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I look at 'Cuse and I wish we were them


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I have not posted here in quite some time but the time has come to air a massive grievance. Usually when our rivals come up it is either of those green and gold teams that we loathe so much. Thing is both of those schools have relatively narrow ceilings, UVM due to having UNH/Maine also in hockey and $iena because their last leg to stand on is hobbling since men's basketball is at parity. However, there is one school I look at which fills me with resentment and jealousy about two hours to the west.

 

Everytime UAlbany plays 'Cuse in anything, they find some way to either blow it or get taken to the woodshed. And looking at them makes me resent the fact that New York has treated public higher education like garbage for centuries. I look at 'Cuse and I see the school that UAlbany could be if the state allowed to give it a crap in terms of funding, athletics, even academics. I see the sort of dominant type of school that New York deprived its citizens of having by treating public universities as second class then dragging their heels in going D1. I look at 'Cuse and think that that should be us and I want us to be like them no matter what the cost to everyone would be.

 

Imagine if we enlarged BoFo and possibly did a 2-in-one by using a floating roof and arena setup? Imagine if we got out of the underachieving ghetto known as the America East and worked our way over the next 20 or so years to go into FBS? Imagine if we could do something to shush the Orange and their triggering as hell "New York's College Team" ads by showing that there is room for two more since UB should do the same. I want us to be more like 'Cuse and less than what Karen Hitchcock reluctantly brought to D1 nearly two decades ago. What could be the worst that could happen?

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Everyone is entitled to their grievance. Central SUNY control has hampered athletic development for a long time and has really only loosened the reins in the last 20 yeas or so. We've come a long way since I was a Freshman in 1970. Not too many schools make quick leaps to the big time like Old Dominion or FAU. Syracuse has been a nationally relavent school in several sports for about 65 years or more. So I don't feel an inferiority complex about SU. SU has an endowment under their control of around 25-30 times that at UA. How do we compete with that?

Edited by jimbo
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Do everything Syracuse has done to build an endowment matter the cost. Release graduates into the world who will give. Cull some campuses if need be. Anything.

 

Worse comes to worse sell UA to Cuse. They know how to do things right and would help UA grow.

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Not sure I agree with any of that...if anything UA should become it's own entity before it gets sold to anyone if your wish is to detach it from the state system.

Edited by Eli
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I just wonder if the state can ever give a concerted effort to invest in public education as just about every other state does? Or did Cornell, Rockefeller, and lord knows how many Cuse-related politicos have poisoned that well.

 

I've lived in four other states and those states (CT, MA, MD, VA) don't seem to have the systemic issues that New York has been saddled with. They all also don't have private schools that compete for attention on the athletic front and even in MA UMass Amherst can hold its own versus BC and in hockey Lowell is a bigger threat than Amherst to BC/BU/NEU.

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I just wonder if the state can ever give a concerted effort to invest in public education as just about every other state does? Or did Cornell, Rockefeller, and lord knows how many Cuse-related politicos have poisoned that well.

I thought I read once that it went back to John Jay in the 1700s saying that NY state shouldn't be involved in higher ed, but now I can't find the quote.

I've lived in four other states and those states (CT, MA, MD, VA) don't seem to have the systemic issues that New York has been saddled with. They all also don't have private schools that compete for attention on the athletic front and even in MA UMass Amherst can hold its own versus BC and in hockey Lowell is a bigger threat than Amherst to BC/BU/NEU.

Harvard, Yale, the other Ivies and BC were the big sports teams in New England while UMass and UConn were ag schools (UConn was "that cow college" to college prospects). Not until the Ivies deemphasized athletics and the pros hit the big time in football and basketball in the late 1950s did anything change. UConn and UMass were D-II until 1978. Likewise Rutgers was practically a private college playing second fiddle to Princeton and playing practically an Ivy/Patriot football schedule in the 1950s.
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Drunk would suggest the state seizing 'Cuse, giving their endowment to UA, and demolishing the Carrier Dome.

 

As much as I love UA, I would rather my unborn kids go to 'Cuse because 'Cuse is in a better spot than any SUNY ever will be by design.

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Drunk would suggest the state seizing 'Cuse, giving their endowment to UA, and demolishing the Carrier Dome.

 

As much as I love UA, I would rather my unborn kids go to 'Cuse because 'Cuse is in a better spot than any SUNY ever will be by design.

And they can enjoy debt for 30 years after they graduate. That's what a private school does.

 

No point in comparing a for profit NY university and a public NY one.

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ok - so I rarely post (shame on me... or maybe good for you..!) I transferred from 'cuse to UA in the late '80s. At the time this wasn't considered a step-down - more of a lateral. My SU friends didn't think it was a major shift (I also thought of NYU - just knew SU wasn't for me...) The joke on campus was this is "SUNY Syracuse", as in 400 person lectures in freshman classes. The food was comparatively great.

 

As an alum has it made a difference ? Not in the northeast (I've been in MA for 20+ years now...) For graduate school ? Again, UA and SU would be 'peers' in grad applications - and here, UA has, in most departments, better-known faculty (what really matters...) I managed to attend a top-10 graduate school from UA (in my field, and in general a 'top 10' school).

 

There are some very seriously accomplished UA alums out there. While I think I've had a fabulous career, I'm amazed and humbled at some of the alums I meet.

 

What UA sorely needs is a 'vision' of what it wants to be. What the student experience should be, and how it is different from every other school. Likewise for the alumni, and how alums are supposed to remain involved in the school. This currently doesn't exist, and I think ultimately is hurting the trajectory. Syracuse has this right - 1000%.

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Drunk would suggest the state seizing 'Cuse, giving their endowment to UA, and demolishing the Carrier Dome.

 

As much as I love UA, I would rather my unborn kids go to 'Cuse because 'Cuse is in a better spot than any SUNY ever will be by design.

And they can enjoy debt for 30 years after they graduate. That's what a private school does.

 

No point in comparing a for profit NY university and a public NY one.

 

 

This. Granted I worked a full-time IT career while going to UA at night, but I have none of that aforementioned debt. I know people who went to 'Cuse, etc. and even with in-state tuition got raked over the coals.

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Drunk would suggest the state seizing 'Cuse, giving their endowment to UA, and demolishing the Carrier Dome.

 

As much as I love UA, I would rather my unborn kids go to 'Cuse because 'Cuse is in a better spot than any SUNY ever will be by design.

And they can enjoy debt for 30 years after they graduate. That's what a private school does.

 

No point in comparing a for profit NY university and a public NY one.

 

 

This. Granted I worked a full-time IT career while going to UA at night, but I have none of that aforementioned debt. I know people who went to 'Cuse, etc. and even with in-state tuition got raked over the coals.

 

 

Yep, my family members have large amount of loans from SU..and I was done paying off my loans a few years ago and they won't be for many many years. Unless you're going to be an architect, engineer, doctor or someone making $250K or more its doesn't make sense to pay $40K a year.. makes me shiver for these students getting into that much debt.

 

Either way though as others have stated vision of a private university can't also be compared to a public one. UA is one of how many SUNYs..we can't be autonomous that's not how being public works. If you want to do what you want to do with no red tape and want to be able to change your vision on a dime then you're private. If you're public in NY you're apart of something larger. Apples and oranges..no pun intended.

Edited by MRSGDG
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Drunk would suggest the state seizing 'Cuse, giving their endowment to UA, and demolishing the Carrier Dome.

 

As much as I love UA, I would rather my unborn kids go to 'Cuse because 'Cuse is in a better spot than any SUNY ever will be by design.

And they can enjoy debt for 30 years after they graduate. That's what a private school does.

 

No point in comparing a for profit NY university and a public NY one.

 

 

This. Granted I worked a full-time IT career while going to UA at night, but I have none of that aforementioned debt. I know people who went to 'Cuse, etc. and even with in-state tuition got raked over the coals.

 

 

Yep, my family members have large amount of loans from SU..and I was done paying off my loans a few years ago and they won't be for many many years. Unless you're going to be an architect, engineer, doctor or someone making $250K or more its doesn't make sense to pay $40K a year.. makes me shiver for these students getting into that much debt.

 

Either way though as others have stated vision of a private university can't also be compared to a public one. UA is one of how many SUNYs..we can't be autonomous that's not how being public works. If you want to do what you want to do with no red tape and want to be able to change your vision on a dime then you're private. If you're public in NY you're apart of something larger. Apples and oranges..no pun intended.

 

I also graduated debt free...making 50k a year as a newly minted grad with student debt? How do you get your life going?

Edited by Clickclack
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