Louisiana vs State

[CajunFun]

A few months back I emailed an admin pointing out that I used to describe UL as "the #2 school in a 1-school state." No more. Louisiana is now a 2-school state.

We were ranked in football, they weren't. Men's basketball went to the NCAAs, they sat at home. We constantly challenge them in baseball & softball, and win some. They, of course, keep hopscotching to where they are winning now, and insisting that wherever they are losing isn't important... anymore.

It brings up a philosophical question: what makes football intrinsically important, but not softball? It's not like a university exists to play sports.

Although for a lot of schools in the country, particularly in the SEC, that would be hard to prove.

Because we also made R1... and we did it without their budget, which is richly funded with our taxes. We have the largest primate center in N America (and BTW, they were offered it first and declined). We built the first research park in the state, and we now have 5 (and in a great irony, it was when State sabotaged an effort by UNO to build another research park that the whole thing blew up, and the LSU System lost their only other research U... and the UL System grew and gained more muscle.) We were the first to start aggressively building our foundation (State & Tulane both came over to ask Mr. Lamson how we did it.) We built the first dedicated art museum (State responded with predictable incompetence: they built theirs downtown... students and faculty can hardly get to it). Our faculty were pivotal for creating Festival International, Fesitvals Acadiens, the Acadiana Symphony, Fiber To The Home, and the economic development parks. We brought computer science, francophone studies, dance, biofuels & alternative energy, Ernest Gaines, even crawfish research, to Louisiana. We (with ULM) discovered Poverty Point, and we created LUMCon. State has tried to co-opt all of these (remember, the BRAF gives an annual 'Ernest Gaines' award), with slight success, but occasional embarrassment as well.

And we were the first to bring men's basketball and softball to Louisiana (LTU was the first in women's hoops, UNO was the first to make the CWS).

And what has State pioneered? Where is their innovation? Where are they leading— really leading, rather than simply waving a 'We're #1!" foam-rubber hand? More and more the Corndogs are reactionary, watching everyone else, arriving 'late to the scene,' and trying to prove that they are all things to all people, that they are the best at everything.

Which, when you look at it in that way, you can see the fundamental flaw in their culture: no one can cover all bases all the time.

That, in turn, demonstrates the strength of our strategy: pick a few things we can excel at, build them, and then add more. Grow slowly, deliberately, and opportunistically.

Particularly in academics. Because you'll notice that when the Corndogs are hopscotching, they aren't jumping over to academics a whole lot. In any year, most of their athletic programs might be ranked in the top 25, some of them top 10.

But I don't know of a single academic program at State that is top 25. (Hence my cartoon at bottom.) (There are serious problems with the academic rankings, however. Topic for another day.)

Our local people who work the Capitol keep coming back here and saying, "Boy, the people at LSU are really pi**ed at you guys." As they should be: we are gaining on them, and occasionally passing them... with a small fraction of their resources. (I wonder what their softball budget is?) And as we do, we are exposing them for the indolent, bloated, over-funded poseurs they are.

People forget that monopolies are also bad for the monopolist. He becomes lazy, entitled (think about that word, and think about State's attitude), and wasteful. Which leaves a large opportunity for a smarter, nimbler, and more energetic competitor.

[Turbine]

How you keep all that in your frontal lobe Joe, I will never know.

I'm going to have to read it a half dozen times to fully appreciate it's breadth.

[CajunVic]

Awesome post backed up with an undeniable set of facts. Sometimes facts are tough, but when they are not, use them. I dare say there will be no response to the above. They have few facts and what facts they do have, you have addressed. I like your style.

[Cajun Monkee]

How you keep all that in your frontal lobe Joe, I will never know.

I'm going to have to read it a half dozen times to fully appreciate it's breadth.

Yep.

[ZoomZoom]

A few months back I emailed an admin pointing out that I used to describe UL as "the #2 school in a 1-school state." No more. Louisiana is now a 2-school state.

We were ranked in football, they weren't. Men's basketball went to the NCAAs, they sat at home. We constantly challenge them in baseball & softball, and win some. They, of course, keep hopscotching to where they are winning now, and insisting that wherever they are losing isn't important... anymore.

It brings up a philosophical question: what makes football intrinsically important, but not softball? It's not like a university exists to play sports.

Although for a lot of schools in the country, particularly in the SEC, that would be hard to prove.

Because we also made R1... and we did it without their budget, which is richly funded with our taxes. We have the largest primate center in N America (and BTW, they were offered it first and declined). We built the first research park in the state, and we now have 5 (and in a great irony, it was when State sabotaged an effort by UNO to build another research park that the whole thing blew up, and the LSU System lost their only other research U... and the UL System grew and gained more muscle.) We were the first to start aggressively building our foundation (State & Tulane both came over to ask Mr. Lamson how we did it.) We built the first dedicated art museum (State responded with predictable incompetence: they built theirs downtown... students and faculty can hardly get to it). Our faculty were pivotal for creating Festival International, Fesitvals Acadiens, the Acadiana Symphony, Fiber To The Home, and the economic development parks. We brought computer science, francophone studies, dance, biofuels & alternative energy, Ernest Gaines, even crawfish research, to Louisiana. We (with ULM) discovered Poverty Point, and we created LUMCon. State has tried to co-opt all of these (remember, the BRAF gives an annual 'Ernest Gaines' award), with slight success, but occasional embarrassment as well.

And we were the first to bring men's basketball and softball to Louisiana (LTU was the first in women's hoops, UNO was the first to make the CWS).

And what has State pioneered? Where is their innovation? Where are they leading— really leading, rather than simply waving a 'We're #1!" foam-rubber hand? More and more the Corndogs are reactionary, watching everyone else, arriving 'late to the scene,' and trying to prove that they are all things to all people, that they are the best at everything.

Which, when you look at it in that way, you can see the fundamental flaw in their culture: no one can cover all bases all the time.

That, in turn, demonstrates the strength of our strategy: pick a few things we can excel at, build them, and then add more. Grow slowly, deliberately, and opportunistically.

Particularly in academics. Because you'll notice that when the Corndogs are hopscotching, they aren't jumping over to academics a whole lot. In any year, most of their athletic programs might be ranked in the top 25, some of them top 10.

But I don't know of a single academic program at State that is top 25. (Hence my cartoon at bottom.) (There are serious problems with the academic rankings, however. Topic for another day.)

Our local people who work the Capitol keep coming back here and saying, "Boy, the people at LSU are really pi**ed at you guys." As they should be: we are gaining on them, and occasionally passing them... with a small fraction of their resources. (I wonder what their softball budget is?) And as we do, we are exposing them for the indolent, bloated, over-funded poseurs they are.

People forget that monopolies are also bad for the monopolist. He becomes lazy, entitled (think about that word, and think about State's attitude), and wasteful. Which leaves a large opportunity for a smarter, nimbler, and more energetic competitor.

What exactly are they ____ed about? The R1, the name thing, or something else?

[CajunFun]

What exactly are they ____ed about? The R1, the name thing, or something else?

Yes.

[CajunNation]

Which is easier?

Getting the legislature to treat us correctly

Acadiana seceding and becoming a new state


I vote secession.

[ZoomZoom]

Yes.

So basically UL existing and being successful ____es them off. Nice.

Doc Pennington fixed them up with a boatload of money, yet they apparently squandered it.

[moorecajun]

What exactly are they ____ed about? The R1, the name thing, or something else?

Probably our existence!

[ULvictory]

They've been the benefactor of backdoor state politics for almost a century. Now, it's caught up with them. Look at some of their buildings. You have raccoons falling through the roof of their cafeteria. Their student union looks like it came out of 1985. And their library produces more rain than outside. Meanwhile, they are now asking for state funding to renovate their basketball arena.

With their attitude and complacency, they will always be a mediocre university with a good football team.

[IHateLaState]

They are ____ed because we don’t know our place. We strive for excellence. Fall short sometimes. Then try again. We don’t accept Huey Long’s vision of only one school that counts
As MLK once preached

I may not get there with you. But I have been to the mountain top and I have seen the promised land

Let’s never give in

[ZoomZoom]

If only the ULS BoS could see the bigger picture.

[CajunFun]

Which is easier?

Getting the legislature to treat us correctly

Acadiana seceding and becoming a new state


I vote secession.

The Leg is treating us better all the time. We don't have State's support yet, but there is a growing awareness that we are getting it done, with less resources.

We did well in the last session, look at all the construction in the works... and look at the Lourdes acquisition, which is major, major. As I pointed out when it happened, that is the king pin that pulls our central campuses together, turning a 145 acre campus into 541 acres.

Of course, that enlarged campus snakes a 2-mile gerrymander through town. But we'll gradually acquire property around it, and grow outward.

UL Campuses

Central Campuses
Main Campus 145 acres
Athletic Complex / Cajundome 132 acres
Blackham/Nelson/Intramural 111 acres
University Research Park 148 acres
Lourdes Acquisition 5 acres
SubTotal: 541

Other UL Campuses
Cade Farm Laboratory 600 acres
New Iberia Research Center 100 acres
Lou-Ana Research Property, Carencro 51 acres
Residential properties in Lafayette 11.6 acres
Alternative Energy Research Park, Crowley 5 acres

GRAND TOTAL 1,308 acres

[CajunFun]

If only the ULS BoS could see the bigger picture.

We have been working for many decades to get to where we are. So here's a pressing question: What have we been working for?

To be rid of jerks?

Or just so we can be the new jerks?

We do not like State, and yet we keep trying to beat her, at her game. State is atop the heap, never mind that it's a trash heap.

So what's our game?

What if we went the Cal model, where yes, Berkeley is the main campus, but every school in the UC System is strong and well-funded. Wrap your head around this: 6 of the top 10 public universities in the USA are all University of California schools:
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges...ies/top-public

I mentioned elsewhere that there are severe problems with college rankings, so I don't want to be UC, either. But if we were to see ourselves as, not a 'flagship'— the word has acquired a bad rep— but as a real leader, someone who makes it better for everyone, then maybe we could turn the UL System into a game-changer for the whole state. Maybe we could transform Louisiana from a dung heap into 'a shining city on the hill.'

We can do that only if we first disabuse ourselves of the 'flagship' model.

[CajunVic]

We should listen to what this guy has to say. Honey rather than bitters. Toot our horn rather than address the opposition’s. Continue to be the Leader in innovation, academics, perception and of course in sports.

He has a great message. Let’s not miss it.