Flagship Update

[ATL_DANE]

I know everyone has been working hard. This is a team effort. We need to continue to push again and again. Remember what your fighting for. We cannot let UA become a second tier university. We demand flagship status!

 

We've talked about this before but I think a student rally would help the most. That would get the local press out and then the politicians would be forced to respond.

[UBBulls]

I attended Albany for a short time in the late '90's and transferred to UB. I was big fan of D2 UA football, and have generally remained interested in that team's success, with only scant interest of the other sports. I have followed Albany's situation through moving D1, the Nano School, switching from Hitchcock to Hall and with losing Hall.

 

ATL, I haven't asked anyone to lie down. I'm simply asking, if you don't want Albany to fall behind, how long will UB have to wait for plan implementation while Albany finds a president, develops substantive plans to reach AAU status and develops comparable schools that UB an SBU already have? I know no one here can answer that, but "demanding flagship status" without any plan for developing a world-class public institution seems obsurd.

 

 

Some pieces of Spitzer's speech this week at UB Downtown, which can be viewed on UB's website.

 

"I will add a notion that sometimes around the state does not get enormous applause, but it better had here, and that is the notion of flagships."

 

/Applause, Spitzer turns to President Simpson:

 

"Yeah, ok, John, you'd better lead this one [this outpouring of support]. Flagships, just as you need superstars on a team, within the SUNY system you need flagships that define the entire system. We need those flagships that say to the rest of the nation, "Here we are, we are preeminent, we are the best." And we're going to do that."

 

This is not necessary Spitzer's baby, but the Commission's report, which he is following. I know some feel Albany was not represented well, but there are many positive things in this report that must be enacted.

 

This one was great from a UB fan perspective:

 

"We will be able to increase the number of faculty, lower the student/faculty ratio, bring UB downtown, invest in ways that are fundamentally tranformative, and grow the size of the university itself. We will end up with over 40 thousand students, 40 thousand students."

 

What came next was pure ad-libbing from the gov. as he turned toward Simpson again,

 

"And, I would measure, you know, bet pretty well, if we have 40 thousand students, we'll give you a football team that will compete nationally as well."

[Dane96]

That entire post is a load of $iena. If you want to post crap like that, do research. Fact is, Rockefeller envisioned FOUR FLAGSHIPS...period.

 

This is Spitzer's BABY for what he thinks will one day be a National stage for him. Never happening.

[scrabbleship]

That entire post is a load of $iena. If you want to post crap like that, do research. Fact is, Rockefeller envisioned FOUR FLAGSHIPS...period.

 

How then did Rockefeller seem content to not build them up as flagships from the get go, in an athletic sense at least? I might be answering my own question, but even considering how anti-athletics the SUNY braintrust was at the mindset they should have at least shot for D-I at the outset rather than 30 years later, yes?

 

This is Spitzer's BABY for what he thinks will one day be a National stage for him. Never happening.

 

What if the Democrats win and give Spitzer a cabinet position? Doesn't that change the entire dynamic or is he done for unless the 2010 gubernatorial elections are a duplicate of 2006?

[UBBulls]

That entire post is a load of $iena. If you want to post crap like that, do research. Fact is, Rockefeller envisioned FOUR FLAGSHIPS...period.

 

This is Spitzer's BABY for what he thinks will one day be a National stage for him. Never happening.

 

Rockefeller also envisioned grand state schools on the edge of cities instead of in the cities, which turned out wonderfully, no? No problem for Albany's downtown, as they were given the "gift" of the Empire State Plaza. His plans was also developed when Buffalo had 550,000 residents. Things change.

[Dane96]

That entire post is a load of $iena. If you want to post crap like that, do research. Fact is, Rockefeller envisioned FOUR FLAGSHIPS...period.

 

This is Spitzer's BABY for what he thinks will one day be a National stage for him. Never happening.

 

Rockefeller also envisioned grand state schools on the edge of cities instead of in the cities, which turned out wonderfully, no? No problem for Albany's downtown, as they were given the "gift" of the Empire State Plaza. His plans was also developed when Buffalo had 550,000 residents. Things change.

 

Are you equating the need for a downtown to center the ENTIRE Capitol complex with this assinine move.

 

If so...move along.

[UBBulls]

That entire post is a load of $iena. If you want to post crap like that, do research. Fact is, Rockefeller envisioned FOUR FLAGSHIPS...period.

 

This is Spitzer's BABY for what he thinks will one day be a National stage for him. Never happening.

 

Rockefeller also envisioned grand state schools on the edge of cities instead of in the cities, which turned out wonderfully, no? No problem for Albany's downtown, as they were given the "gift" of the Empire State Plaza. His plans was also developed when Buffalo had 550,000 residents. Things change.

 

Are you equating the need for a downtown to center the ENTIRE Capitol complex with this assinine move.

 

If so...move along.

 

You had asserted Rockefeller's 1960's vision for education as being good..."period". His vision, as well as his vision for what turned into one of the most egregious examples of urban renewal in America in Albany, should absolutely be questioned 50 years later. As was stated in the preliminary C.H.E. report, "The context for this report is a new reality."

[ATL_DANE]

Let me get get this right. The UB president gets put on the SUNY commission and their findings is that UB should be a flagship? Sounds real sketchy. UA didn't even have a voice.

 

UB2020 is about screwing over UA and Bingo. I think UA is very competitive with Buffalo and Stony Brook. Of course, it won't be if UB gets $1.6 in investments. I hope everyone in the Capitol District fights this governor in his attempt to tear this university down.

[ATL_DANE]

I listened to Spitzer's UB Speech. I think UA advocates would be better off is all of Spitzer's education plans go down. UA is getting NOTHING out of this plan. UA is getting SCREWED!!!

[UBBulls]

Let me get get this right. The UB president gets put on the SUNY commission and their findings is that UB should be a flagship? Sounds real sketchy. UA didn't even have a voice.

 

UB2020 is about screwing over UA and Bingo. I think UA is very competitive with Buffalo and Stony Brook. Of course, it won't be if UB gets $1.6 in investments. I hope everyone in the Capitol District fights this governor in his attempt to tear this university down.

 

What is curious about that line of thought is that DeFleur from Binghamton was there, but SBU's prez was not (although, LaValle represented the Higher Education Committee). Simpson was 1 of 30 on the committee, surrounded by 6 private-school representatives. Or, are you saying the Commission was a sham: The new "Three Men in a Room are Spitzer, Simpson, and LaValle?"

 

Consequently, this was recently posted on SBU's homepage by President Kenny "Speaking of...SB as flagship". Not much there of substance, but I guess this is her first salvo of requesting advocacy from those connected to SBU, post-meeting with Simpson in NYC.

[UBBulls]

The Pipe Dream posted a few timely stories on Friday, Binghamton Athletic Director Dreams Big and Thirer: Flagship Designation Has No Bearing on Athletics

 

It's curious how Thirer has displayed brashness, possibly rivaled only by SBU's AD, in comments such as this:

 

Despite Binghamton’s shortcomings financially, it’s still more successful than Albany and Stony Brook. “Dollar for dollar, we do better than them in marketing developing and ticket sales. It’s a fact.”

But he's rather cool in the second story:

 

There is no funding for athletics that would be allocated along with a flagship designation according to Thirer, but the potential benefit for a flagship school lies in the construction of new physical facilities.

 

“No, I don’t think so,” Thirer said when asked if BU athletics missed out.

[UAalum72]

Buffalo and SBU presidents team up on the flagship issue in today's T-U

Top schools should lead the way for SUNY

 

What do they think will be the effect on Albany and Binghamton? Who's going to speak up for them?

[UA'08]

Yes have the two places that don't represent New York be the flagships. Buffalo is not New York more like Canada or the Midwest and Stony Brook is towards the end of Long Island or what people like to refer to as "suitcase school".

 

Buffalo is the midwest, they all have midwest accents too.

[GreatDanes06]

isn't the population of Buffalo also decreasing in the last few years also?

[UAalum72]

isn't the population of Buffalo also decreasing in the last few years also?

From 580,000 in 1950 to under 280,000 now, but the suburbs have increased by the same amount - just like the city of Albany has gone from 130,000 to 95,000 while Albany COUNTY has stayed the same.