The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Blazersdawg asked Mackin (last night) in front of me if he was happy with the selection. He was very happy with the hire.

Finis, as in the end, not as the tool in Cullman.

(01-24-2013 01:05 PM)uabbean Wrote:  The new Dean SOM may be as important a hire to UAB athletics as the President. Both will need to be very very good at bring in new researchers and thus the related dollars. Due to the tea party and other financial pressures -pure science research dollars as a whole can be expected to decline. We will need to grab a bigger piece of the smaller pie and UABs research ranking(percentage) has been declining.

Remember athletics is funded about 65 % by these indirect research dollars. As much as we rightfully gripe about lack of support on the OCS - we have been fortunate to have been able to run a growing deficit for years with support of our administration

Sorry I know this is a derailment but as a scientist I felt I had to chyme in on this statement. The Tea Party is not targeting research dollars, they are only targeting excessive spending. Excessive spending (from a republican point of view) is the increased handouts that bought Obama the White House. Once you give a handout, it is hard to take that handout back without suffering backlash, which is the reason why democrats will cut research dollars before taking money away from people who abuse the system.

Back on topic: You have to hope Dr. Watts considers himself a fan of UAB. I know of many medical students who went to UAB for undergrad and were student leaders while at UAB. After attending the UAB Medical School they consider themselves to be UAT fans more so than UAB fans in my humble opinion....

Hallelujah. On your first paragraph.

(01-25-2013 12:05 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  Hallelujah. On your first paragraph.

Thank you.

I don't share that opinion. Most of the students who came to uab med school after uab undergrad were uab fans. The kids that came from other schools to uab med school could care less about uab athletics.. Why would the uAb undergrad kids suddenly turn into UAT fans if they weren't already? The med school has nearly zero connection to UAT.. Only in official name only

Dean Watts will be pro UAB athletics, I feel certain. Either he himself or the School of Medicine purchased tickets for the Memphis game a year ago and allowed medical students to have them free of charge. He has definitely shown by his actions that he is a good man and pro UAB. Hopefully that will not change once he is in the president's office.

I think of UAB students that follow other schools when they do not support the school they are attending as the scum of the earth.

(01-25-2013 12:02 PM)uab278 Wrote:  Sorry I know this is a derailment but as a scientist I felt I had to chyme in on this statement. The Tea Party is not targeting research dollars, they are only targeting excessive spending.

Nature disagrees:

http://www.nature.com/news/republican-sp...ce-1.11249

And so does Science:

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinside...e-and.html

Any long-term plan for UAB that takes stable levels of federal research funding as a given is both foolish and naive.

(01-25-2013 12:18 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  I don't share that opinion. Most of the students who came to uab med school after uab undergrad were uab fans. The kids that came from other schools to uab med school could care less about uab athletics.. Why would the uAb undergrad kids suddenly turn into UAT fans if they weren't already? The med school has nearly zero connection to UAT.. Only in official name only

Well not everybody sunk to the dark the side, but I can name at least two MDs and one Dentist that made the switch who were campus leaders at UAB while undergrads. I am good friends with two of these individuals and give them a hard time every time I see them. Now don't get me wrong, they still cheer for UAB but not like they cheer for UAT...

(01-25-2013 12:38 PM)58-56 Wrote:  

(01-25-2013 12:02 PM)uab278 Wrote:  Sorry I know this is a derailment but as a scientist I felt I had to chyme in on this statement. The Tea Party is not targeting research dollars, they are only targeting excessive spending.

Nature disagrees:

http://www.nature.com/news/republican-sp...ce-1.11249

And so does Science:

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinside...e-and.html

Any long-term plan for UAB that takes stable levels of federal research funding as a given is both foolish and naive.

Like I said, most scientist are liberals and I do not think those articles are peer-reviewed. Regardless, the looming battle in Congress over spending is going to come down to what is easier to cut. Democrats would rather cut research dollars than handouts; whereas Republicans just want to balance the budget.

FYI, the DoD supports medical research and in my opinion, they do a better job of getting results than the NIH or NSF. I have been supported by two DoD grants directly and the lab I work for had received an additional grant from the DoD.

(01-25-2013 12:40 PM)uab278 Wrote:  

(01-25-2013 12:18 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  I don't share that opinion. Most of the students who came to uab med school after uab undergrad were uab fans. The kids that came from other schools to uab med school could care less about uab athletics.. Why would the uAb undergrad kids suddenly turn into UAT fans if they weren't already? The med school has nearly zero connection to UAT.. Only in official name only

Well not everybody sunk to the dark the side, but I can name at least two MDs and one Dentist that made the switch who were campus leaders at UAB while undergrads. I am good friends with two of these individuals and give them a hard time every time I see them. Now don't get me wrong, they still cheer for UAB but not like they cheer for UAT...

I'm sure this has happened, but I don't think it's a large scale phenomenon. Why would most UAB undergraduate students switch to being UAT fans after starting grad school at UAB? I know plenty of UAB students who could care less about UAB athletics and root for UAT or Auburn, however these losers were like that from the beginning. I just don't see what about starting medical school AT UAB would suddenly make you switch to being a UAT fan... As I mentioned, there's absolutely no connection between the med school and UAT anymore, besides it's official name only.

If they're liberal, they must be wrong... That's what Fox News tells me.

What Watt said to the BoT during his interview and what he does could be two different things. I promise you that if what Watt tells Bryant and St. John is what he actually does, then we are probably in for a harsh winter that Global Warming couldn't stop.

Watts

(01-25-2013 01:42 PM)GreenMississippi Wrote:  If they're liberal, they must be wrong... That's what Fox News tells me.

What Watt said to the BoT during his interview and what he does could be two different things. I promise you that if what Watt tells Bryant and St. John is what he actually does, then we are probably in for a harsh winter that Global Warming couldn't stop.

Yeah, this hire is good for UAB, and I'm very pleased (as both an employee and an alum) but the Chancellor's office is still ultimately in charge, and while I think Dr. Watts will probably be a pretty good advocate for things we all around here would like to see, it doesn't necessarily mean that his first announcement is going to be about a UAB stadium for example. I would expect continued slow but sustained incremental growth and improvement.

(01-25-2013 12:23 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  I think of UAB students that follow other schools when they do not support the school they are attending as the scum of the earth.

That we can agree on.

(01-25-2013 01:06 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  

(01-25-2013 12:40 PM)uab278 Wrote:  

(01-25-2013 12:18 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  I don't share that opinion. Most of the students who came to uab med school after uab undergrad were uab fans. The kids that came from other schools to uab med school could care less about uab athletics.. Why would the uAb undergrad kids suddenly turn into UAT fans if they weren't already? The med school has nearly zero connection to UAT.. Only in official name only

Well not everybody sunk to the dark the side, but I can name at least two MDs and one Dentist that made the switch who were campus leaders at UAB while undergrads. I am good friends with two of these individuals and give them a hard time every time I see them. Now don't get me wrong, they still cheer for UAB but not like they cheer for UAT...

I'm sure this has happened, but I don't think it's a large scale phenomenon. Why would most UAB undergraduate students switch to being UAT fans after starting grad school at UAB? I know plenty of UAB students who could care less about UAB athletics and root for UAT or Auburn, however these losers were like that from the beginning. I just don't see what about starting medical school AT UAB would suddenly make you switch to being a UAT fan... As I mentioned, there's absolutely no connection between the med school and UAT anymore, besides it's official name only.

You would be surprised how many of UAB Med and Dentist School grads consider themselves alumni of the Tuscaloosa campus or as they put it the University of Alabama... Don't kill the messenger, I am just relaying an annoying observation I have made over the years.

(01-25-2013 03:53 PM)uab278 Wrote:  

(01-25-2013 01:06 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  

(01-25-2013 12:40 PM)uab278 Wrote:  

(01-25-2013 12:18 PM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  I don't share that opinion. Most of the students who came to uab med school after uab undergrad were uab fans. The kids that came from other schools to uab med school could care less about uab athletics.. Why would the uAb undergrad kids suddenly turn into UAT fans if they weren't already? The med school has nearly zero connection to UAT.. Only in official name only

Well not everybody sunk to the dark the side, but I can name at least two MDs and one Dentist that made the switch who were campus leaders at UAB while undergrads. I am good friends with two of these individuals and give them a hard time every time I see them. Now don't get me wrong, they still cheer for UAB but not like they cheer for UAT...

I'm sure this has happened, but I don't think it's a large scale phenomenon. Why would most UAB undergraduate students switch to being UAT fans after starting grad school at UAB? I know plenty of UAB students who could care less about UAB athletics and root for UAT or Auburn, however these losers were like that from the beginning. I just don't see what about starting medical school AT UAB would suddenly make you switch to being a UAT fan... As I mentioned, there's absolutely no connection between the med school and UAT anymore, besides it's official name only.

You would be surprised how many of UAB Med and Dentist School grads consider themselves alumni of the Tuscaloosa campus or as they put it the University of Alabama... Don't kill the messenger, I am just relaying an annoying observation I have made over the years.

Those of us who are or have been in med school at UAB have a better picture of this. Most folks who went to undergrad at UAT who are here for med school refer to it as UASOM. However, this is now becoming a minority. Most AU and UAB undergrads, for example, refer to it as UAB SOM. Even many of the out-of-state folks consider it the UAB SOM. The only real ones who feel like it is a UA establishment are those who went to undergrad at UAT, and even some of them have started referring to it as UAB SOM.

Agreed blazer85. No one i know that was in my class considered themselves students or alum of UAT. Everyone knows and recognizes the SOM as a UAB institution. Again, it's UASOM in name only.

I knew serveral people in dental school as well and what I'm saying was true for them as well. My degree is from UAB with the UAB seal and signature of the UAB president