Dr. Savoie Retiring

[CajunRed]

Anecdotal, but… I know MANY friends whose kids choose to go to LaState for nursing or engineering or accounting, but yet UL is stronger in all three of those departments and more. They go to Baton Rouge because they’ve been a fan of their athletics since they were born. MY kids and grandkids didn’t consider any other university than UL because they’ve been fans of THIS athletics department since THEY were born.

[CajunFun]

Not many if any.

But no one picks a university they never heard of either.

Even if they have no conscious memory of how or why the name rings a bell.

Class bell .... enrollment.

So... do we design our University to fit the market forces?

Or do we work to redesign the market to reorder its priorities?

It seems to me that the second might be considered education.

[MarlinMan3]

Why have our admissions standards fallen off if we are truly elevating ourselves and bringing in top tier academic minds?

Bump. And our most ardent athletic
supporters are from a time when we had no admissions standards

[MarlinMan3]

If a university gets so big athletically that it draws student applicants just from face timr on espm, it is ironic that those students then have a smaller chance of actually getting to go to the games. Our students have a very very very rare opportunity to be able to go to any game any time, at most p4 schools they have tk basically win the lottery

[CajunFun]

UL can lead both on and off the field. Smart students like athletics too. Research proves that students with extra curricular activities do better in school than students with minimal involvement. If you want the best for UL, we need strong academics and athletics.

SMD, sorry to call you out.

But when I ask which is more important, academics or athletics, too many people pull out the "and/both" argument. "You can have both."

First, IMHO, that answer is a cop-out. It's a substitute for a thoughtful response, and it avoids the obvious: academics should always come first.

Second, you can have both, but you can only have one of them all the time. Athletics are short-term success, and highly inconsistent, no one is always a perennial powerhouse. Which is understandable: athletes stay for 4-5 years, coaches often don't last much longer. On the other hand, academics are long-lived, and create an overlap: great faculty and research attract yet more great faculty, students, and research. Alabama dominates in football only some of the time, and many schools that once dominated are gone from the landscape.

Princeton, on the other hand, has remained one of the nation's powerhouses in mathematics and physics for well over a century.

Third, you don't need both. No one is impressed with a degree from 'Bama, nor any of the SEC teams other than Vandy; but everyone is impressed with a degree from Harvard. Or the University of Chicago. Or any of the 'smaller' U Cal schools (in any given year, 4 or 5 UC System schools will be ranked in the top 25 for public universities).

Fourth, as I pointed out to Turbine, we have a chance to change the state's priorities, and students' expectations and goals. If we do that, we also change the state, and make it better for everyone. Face it, this model of 'The Football Team Impersonating a University (While also Claiming to be a Flagship)' has failed Louisiana, and all of education. Miserably.

Fifth, as I also pointed out, NIL and the portal are intellectually bankrupting higher ed. What are we, who are we, when our teams comprise players who might be here for one year; then go somewhere else next year; are making more than our faculty, our president, and the governor; and who aren't going to class, because you really can't make them?

We are supposed to be a University. We are supposed to be a place of objective, independent thinking. And we are supposed to attract students, and produce alumni who also think objectively.

And yet, here are the 'best' public universities from across the nation, rushing to burn down academics to have sports, and please rich, vulgar boosters.

And almost no one is questioning it. We are rushing after the 'leaders' like lemmings.

As I have said before:

If everyone is thinking the same way...

...who's thinking?

[Turbine]

So... do we design our University to fit the market forces?

Or do we work to redesign the market to reorder its priorities?

It seems to me that the second might be considered education.

Around the turn of the 20th Century a Commercial College opened in Delcambre they were going to redesign the market to reorder existing priorities and get people to attend off the beaten path.

Louisiana picked Lafayette due to being at an existing infrastructure crossroads even though the town only had 4,000 residents. The school made the existing market order its priority.

The school that focused on redesigning the market and reordering priorities went out of business. The rest is history.

That is just a small local example and is by no means comprehensive, I am sure there are hundreds if not thousands of examples that went in the other direction.

[zeppelincajun]

See: Alabama

Alabama is R1, has a higher median income after graduation than we do, and a higher graduation rate. Somehow none of that matters though. Because great athletics taints their academic image. “No is impressed with a degree from ‘Bama.” On the other hand, a degree from the mighty UL Lafayette is known and respected world wide.

- The Mayor President of Candy Land

[Sonsissymia]

nice.

[jaxmc1023]

Pretty much any job listing service now pre-screens applicants based on various things on their resume..

Which filter would you bet employers use more often:

"exclude smaller regional schools"

Or

"exclude schools without prestigious R1 banners"

[CAJUNSby90]

Pretty much any job listing service now pre-screens applicants based on various things on their resume..

Which filter would you bet employers use more often:

"exclude smaller regional schools"

Or

"exclude schools without prestigious R1 banners"

Most likely exclude applicants who list their preferred pronouns.