Penn State professor: BOT says Rutgers next in line to join Big 10

[Waquoit]

This reads like some Sasha Baron Cohen stunt.

Without the humor.

 

[lv99]

Iv99, the key point is that the AAU is a lobbying organization and only a lobbying organization. Its goal is to persuade Congress to appropriate lots of money for university-hosted research. But its lobbying has little effect, because no one in Congress wants to cut university funding but there is no money to increase it. Its members want membership to be a mark of prestige so that they get some marketing/branding value in exchange for their $80k/year contribution. Thus, they impose stringent membership criteria. This exclusivity is purely for show. If the organization were doing anything of real value, then they would want more members in order to strengthen the organization.

No school is going to let AAU membership determine the future of its athletic programs. There is no relationship between the AAU and athletics.

So you're agreeing with me that the AAU does lobbying for exactly the purpose I stated? But what you're saying is that it's not really useful right now because there isn't a lot of funding right now? I can't disagree with that. I have no idea, but that seems reasonable, what with the economy. But even if that was true, AAU would still be valuable for when the funding comes back.

Every school wants to be in the AAU. It's not up to the school to decide. If the Big 10 doesn't want an non-AAU school, they don't have to take them. It may not be fair, but that's the way it is. If you don't get invited to the conference you want, that will decide your fate.

 

[upstater]

 

[HuskyHawk]

After Nebraska was removed from the AAU, Nebraska Chancellor Harvey Perlman said "I doubt that our application would've been accepted had we not been a member of the AAU."

Exactly my original point. The question is at least debatable. And the Big Ten didn't kick them out. It came from application of a set of rules for calculating research grants that excluded agricultural research and excluded research from the med school because it is off campus. Which is one reason why I keep saying that UConn has the same problems, despite better overall academics.

 

[auggie22]

HuskyHawk, I remember reading (though I am too lazy to research my recollection) that NU's med school was not included because it is not actually legally organized as their med school - different BOD, loose affiliation with the university, etc. I think this situation was more unusual than the facilities being off campus.

 

[HuskyHawk]

HuskyHawk, I remember reading (though I am too lazy to research my recollection) that NU's med school was not included because it is not actually legally organized as their med school - different BOD, loose affiliation with the university, etc. I think this situation was more unusual than the facilities being off campus.

You could be right. http://chronicle.com/article/Ouster-Opens-a-Painful-Debate/127364

"In his e-mail to the campus and in interviews with The Chronicle, Mr. Perlman said what put Nebraska at a particular disadvantage was the lack of an on-campus medical school.
While other AAU members, such as Cornell and Pennsylvania State Universities, for instance, lack medical schools on their main campuses, Nebraska's medical school is also under a totally separate administrative structure from the Lincoln campus, an arrangement that is unlike the ones at those other institutions. As a result, its research dollars are not counted by the AAU, even though, as a medical school, it can't belong to the association on its own.
A medical school both improves an institution's absolute number of research dollars and improves its score on the ratio of research output to tenure-track faculty, since medical schools often rely heavily on researchers who are not tenure-track faculty, Mr. Perlman said."

 

[upstater]

Exactly my original point. The question is at least debatable. And the Big Ten didn't kick them out. It came from application of a set of rules for calculating research grants that excluded agricultural research and excluded research from the med school because it is off campus. Which is one reason why I keep saying that UConn has the same problems, despite better overall academics.

Did you read the emails in question? Because the position of the PSU, N'Western, Iowa and Ohio State presidents was that Nebraska was being railroaded by Wisconsin and Michigan.

 

[Fishy]

Please stop with the AAU discussions - no one knows what the hell they're talking about. They're almost as duck*ing insane as the Penn State threads and the legal opinion threads.

UConn isn't joining the AAU and UConn isn't being invited to the Big Ten. It's not happening next year or in five years or in ten years.

 

[CL82]

Please stop with the AAU discussions - no one knows what the hell they're talking about. They're almost as duck*ing insane as the Penn State threads and the legal opinion threads.

UConn isn't joining the AAU and UConn isn't being invited to the Big Ten. It's not happening next year or in five years or in ten years.

So you're saying we're a lock in 11 years?

 

[Fishy]

So you're saying we're a lock in 11 years?

We just need to sit tight.

With three Germans on the hoop team, we almost look like a Big Ten team, although the accents are a little off.

 

[lv99]

Here that, Boston College? We'll be in Big Ten 11 years from now. And this time we'll be the ones blocking you.

Revenge is sweet.