The unofficial online home for fans of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(07-27-2020 09:36 AM)OKIcat Wrote:  

(07-27-2020 07:37 AM)Bearcat 1985 Wrote:  

(07-26-2020 10:16 AM)ZCat Wrote:  

(07-25-2020 04:01 PM)Bearcat 1985 Wrote:  

(07-25-2020 02:06 PM)doss2 Wrote:  Spot on we should genuflect to the God of OSU and hope for some crumbs from them.

No, but we should recognize the god damned 800 pound gorilla in the room and try to avoid poking a stick at it. Attempting to find some common ground and collaboration with them on something like taking over WSU is not genuflecting and hoping for crumbs. It's smart, strategic thinking. Or we could take Ono's path and poke that stick and make it an us versus them proposition, and when the state turns around and inevitably gives full control of WSU to the school that has built up a century of political capital in every county and town in the state, we can then sit in our I-275 bubble and complain about how unfair everything is.

UC's problem, as I've said a hundred times, is not OSU pushing UC down. It's half a dozen other state schools pulling UC back because they think it's their god given right to take a shot at the throne.

I really enjoy reading peoples insights. Thanks! So sometimes people in academia are very sheltered, and in their own bubble. Maybe out of touch at times. Is there anyone at UC that has broad thinking? Someone who can look at it as a strategic strategy as you have mentioned?

Do they use outside consultants? Or basically the board of trustees who made of wealthy business people who may be experts in their own area with a strong understanding of business though? Is it just Pinto’s vision or do they really have a strong team looking at a 20 and 30 year plan?

Good question. Most of it comes up from five, ten, twenty year plans drawn up by an administration (with or without outside consultants) and then put to the BoT for approval. I'd assume the President has a large amount of influence but not an overriding amount as many areas of the university would have input.

What's pleased me under Pinto is that this appears to be done on a much more quiet, professional basis than it was by Ono. I know for a fact that he's taken a realistic approach to AAU membership and put it on the back burner in favor of pushing for a Comprehensive Cancer Center designation for the medical school, which is a much more realistic goal for UC right now. And obviously, this is largely being done behind the scenes and not through boastful tweets about what is certainly right around the corner......right up until the moment that we find out it wasn't.

Well said. Bolded, this is a critical gateway for our institution and I believe is articulated as such in UC's current comprehensive campaign for private support. It's more achievable than AAU membership, which is more akin to getting voted into a country club.

Few of us here could provide the full financial support needed for that cancer project but for alumni and friends on Banter, participation by giving at any level is important. For Ohioans, that can be as simple as going online and ordering a UC license plate (I saw far too many for OSU this weekend visiting family in northeast OH). For others, a gift through the telefund or online for your college or alumni association or UCATS makes an impact. Large numbers of small gifts have been another avenue to empowering many of our major public research peers.

I won't dismiss AAU membership to that degree; that should always be the number one, long term institutional goal for UC. That being said, though, I've often said on here that UC was too far off in many of the hard and soft metrics to be a final candidate--not to mention that anyone with a knowledge of the situation knew that Utah was next public in. UC needs to really strengthen its core Arts & Sciences departments: not only stronger physics and chemistry but also stronger history and political science departments. Georgia Tech's admission was delayed for years, not because the AAU is a country club, but because they were viewed as too one-dimensional and found lacking in many of the soft metrics that, while not of primary importance, are absolutely considered in the overall package. Ono knew that, yet he kept tweeting that it was just around the corner. And when it wasn't and prominent political and business leaders called him on the carpet, he told them the absolute lie that OSU had lined up a Big Ten block to blackball UC, something that immediately got back to Columbus.

I think you see the positive change in the relationship with OSU under Pinto in the fact that the first Bearcat and Buckeye Day at the statehouse came about after Ono had hit the road. What will come of this more constructive relationship, I don't know. It, however, can't be worse than what Ono accomplished with his poke a stick in their eye approach.