alum73

1. Sign Brown to long term contract 2. Finish in top 2 in AE 3. Beat Siena 4. Beat BU 5. Win AE tournament

Good Afternoon Everyone, I'd like to invite everyone to an informal pre-game gathering of UAlbany Friends & Alumni before the Great Danes season opening game on November 9th. We will rendezvous at the TGI Friday's located at 3598 SW Archer Road (also called Route 24) near the intersection of Archer(Route 24) and SW 34th Street (also called Route 121). The restaurant is located near the SW corner of the UFlorida campus about 2-3 miles from the entrance to the arena. I plan on being there by 3pm which should give us some time together before heading over for the game vs. Oakland, tip-off 5pm. Safe travels to everyone. Regards - Don Don Ostrom

Hopefully there will be some sort of get together in FL next week. I will post any info I get as soon as I get it.

After watching both coaches. My opinion is that Mari was a better recruiter than bench coach and that Trina is a better coach than recruiter. I have no idea what it takes to recruit for women's basketball.

Team preview: Oakland -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blue Ribbon Yearbook Editor's Note: ESPN Insider has teamed with Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook to provide a comprehensive look at all 326 Division I teams. To order the complete 25th anniversary edition of Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, visit www.blueribbonyearbook.com or call 1-866-805-BALL (2255). (Information in this team report is as of October 1.) In a span of 1.3 seconds last March, life as Greg Kampe knew it changed forever. That's when Pierre Dukes drained a three-pointer in the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament championship game to upset top-seeded Oral Roberts and send Oakland to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history. Twenty-one years of relentless devotion to a single school all came to fruition for Kampe. Finally, the coach that brought this program from Division II to Division I to the Big Dance was in the national spotlight. "For 10 days, we were the Cinderella team," Kampe said. "It was non-stop for 24 hours talking to people across the world. & After Alabama A&M [the NCAA Tournament play-in game], I was doing a show somewhere every 15 minutes from 5 a.m. [on]. It was just unbelievable." Kampe wasn't the only one benefiting from the fantasy finish. "We sold more T-shirts in one week then we did in three years," he said. All of this hardly seemed fathomable, let alone possible a few months before. "We had a tough time [early], with three freshmen playing," Kampe said. "We just couldn't seem to finish [games]." Playing a non-conference schedule with Illinois, Xavier, Marquette, Texas A&M and Missouri (and later, Michigan State), didn't help matters all that much either. But Kampe started noticing a swing in momentum in a game against his alma mater, Bowling Green, right before the conference season began. Oakland's new defense came to life, allowing only 29 percent shooting. "We had to get out of our man-to-man and play match-up zone," he said. "But you know, when you're 0-7, it's hard for you to get them to believe in anything." While the Golden Grizzlies were up and down the next few weeks, a win Feb. 12 before a large crowd at UMKC was a confidence booster. And an overtime win against IUPUI on Senior Night was a telling sign. By the time the conference tournament came around, the Golden Grizzlies were accepting what their coach had been preaching all along. "We played a perfect first half. And we held the ball," Kampe said about the opener against UMKC, a 67-63 win. "They made a run in the second half but we were able to hang on. & They started believing that this style could win for us. That was the key game [of the tournament] right there." In the 56-53 semifinal win over Chicago State, Oakland controlled the entire game. With the same blueprint working in games one and two, Kampe didn't need to tweak much for the title game. "We needed to hold the ball,'' he said. "And the game played out perfect. ... Our defense was amazing. And then in the second half, we started by scoring on every possession. We were playing perfect and went up by eight." That's when Oral Roberts made a run. So Kampe countered with a man-to-man defense. Still, it came down to the end. And it was Dukes to the rescue, with a shot Kampe insists he had taken "a million" times in practice during his career. After handling Alabama A&M a 79-69 beating in the play-in game the Tuesday before the NCAA Tournament proper began, the competition increased a tad in the opening roundeventual national champion North Carolina. "[i'm thinking], they've got 15 McDonald's All-Americans and we've got three guys that have eaten at McDonald's," said Kampe, whose team fell, 96-68. All joking aside, there was one Oakland player that could have definitely made the Tar Heels roster. Rawle Marshall (19.9 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 2.2 apg, 1.8 spg, 1.3 bpg) signed a free-agent contract with the Dallas Mavericks this summer. Should Marshall make the roster this season, he would be Oakland's first NBA player. "We've had constant contact this summer," Kampe said. "It's just a great situation for him. His assistant coach, Charlie Parker, was my coach in college. I'm just really, really happy for him. There's nothing he wanted more than this. And he got his degree. Now he's in the NBA. It's a case where he got from us what he needed and we got from him what we needed." In the MCC Tournament championship game, Marshall (the conference's leading scorer) was supposed to take a back seat to the MCC Player of the Year, Oral Roberts' Caleb Green. But with Oakland's offense, defense and every intangible possible involving Marshall, it was quickly evident he was going to have the largest impact on the floor. In addition to Marshall, Oakland also loses Cortney Scott (18.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg), who dominated the play-in game with 29 points. He also managed to score 21 against the most outstanding player of the entire NCAA Tournament, Scott May of North Carolina. Gone, too, are Dukes (4.4 ppg, 2.0 apg) and DeMarcus Ishmeal (4.3 ppg, 3.3 apg). Sophomores Brandon Cassise (8.3 ppg, 1.4 apg), a 6-3, 185-pound guard, and Patrick McCloskey (5.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg), a 6-7, 230-pound forward, along with forward David Carson (4.0 ppg, 1.7 rpg), a 6-7, 225-pounder, are the key returnees whom Kampe will count on to provide some much-needed leadership. "Brandon, Patrick and David need to let those new guys know that all it takes is those three days in March," he said. "That's what it's all about." Cassise, who was Oakland's primary scorer off the bench late in the season, made 10 starts. McCloskey started half of the 32 games and shot 51 percent from the field. Junior center Shawn Hopes (4.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg in 2003-04), a 6-8, 270-pounder, is back after deciding not to play last year. "Shawn can be one of the top two or three centers in the conference," Kampe said. Two Detroit products are coming back home after stints at larger programs in power conferences. Guards Calvin Wooten (3.5 ppg in 2003-04), a 6-1 junior from Rutgers, and Rick Billings (1.1 ppg, 1.3 rpg), a 6-3 junior from Ohio State, are so good that they're already Oakland's top two players without having played a game. "We think those two guys could be major, major impact players," Kampe said. As a freshman, Wooten had 24-point efforts against Notre Dame and Villanova and a 21-point second-half outburst at Pittsburgh. However, in that off-season, he tore his ACL and played in only 13 games as a sophomore. Billings, academically ineligible three seasons ago, averaged four points and two rebounds a game as a freshman under Jim O'Brien. After playing eight games last season for Thad Matta, the 2002 Detroit Public School League Player of the Year left the Buckeye program. Freshmen point guards and Michigan products Keith MacKenzie (23.0 ppg, 6.5 apg, 5.0 rpg) and Erik Kangas (17.7 ppg, 6.0 rpg) will vie for the starting nod. MacKenzie, a 6-1, 175-pounder from Warren DeLaSalle (Macomb Township) High School, has the moxie Kampe looks for from his point guards. "He is like one of my old-time point guardsnot only can he create for other people, but he can shoot the ball and make his free throws," Kampe said. Kangas, out of DeWitt High School, is a 6-4, 185-pounder that made a state-record 17 three-pointers in the state tournament championship round (quarterfinal, semifinal and final). Fellow in-state freshmen B-Jay Walker (15.0 ppg, 8.0 apg), a 5-9, 170-pounder from Royal Oak Shrine (Lathrup Village) High School, and Ricky Biezski, a 6-3, 185-pounder from Notre Dame Prep (Pontiac), look to provide depth in the backcourt. In the frontcourt, 6-6, 230-pound sophomore forward Vova Severovas (4.8 ppg, 3.6 rpg) should help immediately when he becomes eligible in December after transferring from Wright State. Severovas prepped at Groves (Detroit) High School, where he was chosen the best power forward in the state by Michigan Prep Spotlight. Freshman forwards Derick Nelson, at 6-5, 215 pounds, from Bridgton Academy in Maine, and Aaron Gardner (17.0 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 2.0 bpg), at 6-9, 205 pounds, from Frankton (Anderson) High School, round out the recruits on the interior. BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS BACKCOURT: B+ BENCH/DEPTH: A- FRONTCOURT: B INTANGIBLES: A- Only nine other Division I coaches have been with their schools longer than Kampe, who enters his 22nd season just one win away from reaching the 350-win mark. But the undisputed, biggest win of them all was the Oral Roberts stunner. It put Oakland on the map as a basketball program for the first time. This season, Oakland will start out in the limelight again as it opens in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. Should the Golden Grizzlies oust Albany, they would likely face host Florida the following day. Also on the non-conference portion of the schedule are road games against Marquette, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Missouri. As that slate winds down when Billings and Severovas become eligible, this year's Oakland outfit actually might surprise some folks. "By January, we could be really good. We have a ton of talent," Kampe said. "Everyone says we're inexperienced. But that's not really true. I mean Rick is a fourth-year guy, Calvin is a junior." No matter what happens in 2005-06, nothing will be more of a surprise than what happened last year. For the most comprehensive previews on all 326 Division I teams, order the "Bible" of college basketball, the 25th anniversary edition of Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, at www.blueribbonyearbook.com or call 1-866-805-BALL (2255).

Students? You hit the books. It's for the oldsters!

Actually, I don't remember because I couldn't go. I'm sure other posters who are invited, know htese details.

No. Name Position Height Weight Elig. Course Hometown 10 Horwood, Chris Guard 6'2" 190 3 Economics Vancouver, BC 11 Lagredelle, Louis-Philippe Forward 6'6" 170 1 Mathematics Montreal, QC 12 Siemiatycki, Elliot Guard 6'3" 170 4 Industrial Relations Toronto, ON 14 Lord, Mathieu Guard 6'3" 190 1 Finance Baie-Comeau, QC 15 Pronovost, Nickolas Guard 6'1" 165 1 Finance Shawinigan-Sud, QC 20 Martin, Daniel Guard 6'1" 190 3 Physical Education Richmond Hill, ON 21 Anthony, Sean Guard 6'4" 195 2 Science Vancouver, BC 22 Lamoureux, Olivier Forward 6'9" 225 1 Kinesiology St. Bruno, QC 23 Begly, J.P. Guard 6'2" 185 2 Science Geneva, NY 24 Letourneau, Philippe Forward 6'4" 185 1 Economics Longueuil, QC 25 Ouellette, Matthew Guard 6'0" 185 1 Psychology St. Hubert, QC 30 Chouinard, Yannick Forward 6'6" 210 1 Engineering Granby, QC 31 Ratner-Decle, Jesse Guard 6'3" 165 1 Arts Vancouver, BC 32 Zrihen, Bradley Guard 6'0" 185 1 Management Montreal, QC 33 Esch, Keith Forward 6'7" 200 1 International Develo Lake George, NY 99 Higgins, Matt Guard 6'5" 185 1 Arts Geneva, NY Their record is 1-8 NCAA Division I Exhibition 9/3/2005 vs Western Illinois Leathernecks* L 45-70 0-1 0-0 Horwood,C/Chouinard,Y 10 Anthony,S/Lamoureux,O 5 St-Bruno Fundraiser 10/7/2005 at Edouard Montpetit Lynx* W 79-53 1-1 0-0 Pronovost,N 18 Lamoureux,O 8 NCAA Division II Exhibition 10/11/2005 vs St. Michaels Purple Knights* L 80-87 1-2 0-0 Lamoureux,O 22 Lamoureux,O 9 McGill Redbird Classic 10/14/2005 vs Winnipeg Wesmen* L 52-87 1-3 0-0 Lamoureux,O 17 Lamoureux,O 5 10/15/2005 vs UNB Varsity Reds* L 61-62 1-4 0-0 Siemia/Letour/Ouelle 10 Lamoureux,O 5 10/16/2005 vs Queen's Golden Gaels* L 52-53 1-5 0-0 Lamoureux,O 15 Lamoureux,O 8 Ontario Tour 10/23/2005 at Brock Badgers*® L 55-57 1-6 0-0 Lamoureux,O 16 Lamoureux,O 12 10/24/2005 at McMaster Marauders* L 55-81 1-7 0-0 Letourneau,P 20 Anthony,S 7 10/29/2005 at Carleton Ravens*® L 54-83 1-8 0-0 Letourneau,P 12 Anthony,S 5 NCAA Division I Exhibition 11/4/2005 at Albany Great Danes* TBA()

I'm sure if you ask Will at the meet and greeton Nov. 3, he will update any that attend. They can inform the rest of us.

UAlbany Volleyball Alumni, Friends, and Family: This past weekend presented different challenges for us, especially with the travel. We played at UMBC in Baltimore on Friday, and Stony Brook on Long Island on Saturday. Neither place have we played particularly well in the past. At UMBC, we started off a little slow in game one, but then picked things up about mid-way through and got into a nice groove from then on out. We won 3-0 (30-23, 30-19, 30-19) Junior outside hitter, Shelby Goldman (15 kills and .355 hitting percentage)and sophomore middle Ashley Crenshaw (10 kills and .500 hitting) were very difficult to stop for the first two games, and then in game three, freshman outside Kamisha Kellam (6 kills and .308 hitting percentage) came in from off the bench to close things out . During the match, junior setter Blair Buchanan passed Lisa Greiner ('95-'98) to become the all-time assist leader at UAlbany. I know UMBC fans are probably wondering why we have random team celebrations during our matches there, as last year on their home court was where Eileen Rodriguez broke the NCAA Division I career aces record. The next morning, we left early to head to Stony Brook, but a bus problem made it a much longer and more difficult trip than we expected. The bus had to be taken to a shop to be fixed. While waiting, the team enjoyed a nice breakfast at a gas station across the street. The trip ended up being a 7 1/2 hour trip with us getting into Stony Brook 30 minutes prior to warm-up. Senior co-captain Ashlee Reed talked to the team before heading to the floor, letting them know that she wasn't going to except any excuses - play, play hard, and win - no matter what the travel circumstances were. It's exactly what you'd like to see from your leaders. Play got much better on our end as the match went on. Our passers (Ashley DeNeal, Kristin Fiorillo, Ashlee Reed, Eileen Rodriguez, and Allie Wolfe) did a great job controlling the ball all weekend, leading us to a 3-0 win (30-23, 30-21, 30-20). Blair Buchanan's perspective on the week: "This past weekend was one of the most rewarding considering the traveling circumstances. However, we were able to sweep UMBC and Stony Brook at their place, which was something that we have not been able to do in the past years. Even though each team we play brings their best match against us, once again we were able to step up and make a statement to other teams in our conference. These wins built our confidence and we are excited to play Syracuse this Tuesday, another top program in the northeast region." Coming up this week, we've got Syracuse at home on Tuesday night at 7:00. The match will be televised by Time Warner in the capital district and the Syracuse area. The match will also be on WCDB radio station, which can be downloaded on their web-site or from the UAlbany web-site. Syracuse right now is in 3rd place in the Big East and are playing well. On Friday we host New Hampshire at 7:00. If you are in the area, come out and support the team. There's only a few more home matches remaining to see seniors Ashley Hunter, Ashley Green, Ashlee Reed, and Eileen Rodriguez. Hope things are well and hope to see you on Tuesday! GO DANES!!!

They have. Even though there were no bleachers there was a pretty good crowd. All lined up on the fence on the west side of the field. I saw most of the second half. Both fields look finished now. They are really beautiful. The seating and scoreboards are not finished abd there is some general cleanup left.

Another 3-0 sweep of SBU today. The ladis are on a roll.

Scrimmages against D1 opponents are closed.

But, can you leave out football?

All division Ace record is 550 (Div. 3) 533 is Division 2 record, So the countdown should be 34?

Link to article http://www.dailygazette.net/Repository/ml....ish-skin-custom

The prices would be the same if the women's aren't included. They are basically thrown in for nothing. So if you go to a few women's games, it's gravy. I go to both, so it's fine the way it is me. I really don't care too much how the teams are introduced, although I always thought that I'd like to have total silence when the visitors are introduced. Maybe the rowdies can organioze that.

Thanks 91. I also hope Siena gets back on track. I always want UA to beat Siena, but I really look forward to the year that we both go to the NCAA's. I can't say enough about the accomplishments of coach Brown. This rise up from the ashes left by Beeten is tremendous. I'm sure McCaffery can do the same at Siena. I suppose after we have some of the same success that Siena has enjoyed in the past, that our posters will be just as unrealistic as some of the Siena posters are.

Friends, Family, and Alumni of UAlbany Volleyball, Hello! I hope this finds each of you doing well. We had three matches this week. On Tuesday we played UConn for the first time in program history. We played very well in every aspect of the game, and dominated them on the scoreboard (30-26, 30-18, 30-21)as well as in the stats (.337 hitting percentage for the Danes to .097 for the Huskies). UConn is a very physical team, and we knew that we would have to have tremendous ball control and serving to win this match - which we did. For the second time all year, we did not have a reception error and we put a lot of pressure on them with our serving. On Friday we were up in Maine. Last year we went up there and came home with a five game loss. This year was a little different. I'm not sure we were ever in a rhythm all night, which has usually meant trouble in the past, but we battled tough. Game one we came back from a pretty big deficit late to pull it out. Junior libero Ashley DeNeal put on a show in the back-court picking up 24 digs in the 3 game win (30-28, 30-27, 30-26) and all of our passers did a tremendous job with their tough servers. During the match, senior middle Ashlee Reed picked up her 1000th career dig. She became only the third player in program history to have 1000 kills and 1000 digs, joining Rafaela Nikas ('94-'97) and Julie Arbitman ('97-'00). On Sunday we were back at home playing first place Binghamton. We lost to them at their place a couple of weeks ago, and we were certainly motivated to see them again. We had great contributions from everyone on the team and won 3-0 (30-19, 30-26, 30-15). Ashlee Reed was a consistent force for us all day with 16 kills and hitting .481. Ashlee DeNeal was an absolute stud with her defense in the first two games, and senior defensive specialist Eileen Rodriguez pretty much put a clamp on things in the third with her serving. Ashley DeNeal's perspective on things: "I think Coach said it best when he entered practice on Monday and posed us with the question, 'Who's excited for this week? Because if you can't get excited about volleyball this week, then you shouldn't be around it!' I have never seen the team get more excited than what we were heading into the UConn match and it definitely showed. We started out great and never looked back. The most amazing part was that we were able to carry over that same energy for our next two matches as well. All three wins this past week were huge for our team confidence! There is definitely a renewed spark as we continue to work towards reaching our goals!" This coming week will be a challenging one travel-wise as we bus down to Baltimore to play UMBC on Friday and then to Long Island to play Stony Brook on Saturday. Our next home match will be next Tuesday at 7:00 against Syracuse. We hope to see many of you at the match. If you can't be in attendance but are in the capital district, Time Warner Cable (ch. 3) will be covering the match, and if you are outside of the area, you can listen to WCDB's broadcast on the internet. Also, there's a nice little article on "The 5 Ashley's" on the school web-site at www.albany.edu.

The all division record is 533 aces. I don't know what Eileen's total is after this weekend. I think around 514, so we need to start the countdown at the games. I think she'll break the record. She had 7 aces last weekend.

I copied in the whole article (sorry). I'll try to find the link. It was from over the weekend.

Some of those fans may also be UA fans.

I'm out of town this wekend, so cheer a little louder for me.

FYI on public funding. From NY Times: Taxpayer support for public universities, measured per student, has plunged more precipitously since 2001 than at any time in two decades, and several university presidents are calling the decline a de facto privatization of the institutions that played a crucial role in the creation of the American middle class. Graham Spanier, president of Pennsylvania State University, said this year that skyrocketing tuition was a result of what he called "public higher education's slow slide toward privatization." Other educators have made similar assertions, some avoiding the term "privatization" but nonetheless describing a crisis that they say is transforming public universities. At an academic forum last month, John D. Wiley, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said that during the years after World War II, America built the world's greatest system of public higher education. "We're now in the process of dismantling all that," Dr. Wiley said. The share of all public universities' revenues deriving from state and local taxes declined to 64 percent in 2004 from 74 percent in 1991. At many flagship universities, the percentages are far smaller. About 25 percent of the University of Illinois's budget comes from the state. Michigan finances about 18 percent of Ann Arbor's revenues. The taxpayer share of revenues at the University of Virginia is about 8 percent. "At those levels, we have to ask what it means to be a public institution," said Katharine C. Lyall, an economist and president emeritus of the University of Wisconsin. "America is rapidly privatizing its public colleges and universities, whose mission used to be to serve the public good. But if private donors and corporations are providing much of a university's budget, then they will set the agenda, perhaps in ways the public likes and perhaps not. Public control is slipping away." Not everyone agrees with the doomsday talk. Some experts who study university finance say the declines are only part of a familiar cycle in which legislatures cut the budgets of public universities more radically than other state agencies during recession but restore financing when good times return, said Paul E. Lingenfelter, president of State Higher Education Executive Officers, a nonprofit association. "Let's not panic and say that the public commitment to higher education has fundamentally changed," Dr. Lingenfelter said. "Let's just say that these cycles happen, and get back to work to restore the funding." But the future of hundreds of universities and colleges has become a subject of anxious debate nationwide. At stake are institutions that carry out much of the country's public-interest research and educate nearly 80 percent of all college students, and whose scientific and technological innovation has been crucial to America's economic dominance. Margaret Spellings, secretary of education, noted her own worries in announcing the appointment of a national Commission on the Future of Higher Education last month. "We still have the finest system of higher education in the world," Ms. Spellings said. "But we're at a crossroads. The world is catching up." The commission, whose first meeting is scheduled for Monday, will explore universities' affordability and competitiveness. Some members argue that universities, by failing to contain costs, share responsibility for the exploding price of a degree. The average in-state tuition nationwide for students attending four-year public colleges increased 36 percent from 2000-01 through 2004-05, according to the College Board, while consumer prices over all rose about 11 percent. The Morrill Act of 1862 granted federal land to states to finance the creation of public universities, and one of their core missions ever since has been to provide services that promote the well-being of communities and states. Today, educators using the term "privatization" say universities are being forced to abandon this social compact. In the process, many major public universities are looking more like private ones. For instance, the University of Virginia and other public universities in the state responded to years of dwindling financing by asking Virginia's General Assembly to extend their autonomy and to reaffirm the university governing boards' authority to raise tuition. Lawmakers granted those requests, said Colette Sheehy, a University of Virginia vice president. Two years ago, Miami University of Ohio became the first public institution to adopt the tuition model used by private colleges, eliminating the differential between in-state and out-of-state residents. Across the nation, educators said, public anger is rising not only about tuition but about the increasing numbers of faculty members who focus on research rather than on teaching undergraduates, and about the time that university presidents spend hobnobbing with billionaires. University administrators say all three phenomena are related to the transformation of revenues. As private donations and federal grants make up a larger proportion of universities' revenue, more professors are paid mainly to conduct research. And as state financing drops, more building projects depend on private philanthropy. At the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Grainger Hall, which houses the business school, was financed largely by donations from David W. Grainger, chairman of W. W. Grainger Inc., the business-to-business distributor; from his wife; and from the Grainger Foundation. The school of pharmacy is in the new Rennebohm Hall, named after Oscar Rennebohm, whose drugstore chain amassed a fortune. The Rennebohm Foundation financed the building. "Wisconsin people see all the construction on campus and don't understand why the university is complaining about budget cuts," Dr. Lyall said. "We have this apparent incongruity of building growth at a time when resources for teaching in those buildings are shrinking." But flagship universities are less vulnerable to financing declines than are hundreds of state-run four-year colleges that do not offer doctoral programs or conduct significant research, said David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, the nation's largest association of universities and colleges. The flagships can replace some state revenues with federal grants and private donations, but the four-year colleges cannot, he said. "Privatization may be a good description of what is going on at our flagship campuses, but not at our four-years," Dr. Ward said. "They cannot survive without public funding." Patrick M. Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a nonprofit group, also said he dislikes the word. "The air is filled with this rhetoric about privatization, but the evidence doesn't support it," Mr. Callan said. He noted that in straight dollar terms, state appropriations for public universities have not fallen much across the nation in recent years. They totaled $67 billion in 2001, $70 billion in 2002, $69 billion in 2003 and $69 billion in 2004, the last year for which nationwide data is available. But because enrollments surged during those years by more than 1 million students, or 11.8 percent, per-student appropriations dropped more steeply than at any time since the early 1980's, to $5,721 from $6,874, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers. Another measure, the average percentage of state tax revenues devoted to public higher education, has declined for several decades. About 6.7 percent of state revenues went to higher education appropriations in 1977, but by 2000, universities' share had fallen to 4.5 percent, according to a study by the Urban Institute. Stanley O. Ikenberry, a president emeritus of the University of Illinois, says he believes that most state legislatures remain committed to supporting public higher education but that as budgets shrink, it is more difficult to cut programs like Medicaid, public schools and prisons. "The higher education budget serves as the default place to make the cut," Dr. Ikenberry said. Nonetheless, he avoids the word "privatization," saying, "It's not a productive way to talk about what's happening now, but more a way of describing where we may be heading."

I got there late so it's 246. 245 make a lot of noise though. I think our attendence is more than the other AE schools. I encourage all to attend the VB, it's a tremendous spectator sport. How come the Raac Rowdies aren't out in full force for VB? Because it's in the gym? Good warm up for basketball season!