was talking about undergrads.

 

[Pudge]

Three of the SUNY centers are already in the AAU.

Schools like UB already have UB2020 which is similar to what UConn's doing, a huge fundraising and expansion effort dedicated to adding 15,000 students and 1,000 new faculty. It's going on everywhere. You're being totally myopic here.

http://www.buffalo.edu/ub2020/about/news_and_progress/tripathi_applauds_govs_signing_suny20201.html

The money that's supposed to come (which I doubt it ever will, given state politics) is over $1 billion.

This is similar to what the state did for UAlbany (the only non-AAU SUNY center) about 10 years ago, which is to give it $1 billion in seed money to start a nanontechnology center. In 10 short years, the school has created a technology boom for chip manufacturing.

http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2011/09/27/44-billion-for-chip-fab-research-in-the-state-and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_of_Nanoscale_Science_and_Engineering

$1Billion?

Upstater ... that's way off. Between the Malta Chip Fab infrastructure & the Nanoscale College, the State & Third Party have invested over $11 Billion ... by my count. And I am probably on the low side. (you have associated investment at IBM Fishkill & SUNY IT too) So ... I don't think there are many things comparable.