State of the State

[danefan]

I can not think of a worse day in the history of UAlbany. UAlbany has been demoted from it's peers. It's the loss of revenue, growth and prestige.

 

I understood why it was done. SUNY needs flagship campuses and four are too many. It just kills me that UAlbany was sacrificed for the sake of the system. I fully expect this will be implemented considering the power and desire from the governor, western New York and Long Island.

 

The sad thing is the City of Albany, most of the students, faculty and businesses don't even realize what they've lost. Ignorance is bliss.

 

Worst day in recent memory was the passing of President Hall. I believe if it he was here we wouldn't be having this discussion.

 

Well if this all comes to fruition lets home we can somehow carve out a niche with our nanotech and other specialty fields.

[Clickclack]

Whats the chance that he just FORGOT. I mean the man was here just a few days ago looking at our facilities and work being done. Perhaps he was here to show his "support" before he relegated us to second class citizens. I don't know....I'd just love to know what his plan is for us.

 

The more I think about this the more disappointed I become, the realization is sinking in that we've just been tossed to the side.

 

I'd love to hear what our options are now and for someone in the know to formulate some kind of e-mail, letter, phone call campaign. Where should/can we write, perhaps it's not to late.

[ATL_DANE]

Where does this leave UAlbany? If we're not a flagship, what role do we serve? Are we some sort of regional university? Buffalo fills the UConn role and UAlbany fills the Central Connecticut State role? Stony Brook fills the Michigan role and Albany fills the Grand Valley State role? Are they dropping the idea of university centers?

 

Not being a flagship will put caps on UAlbany. SUNY may try to keep our athletic profile lower than the flagships so as to not to outshine them? SUNY may place more of the new professors at the flagships to better concentrate resources and therefore compete with other states? A disproportionate amount of funding may go to the flagships so that those campuses are the nicest.

 

It's not fiction. Travel outside of New York and visit other campuses.

[ATL_DANE]

Stony Brook thinks being a flagship is a great idea. How Odd?

 

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny..._rail_headlines

 

 

At least we're sure to have the TU completely ignore this issue. The Siena fans must be laughing it up.

[Clickclack]

The silence from the community (TU) and the University is deafening. Our only hope at this point is probably the local representatives, especially Bruno and the city of Albany.

[danefan]

The silence from the community (TU) and the University is deafening. Our only hope at this point is probably the local representatives, especially Bruno and the city of Albany.

 

 

You can forget about Bruno. He's already tried to screw our stadium money. He's anti-UA from the time he puts his socks on in the morning.

[Clickclack]

The silence from the community (TU) and the University is deafening. Our only hope at this point is probably the local representatives, especially Bruno and the city of Albany.

 

 

You can forget about Bruno. He's already tried to screw our stadium money. He's anti-UA from the time he puts his socks on in the morning.

 

Even he can't be stupid enough to pass up the financial impact a flagship can bring to the area.

[danefan]

The silence from the community (TU) and the University is deafening. Our only hope at this point is probably the local representatives, especially Bruno and the city of Albany.

 

 

You can forget about Bruno. He's already tried to screw our stadium money. He's anti-UA from the time he puts his socks on in the morning.

 

Even he can't be stupid enough to pass up the financial impact a flagship can bring to the area.

 

Just wait and see.......I hope I'm wrong though. He's got enough frickin power in this state to raise a huge stink about UAlbany being passed over. I have absolutely no faith whatsoever in Joe Bruno doing anything positive for Albany, or SUNY in general.

[Clickclack]

The silence from the community (TU) and the University is deafening. Our only hope at this point is probably the local representatives, especially Bruno and the city of Albany.

 

 

You can forget about Bruno. He's already tried to screw our stadium money. He's anti-UA from the time he puts his socks on in the morning.

 

Even he can't be stupid enough to pass up the financial impact a flagship can bring to the area.

 

Just wait and see.......I hope I'm wrong though. He's got enough frickin power in this state to raise a huge stink about UAlbany being passed over. I have absolutely no faith whatsoever in Joe Bruno doing anything positive for Albany, or SUNY in general.

 

I'm not saying he will do anything....but if we somehow managed to get him on board, it would be huge.

[UAalum72]

Bruno's wife of 57 years died Monday so I wouldn't expect much from him for a while. That's why he wasn't at the speech.

[ATL_DANE]

I sent this short email to a few Albany TV stations to try to get them to understand what this means to UAlbany and the Capitol District.

 

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Hello,

 

I saw the State-of-the-State yesterday and something that Governor Spitzer said was major news for this area. I'm not sure anyone else picked up on the magnitude of what he quickly said. The governor wants to take the existing 4 university centers and shrink them to 2. Governor Spitzer wants Stony Brook and Buffalo to be flagship universities. That's huge news and not in a good way for the Capitol District and UAlbany.

 

I am an alumni of UAlbany and I occasionally still work up here but I live in Georgia now. I know first hand what a flagship means. Georgia, like most states have flagship campuses. The flagship is the face of the university system. This means they receive a bulk of the funding. Flagships receive the best professors and grants. By definition they are the best and therefore receive the most funding.

 

Ask yourself this, Michigan is a flagship and Grand Valley State isn't, which Michigan school do you want to attend? Same is true in Georgia. Every Georgia high school student wants to attend U of Georgia while Georgia Southern is just a regional university (2nd Tier). This means a loss of millions and millions of dollars for the area. This means a huge drop in prestige for UAlbany. New York never had flagship campuses so I can understand that New Yorkers don't understand the ramifications. This is huge and equally devastating for UAlbany.

 

I haven't seen one story on this major news story in our area. It's being talked about heavily in Long Island and Buffalo because they are the winners. They know what's coming their way.

[Classof72/74]

Whats the chance that he just FORGOT. I mean the man was here just a few days ago looking at our facilities and work being done. Perhaps he was here to show his "support" before he relegated us to second class citizens. I don't know....I'd just love to know what his plan is for us.

 

I was at Monday's presentation at the Colege of Nanotech Science & Engineering. Here's my guess.

The Nanotech folks are vying for the money that will come from the upstate industrial initiative, not the SUNY development endowment. It will be directed specifically to Nanotech and bascially bypass UA :-(

[ATL_DANE]

Why it's important to be a flagship? Money & Prestige

 

"This is the first recognition in many years that SUNY should have flagship campuses, as other state institutions do. ... As important as all the campuses are in serving the needs of the state, national recognition is based on the flagship campuses."

 

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/educatio...0,3167687.story

 

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"Simpson said while Spitzer made reference to the Commission on Higher Education's recent recommendations, the governor singled out UB and Stony Brook, possibly giving the individual campuses a chance to benefit financially based on merit, rather than just splitting up funding with each organization getting an equal share."

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories...y32.html?page=2

[danes05]

http://www.albany.edu/directory/senioradmin.shtml

Here are the emails of some important UA adminisrators for those wishing to send out some mail.

[UAlbany09]

What is the timeline for implementing this? Are we looking at years before any of this even comes close to coming to fruition? I'm sure Binghamton isn't happy about this since they consider themselves the Premier Public University in the Northeast. They must be going ape as well.