UConn President Thomas Katsouleas will leave post, sources say | Page 5 | The Boneyard

UConn President Thomas Katsouleas will leave post, sources say

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CT should make all state universities free of charge for CT residents. Make it so that anyone that goes to a directional state U and has a gpa above a 3.5 are automatically accepted to UConn if they want to transfer. Such an investment by the state will pay itself in a few years. Put the grad schools in Hartford and/or Stamford and partner up with Businesses to provide automatic placement after graduation.

If we want UConn to become a top level school, we need to go all in.
 

Chin Diesel

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Actually unless you know what he can or cannot say, you cannot prove it’s a false statement.

He's allowed to say "Providing an education? I can’t say they are any better than UConn."

Doesn't make it true. He may be incapable of saying it, but there are better universities than UConn for providing an education.
 

the Q

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CT should make all state universities free of charge for CT residents. Make it so that anyone that goes to a directional state U and has a gpa above a 3.5 are automatically accepted to UConn if they want to transfer. Such an investment by the state will pay itself in a few years. Put the grad schools in Hartford and/or Stamford and partner up with Businesses to provide automatic placement after graduation.

If we want UConn to become a top level school, we need to go all in.

The graduate school idea is one I really like. The law school, while not ranking as high as they’d like, is pretty well regarded for job placement.

Which is a really good start
 

CL82

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He's allowed to say "Providing an education? I can’t say they are any better than UConn."

Doesn't make it true. He may be incapable of saying it, but there are better universities than UConn for providing an education.

Unless you can prove that he’s capable of saying it, his statement is not demonstrably false.
 
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I believe there is a stigma among some within the state that private colleges/universities are better. I also believe that a large portion of our wealthier residents (who have the means to support/advocate/donate) shun UConn for smaller schools or out of state schools. Maybe I’m completely off base with these opinions but that’s just what I seem to notice.
 

polycom

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I believe there is a stigma among some within the state that private colleges/universities are better. I also believe that a large portion of our wealthier residents (who have the means to support/advocate/donate) shun UConn for smaller schools or out of state schools. Maybe I’m completely off base with these opinions but that’s just what I seem to notice.

You aren't wrong but this is a northeast culture type of thing. The same can't be said for schools outside of the Northeast.
 

HuskyHawk

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That's a really bad statement that is empirically false.

You think there is some empirical evidence that Penn State provides a better education than UConn? I don't even think you could say that about Yale. Most of what you pay for is prestige. The actual education might be superior at some community colleges, depending on the subject matter.

It's a game. Employers want smart people who are decently educated. Schools know the variance in the education they provide is often minimal, so they focus on attracting smart people, getting the better HS students. When at UConn I was friends with two girls who transferred from Yale. Both said the classes at UConn were harder. The hardest thing about the Ivies is getting in. Now the professional schools, that's different.

Obviously, I think MIT and CalTech can provide something almost nobody else can. But beyond that, if a school is truly outstanding at something, it tends to be fairly narrow in scope. UConn certainly provides the top education in puppetry. Pharmacy is very strong. But if you want to do Hospitality Management, Central Florida is way ahead of UConn.
 
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I believe there is a stigma among some within the state that private colleges/universities are better. I also believe that a large portion of our wealthier residents (who have the means to support/advocate/donate) shun UConn for smaller schools or out of state schools. Maybe I’m completely off base with these opinions but that’s just what I seem to notice.
If you use Endowments as a gauge I would say you are correct.
UConn has a very small endowment base compared to many other schools throughout the country
 

HuskyHawk

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If you use Endowments as a gauge I would say you are correct.
UConn has a very small endowment base compared to many other schools throughout the country

It is awful. I think it is partly what @BPT2Storrs said and partly that UConn never did much to reach out to alumni. I signed up for a lifetime membership my senior year. I think I went 15-20 years before they ever asked me for money. Now I'm about to pay tuition for my daughter, so I'm certainly not donating to any of the 5 schools my wife and I attended.
 
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UCONN doesn't have to get there but get in the ballpark. We got as high as16 or 18 nationally in USNWR. I know MICHIGAN is top tier but we can get into their universe BUT ONLY WITH continued and sustained big investments.
MState is certainly solid but we should be trying to compare ourselves to a Top 80 school when we are well above that already.
You’re mixing up your rankings. We were a top 20 public school according to US News at the time of my graduation, but as of now we are ranked as the 63rd best school in the nation (as compared to Michigan State at #80). I imagine Michigan State was around the top 25 in the public school listing so the gap is nowhere near as large as you are making it out to be.
 
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CT should make all state universities free of charge for CT residents. Make it so that anyone that goes to a directional state U and has a gpa above a 3.5 are automatically accepted to UConn if they want to transfer. Such an investment by the state will pay itself in a few years. Put the grad schools in Hartford and/or Stamford and partner up with Businesses to provide automatic placement after graduation.

If we want UConn to become a top level school, we need to go all in.
How could a public school that is located in a broke state and has a laughably small endowment possibly offer free education to Connecticut residents?
 
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You think there is some empirical evidence that Penn State provides a better education than UConn? I don't even think you could say that about Yale. Most of what you pay for is prestige. The actual education might be superior at some community colleges, depending on the subject matter.

It's a game. Employers want smart people who are decently educated. Schools know the variance in the education they provide is often minimal, so they focus on attracting smart people, getting the better HS students. When at UConn I was friends with two girls who transferred from Yale. Both said the classes at UConn were harder. The hardest thing about the Ivies is getting in. Now the professional schools, that's different.

Obviously, I think MIT and CalTech can provide something almost nobody else can. But beyond that, if a school is truly outstanding at something, it tends to be fairly narrow in scope. UConn certainly provides the top education in puppetry. Pharmacy is very strong. But if you want to do Hospitality Management, Central Florida is way ahead of UConn.

This is it. I recommend community college to my students at least once a week.

Unless you're hyper-focused on grad school and need the 100 level GPA boosters, money isn't an object, or you won't be able to live at home for a year or two, there isn't much reason NOT to go to community college before trasnferring to a 4-year. They're dirt cheap, you're learning the same stuff, and at least my fiance really appreciated having older people in her class who are usually more career focused.
 
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This is it. I recommend community college to my students at least once a week.

Unless you're hyper-focused on grad school and need the 100 level GPA boosters, money isn't an object, or you won't be able to live at home for a year or two, there isn't much reason NOT to go to community college before trasnferring to a 4-year. They're dirt cheap, you're learning the same stuff, and at least my fiance really appreciated having older people in her class who are usually more career focused.
Yes! This is exactly what our daughter did. She did very well in high school but had to really work hard to get there. Her SAT's were okay, not great. She wasn't sure what she wanted to major in. We convinced her to go the Community college route here in CT. She had a nice P/T job here. Lived at home, after one year at Tunxis CC, she knew what she wanted to major in (Education). After two years at Tunxis (she didn't actually graduate with an AA since she declared late), she had saved a ton of money from her job and transfered to Eastern CT State University. They do a nice job there with large number of transfer students they get. She roomed with 3 other transfers in a quad. For the 2nd year, three of them moved to an off campus apartment. She did great. Student taught in Manchester, graduated with a degree in Communications and two teaching certifications in 2018. She had no problem getting a teaching job and is about to finish her Education Masters at Univ. of St. Joseph this summer. Oh, and she bought a house during Covid with her fiance. :)
 
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If you use Endowments as a gauge I would say you are correct.
UConn has a very small endowment base compared to many other schools throughout the country
I think there are a couple of reasons why UConn's endowment has lagged vs other large state schools.

1) UConn was traditionally funded more by the state than other large state schools like Penn St. Thus, the other schools had to raise money and they did.

2) The fundraising arm of UConn was late to be developed and it is still not up to par. You have to invest in the right fundraising people in order to raise money. You can't send in a junior person to try to raise money from a wealthy entrepreneur or business leader.


I have no inside information, but I would think Katsouleas thought he was hired to actually run UConn instead of just manage it. He probably didn't realize that he signed up for a political job with limited ability to implement meaningful change.
 

Chin Diesel

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I've yet to meet someone who regretted going to community college. I would imagine in 10 years (maybe earlier if this infrastructure bill goes through) community colleges will be tuition free too in most states.

The future is community colleges. You can't really even get a community college job anymore unless you have a PhD in the field, so MOST of the professor are going to be experts, and one's who are primarily focused on teaching in stead of research.

My fiance is sort of straddling the line between trying to go the traditional tenure-track academic route, or looking at community colleges--leaning towards the latter. She loves teaching so that works out, and the full-time CC people in this state are making 80k+ with state pension and benefits. Nothing to sneeze at, and certainly better than the grind of R1 adjuncting for a decade before you find a decent job.

Not just community college but online classes as well.

The days of freshmen classes with 75-100 students jammed in a lecture hall are going the way of the dodo.

I'm all for parents making the best financial decisions with their children that takes in to account cost of the degree and expected employment opportunities and income from that degree when deciding where to go to school. We will see fewer and fewer middle class families going in to large debt to fund educations at smaller private schools. They will become the fiefdom and status symbol of the upper middle class and the wealthy. The northeast will become more like the midwest and south where State U. is the preferred choice of education for the masses.
 
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Says in the article "it wasn't a good fit" and also talks about some labor cost issues that seemed to frustrate him on getting research grants. On top of all of that, probably was a really tough year and a half dealing with COVID and wants something cushier than the title of President.

I'm sure we will hear more down the road and will be interesting to see where he goes next since it sounds like he isn't leaving for another post and also who they replace him with.
He burned bridges with the pols by not playing nice.
 
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'Katsouleas is a leading scholar in the field of plasma science and has authored or co-authored more than 250 publications. He has deep roots in academe, having served a term as president of the Faculty and Academic Senate at USC during his time in its engineering school.

He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). While at Duke, he also created the Grand Challenge Scholars Program of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), a program now emulated at more than 120 universities across the U.S. and in several countries around the world.'


prolly got frustrated trying to do real stuff while surrounded 24/7 by lawyers and wokey politicians. and blue ribbon committees generating white papers ad nauseum. that can wear a fellow down.
The wokey politicians were so mad at him when he announced he wanted free tuition for lower income students. That p'd him off!
 
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This normally would be a reputation hit for UConn but these days when schools all over the country are racing to the bottom, it might not matter as much.
 

CL82

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The wokey politicians were so mad at him when he announced he wanted free tuition for lower income students. That p'd him off!
That's a big move that has huge financial and positioning ramifications. You don't go full Tony Stark and announce it publicly, you vet it and build consensus. It was a dumb thing to do. (FWIW, as I posted at the time, his "plan' was an ill-conceived talking point rather than a plan. It didn't contemplate or understand the financial impact nor the schools place in the CT higher education system.)

@NJHusky
 
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That's a big move that has huge financial and positioning ramifications. You don't go full Tony Stark and announce it publicly, you vet it and build consensus. It was a dumb thing to do. (FWIW, as I posted at the time, his "plan' was an ill-conceived talking point rather than a plan. It didn't contemplate or understand the financial impact nor the schools place in the CT higher education system.)

@NJHusky
I wasn't really replying to that part. Just to "Wokey."

I'm sure he did contemplate it a lot though since similar programs are already in place in surrounding states, and the schools have been mostly funding them.
 
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Does that mean he actually wanted to accomplish something instead of just talking about it?
I've just seen this play out similarly elsewhere. People from outside Connecticut and New York come in and don't realize the extreme myopia of state politicians when it comes to higher ed. They can't understand why pols would undercut a public law school for instance while doling out to a private one. Or why they don't realize what an engine the state U. is. One Pres. I spoke to said of the 20 or so NY politicians he regularly deals with from the Gov's office to the legislature only one had attended a pubic university.
 

The Funster

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Keep this under wraps but I have heard that the real problem was that he had no handle with his left. He didn't move his feet well on defense either.

Just saying.
 
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You think there is some empirical evidence that Penn State provides a better education than UConn? I don't even think you could say that about Yale. Most of what you pay for is prestige. The actual education might be superior at some community colleges, depending on the subject matter.

It's a game. Employers want smart people who are decently educated. Schools know the variance in the education they provide is often minimal, so they focus on attracting smart people, getting the better HS students. When at UConn I was friends with two girls who transferred from Yale. Both said the classes at UConn were harder. The hardest thing about the Ivies is getting in. Now the professional schools, that's different.

Obviously, I think MIT and CalTech can provide something almost nobody else can. But beyond that, if a school is truly outstanding at something, it tends to be fairly narrow in scope. UConn certainly provides the top education in puppetry. Pharmacy is very strong. But if you want to do Hospitality Management, Central Florida is way ahead of UConn.
Since I'm inside the university system, and we are assessed to death, I would say there is yes, there is empirical evidence, from everything involving faculty achievement and research ( which drives teaching), to student skill assessments (frequent, all too frequent), and student exit exam assessments. There are compiled by non-profit foundations research groups who spend weeks on every campus once every 5 years. It's boiled down into a data pack for each school that is about the size of a thick textbook.

That being said, my research for when my children are of age and they apply is took at the ratio of resources spent on administration versus teaching, adjunct faculty versus tenure-track faculty, flexibility of the curriculum. Those are meat-and-potatoes issues for every parent, but the data is only available from the DOE, unfortunately, so you have to dig.

I believe there is value to saying that the faculty actively and currently involved in knowledge production are also the best faculty to learn from. This is the community college versus university dilemma, because community colleges make it very hard for faculty to be involved in knowledge production. For most students, they might not see the connection, and most might be satisfied with the knowledge presented in community colleges, but if you're the type of student who sees themselves as a future knowledge producer (inside or outside academia), you're going to want to be around people who are doing it now, not those who may have been doing it when they were grad students.

This is exactly the type of information that, for instance, the Carnegie Foundation complies in order to assess every department at every university.
 

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