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

This reads quite ominously to me...

http://www.uab.edu/plan/

There is nothing in there about student life, undergraduate education, traditional campus, etc. It uses the same language as was used in axing football.

It's not really a vision so much as a warning that federal and state budgets have been cut so be prepared, we're going to have to "live within our means" and align "our resources with our priorities.”

If I were an undergraduate professor in a non-health/life sciences related field, especially one with a redundant counterpart in Tuscaloosa, I would be very concerned.

Maybe the faculty senate would consider meeting before January 15th if they carefully re-read that.

(12-13-2014 01:00 AM)legalblazer Wrote:  This reads quite ominously to me...

http://www.uab.edu/plan/

There is nothing in there about student life, undergraduate education, traditional campus, etc. It uses the same language as was used in axing football.

It's not really a vision so much as a warning that federal and state budgets have been cut so be prepared, we're going to have to "live within our means" and align "our resources with our priorities.”

If I were an undergraduate professor in a non-health/life sciences related field, especially one with a redundant counterpart in Tuscaloosa, I would be very concerned.

Maybe the faculty senate would consider meeting before January 15th if they carefully re-read that.

But there's a picture of the undergraduate Campus Green!

I agree that it's pretty disturbing. Everything is says is great, but it's what it doesn't say that bothers me.

The mission and vision are all medicine focused. Which isn't a bad thing, but it's too narrow for a University that sits in the state's largest city. There is no reason to not have a comprehensive state funded undergraduate university in Birmingham. I believe that we are seeing, before our eyes, the unraveling of many years of blood, sweat and tears to build UAB into the university that it is now. I'm not sure what I find more disturbing, that this is what Ray Watts wants for this university, that none of our past leaders are stepping up to defend their prior efforts or that a few on the BOT are most assuredly sitting back thinking they finally have checkmate on Dear Old UAB (and a part of me is worried that they do).

To make his plan work, he has to keep him job. If he keeps acting like J. Claude Bennett, it should not take that long to rid ourselves of him.

Unfortunately his vision for UAB aligns perfectly with that of the BOT. The fact that he is a UAB alum made him an even more ideal Trojan Horse to initiate the hobbling or crippling of the undergrad competition.

Ultimately this is about business for the BOT. Bryant gets his rocks off on football, but even that is secondary to the BOT majority wanting to reduce UABs ability to compete with UAT for undergrad dollars. Watts, as a medical geek who attended UAB as a commuter college, has his eyes on the prize of a brighter future for the med school, which has ironically faded some under his watch. He is simply not university president material
He does not have the character or business acumen or people skills to lead a major urban university, as he continues to prove over and over again.

(12-13-2014 10:11 AM)ranger1386b Wrote:  Unfortunately his vision for UAB aligns perfectly with that of the BOT. The fact that he is a UAB alum made him an even more ideal Trojan Horse to initiate the hobbling or crippling of the undergrad competition.

Ultimately this is about business for the BOT. Bryant gets his rocks off on football, but even that is secondary to the BOT majority wanting to reduce UABs ability to compete with UAT for undergrad dollars. Watts, as a medical geek who attended UAB as a commuter college, has his eyes on the prize of a brighter future for the med school, which has ironically faded some under his watch. He is simply not university president material
He does not have the character or business acumen or people skills to lead a major urban university, as he continues to prove over and over again.

I'm sure the BOT knew this and felt they could run UAB from Tuscaloosa with Watts as the figurehead...

Part of the promises of closing football was to move the money spent to other sports. (Business 101 it is not saving money, when you spend the money on something different). It would be a good idea to put pressure on Watts from the other side, make him tell us in complete how the money will be spent. Manipulate the people that want to end football to create the second front.

....and the cork soaker is wearing a red tie.

At graduation?

I think he meant in the photo on the webpage.

(12-13-2014 10:42 AM)scales Wrote:  ....and the cork soaker is wearing a red tie.

Weird, right?