I would not be surprised at all to see the University of Akron go ahead with a full name change to something like Ohio Tech in, say, 15 years from now. Usually, when a radical change is floated, it is done knowing there will be major blow back, but what the process does is gets the idea out there and it gradually is processed by the stakeholders and over time becomes less shocking.

Just my opinion, but I believe that this "rebranding" as Ohio's tech school will end up being merely the beginning of a phase-in to the full name change. These things just don't happen by flipping a switch.

As far as merging some of the universities that are close in proximity, I find that doubtful, but anything is possible 30-40 years down the road. I think sharing purchasing and other administrative cooperation will come first on that front.

(06-06-2015 09:45 AM)TAW92 Wrote:  I would not be surprised at all to see the University of Akron go ahead with a full name change to something like Ohio Tech in, say, 15 years from now. Usually, when a radical change is floated, it is done knowing there will be major blow back, but what the process does is gets the idea out there and it gradually is processed by the stakeholders and over time becomes less shocking.

Just my opinion, but I believe that this "rebranding" as Ohio's tech school will end up being merely the beginning of a phase-in to the full name change. These things just don't happen by flipping a switch.

I agree. If the new tagline is regularly used, UA acquires a new informal nickname (Ohio Tech / Ohio Polytechnic, etc.) by osmosis. Then people just get used to it and the official name change is just a formality down the road.

Paradoxically, it makes mergers more difficult as it attempts to differentiate UA from the others while on the other hand it facilitates mergers because it de-emphasizes regional rivalries by taking on a more statewide identity.

Interesting thread. FWIW, the demographics issues is only really affecting the Eastern and Northern parts of the state. The central (Columbus) and southwestern (Cincinnati) regions have quite healthy growth rates.

Seeing as how 50% of UC's enrollment is from greater Cincinnati and another 20% is out-of-state/international, we aren't greatly affected by the population flight out of the rust belt. If anything, it helps us because people from Michigan/NE Ohio want to move somewhere where they can find a job and can still drive home to visit their parents.

(05-19-2015 10:15 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  

(05-19-2015 08:30 PM)HuskieAlumnus03 Wrote:  Sounds unfortunate. How have the alumni and students of the other ohio schools, not tOSU, not banded together and try to lobby to dampen tOSU's foothold and obvious dominance on the higher ed landscape of the state?

unfortunately too many alumni of the other schools worship at the alter of Ohio State football and don't see the conflict of interest. They truly think that OSU represents EVERY person in the state, regardless of where they went to school. That's why there's so many references to Ohio State as "Ohio" to this day.

It's like when Univ of Akron's official facebook page posted this comment before the National Championship this year- "Hey Ohio State University Football - bring that College Football Playoff trophy home to Ohio! ‪#‎TeamOhio‬ ‪#‎OhioPride"

And then Akron's new president sent this tweet- "Got an early AM meeting in Columbus tomorrow -- here's hoping it will be a happy town. Go Bucks! @OhioState "

WTF are they thinking? Their own university has a football team in the same league as OSU, and its a league that essentially blocks Akron from ever having a chance to play for a championship and they're publicly cheering for the school that blocks them.

Not picking on UA, there are examples all over. My facebook feed is full of Ohio and Miami grads who are hardcore Buckeye football fans. Even some former members of the Marching 110 ignore the Bobcats and root for the Buckeyes, which I find to be blasphemous.

That's so weird to me. Like most UC fans I grew up watching basketball. And I didn't even think of OSU as a sports school because 1) we never played them, and 2) they sucked at basketball back then. We'd occasionally see OSU scores on the news, but only after the UC, Xaver, Miami, Dayton, and Kentucky were announced. They'd mention OSU about as often as Louisville, Purdue, IU, and Notre Dame.

Seeing as how that's how I grew up, I really don't have much animosity towards OSU. I rooted for them in their bowl games because there's more kids from Cincy playing for OSU than for FSU/Alabama/Oregon etc.

One of the economic strengths of Ohio is our widely diverse university system. There's great public options for literally every type of student.

I recently saw an article in an Illinois paper bemoaning the fact that Illinois only has 2 options: the huge elite public land grant, or a 3rd rate commuter school that no one from outside the state has ever heard of. They actually used Ohio's model as an example of an ideal system. Sort of ironic because Ohio's "model" wasn't a master plan; it was actually a series of historical accidents where we just kept absorbing private and municipal schools into the system over the past two centuries.

(06-15-2015 12:37 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(05-19-2015 10:15 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  

(05-19-2015 08:30 PM)HuskieAlumnus03 Wrote:  Sounds unfortunate. How have the alumni and students of the other ohio schools, not tOSU, not banded together and try to lobby to dampen tOSU's foothold and obvious dominance on the higher ed landscape of the state?

unfortunately too many alumni of the other schools worship at the alter of Ohio State football and don't see the conflict of interest. They truly think that OSU represents EVERY person in the state, regardless of where they went to school. That's why there's so many references to Ohio State as "Ohio" to this day.

It's like when Univ of Akron's official facebook page posted this comment before the National Championship this year- "Hey Ohio State University Football - bring that College Football Playoff trophy home to Ohio! ‪#‎TeamOhio‬ ‪#‎OhioPride"

And then Akron's new president sent this tweet- "Got an early AM meeting in Columbus tomorrow -- here's hoping it will be a happy town. Go Bucks! @OhioState "

WTF are they thinking? Their own university has a football team in the same league as OSU, and its a league that essentially blocks Akron from ever having a chance to play for a championship and they're publicly cheering for the school that blocks them.

Not picking on UA, there are examples all over. My facebook feed is full of Ohio and Miami grads who are hardcore Buckeye football fans. Even some former members of the Marching 110 ignore the Bobcats and root for the Buckeyes, which I find to be blasphemous.

That's so weird to me. Like most UC fans I grew up watching basketball. And I didn't even think of OSU as a sports school because 1) we never played them, and 2) they sucked at basketball back then. We'd occasionally see OSU scores on the news, but only after the UC, Xaver, Miami, Dayton, and Kentucky were announced. They'd mention OSU about as often as Louisville, Purdue, IU, and Notre Dame.

Seeing as how that's how I grew up, I really don't have much animosity towards OSU. I rooted for them in their bowl games because there's more kids from Cincy playing for OSU than for FSU/Alabama/Oregon etc.

Cincinnati is the one patch of Ohio land that isn't solid scarlet and grey, kinda like Austin is a blue dot of hippie liberalism in a red sea of conservative Texas.

(06-15-2015 12:43 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  One of the economic strengths of Ohio is our widely diverse university system. There's great public options for literally every type of student.

I recently saw an article in an Illinois paper bemoaning the fact that Illinois only has 2 options: the huge elite public land grant, or a 3rd rate commuter school that no one from outside the state has ever heard of. They actually used Ohio's model as an example of an ideal system. Sort of ironic because Ohio's "model" wasn't a master plan; it was actually a series of historical accidents where we just kept absorbing private and municipal schools into the system over the past two centuries.

I would tend to agree with some of this, but with the caveat that Illinois does have a very good community college system that is well connected to the state's colleges and universities and that Illinois is unlike Ohio with a very dominant population center in Chicago. Both UIUC (Urbana Champaign) and UIC (Chicago) are excellent research universities. There is a poor distribution of other state schools around the Chicago area (I think no one in their right mind would pick the location of NEIU to be where it is, and Chicago State is widely seen as a struggling college). Then there are the directional schools that lack a clear identity academically and in the minds of the state. At least when you say Miami, you think strong undergraduate institution. The directional Illinois schools have no clear mission of that sort.

If I were Illinois, I would look at Ohio in how to give state schools a clear distinction, and if I were Ohio, I would look at Illinois for its strong community college system.

The other issue is that Chicago is dominated by 4 fairly strong private schools: Loyola, DePaul, Northwestern, and U of Chi. The local state schools definitely take a back seat. UIC does have some strong grad and research programs, but lags in undergrad.

Interview with Pres. Scarborough re: UA's future:

http://www.ideastream.org/programs/sound...ons-future

(06-16-2015 07:55 PM)axeme Wrote:  The other issue is that Chicago is dominated by 4 fairly strong private schools: Loyola, DePaul, Northwestern, and U of Chi. The local state schools definitely take a back seat. UIC does have some strong grad and research programs, but lags in undergrad.

Fairly strong? U of Chicago is the #11 university in the freakin' world and Northwestern isn't far behind.

(06-17-2015 09:13 PM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  

(06-16-2015 07:55 PM)axeme Wrote:  The other issue is that Chicago is dominated by 4 fairly strong private schools: Loyola, DePaul, Northwestern, and U of Chi. The local state schools definitely take a back seat. UIC does have some strong grad and research programs, but lags in undergrad.

Fairly strong? U of Chicago is the #11 university in the freakin' world and Northwestern isn't far behind.

I tend to favor understatement vs. hyperbole.

Chicago is clearly a private school town and the public U's in town lag way behind.

(06-16-2015 06:46 PM)bopol Wrote:  

(06-15-2015 12:43 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  One of the economic strengths of Ohio is our widely diverse university system. There's great public options for literally every type of student.

I recently saw an article in an Illinois paper bemoaning the fact that Illinois only has 2 options: the huge elite public land grant, or a 3rd rate commuter school that no one from outside the state has ever heard of. They actually used Ohio's model as an example of an ideal system. Sort of ironic because Ohio's "model" wasn't a master plan; it was actually a series of historical accidents where we just kept absorbing private and municipal schools into the system over the past two centuries.

I would tend to agree with some of this, but with the caveat that Illinois does have a very good community college system that is well connected to the state's colleges and universities and that Illinois is unlike Ohio with a very dominant population center in Chicago. Both UIUC (Urbana Champaign) and UIC (Chicago) are excellent research universities. There is a poor distribution of other state schools around the Chicago area (I think no one in their right mind would pick the location of NEIU to be where it is, and Chicago State is widely seen as a struggling college). Then there are the directional schools that lack a clear identity academically and in the minds of the state. At least when you say Miami, you think strong undergraduate institution. The directional Illinois schools have no clear mission of that sort.

If I were Illinois, I would look at Ohio in how to give state schools a clear distinction, and if I were Ohio, I would look at Illinois for its strong community college system.

More and more of the Private U's in Illinois are seeing the economic handwriting on the wall that there is not room for the 40 existing universities to survive; they are building relationships with Community Colleges (who due to economic and other circumstances are growing substantially enrollment wise while some of the state u's are declining or treading water) and forming 2+2 and some 3+1 programs where students have the option of completing a 4 year Bachelors Degree on the Community College Campus with Faculty from the Private U's teaching the 4th year and CC students getting a tuition break on that 4th year. Private U's are accepting selected coursework completed by CC students in a 3rd year of Community College (huge savings for students paying a 3rd year at CC rates vs a year of private U costs). Studens can also take their 4th year on the Private U campus. It means students completing Bachelors Degrees with the Private U's name on it while the coursework they've completed is almost if not completely taken at the Community College campus and at Community College tuition rates.

It does also mean a stready stream of students spending at least 1 year enrolled as a Private U student where they may not have considered attending a private u due to costs. Will be interesting to see what State Universities do to counter this.