Public Funding for Stadium

[ATL_DANE]

Do we have to wait until April to get a decision on the stadium? What is the expectation?

[danefan]

I would imagine even later. I don't think I was even alive the last time NYS passed a budget on time.

[scrabbleship]

I would imagine even later. I don't think I was even alive the last time NYS passed a budget on time.

 

The last three years don't count?

[danefan]

I would imagine even later. I don't think I was even alive the last time NYS passed a budget on time.

 

The last three years don't count?

 

You're right. Sorry if I somehow offended you, as it seems I did from your post. But before 2005 it hadn't passed an on-time budget since 1984.

 

I think we should know whether or not the Governor will include it in his budget well before April though I think. That seems to be a major stepping off point.

 

Anybody have an good timeline of the budget process in NY?

[madDOG]

I would imagine even later. I don't think I was even alive the last time NYS passed a budget on time.

 

The last three years don't count?

 

You're right. Sorry if I somehow offended you, as it seems I did from your post. But before 2005 it hadn't passed an on-time budget since 1984.

 

I think we should know whether or not the Governor will include it in his budget well before April though I think. That seems to be a major stepping off point.

 

Anybody have an good timeline of the budget process in NY?

 

I believe the budgets are submitted to the legislature in late January.

[scrabbleship]

More anti-stadium babble, courtesy of a UAlbany alumnus who feels we're mediocre at best and were an elite university in the early D-III days

 

Never have I seen a school where their older alumni have been so hostile to its growth. At least my for-all-intents-and-purposes-stepmother (who got her MA at UAlbany in the late 70's) thinks the stadium is "a good idea" even though she hasn't been back since graduation.

[UAalum72]

So Roberts can't send more letters to the T-U for a while, but somebody else can quote his drivel again?

 

As for Bradley whining about Albany becoming a cold place - he gets glares from student while reminiscing? Has he never gotten eye rolls from his own teenage daughter - several times a day? I'm on campus several days a week, and there's never been any hostility. Maybe he brings it on himself.

[GreatDanes06]

get off my campus you silly old people...hahahaha (I'M BEING SARCASTIC IF YOU DIDN'T CATCH THAT) I honestly saw this and did not understand a single point, all I saw was rambling.

[Patch]

"reminiscing?????"

 

If he's walking/jogging around campus by himself reminiscing out loud about the "Good Ole Days" he might draw a few stares.

 

People have a tendency to stare at those who speak loudly to themselves!!!!!

 

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In regard to the 60's and 70's - "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder"

 

While UA was expanding rapidly (maybe too rapidly) it faced problems in that era, too!!!

 

This is from UA's own site.......

 

But achieving educational distinction did not come without setbacks.................. Important Albany graduate programs came under attack in the 1970s when the state decided that it was investing too much in graduate education. Most important, demographic changes and state fiscal problems brought an abrupt end to the untrammeled growth of the 1960s; the 1975-76 financial crisis required painful program cancellations and other readjustments.

 

What Mr. Bradley has to realize the overzealous growth of Albany in the 60's and 70's came with problems too. In that time period it was evident that even the State realized Albany was paying more attention to graduate work then to the undergrads. Maybe the 80's and 90's were severely hindered by the mistakes of the 60's and 70's.

 

The 21st century seems to be a time of balance at the university where under the leadership of Kermit Hall - UA turned towards becoming a well rounded University.

 

As For Bradley echoing Robert's statement about.....

 

Times Union reporter Marc Parry recently quoted Roberts as saying: "The pathetic truth is that we confer baccalaureate (that is, bachelor's) degrees on semi-literate students at the University at Albany.

 

Isn't it the professor's who grade the students and pass them on to graduate? Either guys like Roberts or his esteemed colleagues.

 

If the instructors were more concerned about their students the there own careers and publications, students would be well prepared to graduate but if professors don't do their job they shouldn't blame the University.

 

I would imagine that all these semi-literate students that Roberts talks about failed in his classes or was he too busy working on more important things then teaching?

[olddog71]

I thought literacy meant not only competent use of vocabulary following accepted rules of grammar and punctuality, but also cogent expression of one's thoughts. If that is the case, then the letter posters here cited against the construction of the stadium is a blatant example of illiteracy on work against which the writer rails. I have rarely seen so many examples of half-truths concentrated in such a relatively short amount of prose.

 

Once again, I question the real motive of the letter writer.

 

And once again, has the Times Union balanced the standpoint the writer represents with opposing views, from those who support the project? I hope the TU will print a number of letters of protest which this writer will certainly generate.

[danefan]

This guy is clearly out of touch.

 

Reasonable minds can differ on the stadium and whether the $60mm price tag was properly presented, but can "this $60 million is a wasteful expenditure of taxpayer dollars and not the financial investment so claimed. As is the case with the nanotech center and other scientific enterprises associated with UAlbany."

 

What????????????? This is a research university not a private liberal arts college. How can having the most cutting edge technology in the world being developed on our campus be a "wasteful expenditure"?

 

What?????????????

 

 

Oh and to answer all your questions....NO THE TU WILL OVERWHELMINGLY PRINT NEGATIVE ARTICLES..................The editors of the TU are clearly slanted against this stadium. I know some reporters read this board and I think some are in favor of the stadium, but the papers editors are clearly not. Why would the TU want a stadium? A stadium will ruin the one-trick pony the TU spent millions of dollars to promote. Take Saturday for example....in three years the choice for residents who wish to see a sporting event on a Saturday in October will be River Rats at the TU or Albany Football at Ford Field. I would bet that Albany football will win that attendance battle and that hurts the TU. Plain and simple. I know the TU doesn't get revenue from the games at the TU Center, but the whole point of naming an arena is to promote and increase attendance therein. So in my opinion, that's why the TU doesn't want the stadium.

[UA_MA_2000]

More anti-stadium babble, courtesy of a UAlbany alumnus who feels we're mediocre at best and were an elite university in the early D-III days

 

Never have I seen a school where their older alumni have been so hostile to its growth. At least my for-all-intents-and-purposes-stepmother (who got her MA at UAlbany in the late 70's) thinks the stadium is "a good idea" even though she hasn't been back since graduation.

 

 

I suspect that as UAlbany's athletic profile improves, more and more of these anti-athletic-program sentiments will come forward. Persons like the one who wrote that editorial have their own agenda, and that is to steer as many dollars as possible from athletics to academics, glee club, or whatever else on campus that isn't athletics. To some, the thought of spending millions of dollars on a "silly game like football" is absurd. They have their agenda, and we have ours.

 

As far as the argument against UA athletics, set out in that article above, that argument is a nonstarter. Most sensible people, even those who are not sports fans, recognize that UA's athletics have helped the university and have helped with, e.g., the increase of qualified applicants to the university. There are so many other ways that athletics have helped UA and its overall academic mission, for reasons surely set out in this and other threads at Big Purple Fans.

 

 

As a comical side note, college athletics help me in my professional pursuits on a daily basis. By way of example, college athletics help me with matching my suits and ties in the morning: To this day, when I pick out a suit to wear in the morning, I first examine the color of the suit that I have on, and then I think of a college team that has that color, which then helps me pick out the appropriately colored tie to match. For example, I went with a black suit today, so Iowa and UMBC immediately popped in my head. Thus, I went with a gold/yellowish tie. So we see, college athletics have a profound impact on one's professional development (unless Miami or USC are the teams that pop in my head in the early morning). So as long as you stick with a school's colors, you know you're probably okay on the tie you picked out when you go to that job interview or big meeting!

[olddog71]

. . . As a comical side note, college athletics help me in my professional pursuits on a daily basis. By way of example, college athletics help me with matching my suits and ties in the morning: To this day, when I pick out a suit to wear in the morning, I first examine the color of the suit that I have on, and then I think of a college team that has that color, which then helps me pick out the appropriately colored tie to match. For example, I went with a black suit today, so Iowa and UMBC immediately popped in my head. Thus, I went with a gold/yellowish tie. So we see, college athletics have a profound impact on one's professional development (unless Miami or USC are the teams that pop in my head in the early morning). So as long as you stick with a school's colors, you know you're probably okay on the tie you picked out when you go to that job interview or big meeting!

 

I just hope you don't leave the house in a purple suit. People may criticize me as being anti-Barney, but that's OK with me.

[UA_MA_2000]

. . . As a comical side note, college athletics help me in my professional pursuits on a daily basis. By way of example, college athletics help me with matching my suits and ties in the morning: To this day, when I pick out a suit to wear in the morning, I first examine the color of the suit that I have on, and then I think of a college team that has that color, which then helps me pick out the appropriately colored tie to match. For example, I went with a black suit today, so Iowa and UMBC immediately popped in my head. Thus, I went with a gold/yellowish tie. So we see, college athletics have a profound impact on one's professional development (unless Miami or USC are the teams that pop in my head in the early morning). So as long as you stick with a school's colors, you know you're probably okay on the tie you picked out when you go to that job interview or big meeting!

 

I just hope you don't leave the house in a purple suit. People may criticize me as being anti-Barney, but that's OK with me.

 

 

Lol, if I ever do, I'll at least make sure I have the gold tie to match the purple suit (of note, the UAlbany bookstore sells a neat looking purple-and-gold-striped tie)!

[purplehaze]

Huge Farley is an alumnus--get him to get his buddy Uncle Joe to get behind our stadium!

 

Hon. Hugh T. Farley '58

NYS Senator

Legislative Office Building, Room 412

Albany, NY 12247