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Last One Out at The University of Akron, please turn off the lights.

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Living in the Akron area, it is tough to see how badly the University has struggled...for decades. It seems like one bad decision after another and that no competent person has run the place for years, especially the Board.

I do wonder how this news will impact their enrollment numbers for the incoming freshman class. Hell, I wonder what sort of drop-off there will be from current students not returning.
 
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BuckBackHome said:
Living in the Akron area, it is tough to see how badly the University has struggled...for decades. It seems like one bad decision after another and that no competent person has run the place for years, especially the Board.

I do wonder how this news will impact their enrollment numbers for the incoming freshman class. Hell, I wonder what sort of drop-off there will be from current students not returning.
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Akron's the biggest basket case because Proenza thought that if he borrowed enough money to build enough new buildings that he'd turn the place into Ohio State, but Wright State and Toledo aren't too far behind. Even OU is feeling the bite. There's a strong argument that this was inevitable, a ticking time bomb waiting to go off as demographics shifted and the pool of high school seniors in Ohio began to decline
 
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My take is... this is a move to deal with the P&L... These teachers will go from full time with max benefits to adjunct without benefits... big savings
but it could impact the quality of the teaching... one side will say you get more 'teachers' with real life experience... other side will say 'yes, but they're not as good at instructing, per se'

A huge issue is... Akron U does not have the endowment fund/gifts other majors enjoy. Princeton does not publicly recognize any endowment contribution unless it exceeds $25M !! Princeton's endowment is such that if they stopped charging students, no one would ever have to pay a dime again because the mere growth of the current endowment fund exceeds annual student tuition. This is why no one attending Princeton ever has a student loan. Princeton determines what you can pay and covers the rest. You just need to get in. Something like 98% graduate. The other 2% are those wizards like Gates who determined they didn't need school to become gazillionaires.
 
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Bucklion said:
Should have merged with Kent a long time ago...having 4 schools in this small area is ridiculous.

Edit: and that doesn’t even include the smaller DIII ones like Wooster, Ashland, and John Carroll
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Those are private. However, folding the old muni schools (akron and toledo) into the state system when there already existed nearby state campuses (kent and bgsu) was the height of stupidity. And then letting them all add on doctoral and research programs like they were the second coming of Berkeley was literally insane. But when you had a Board of Regents Chair whose primary goal was to weaken the state's flagship so his little college in the cornfields could prosper, rationality wasn't a driving factor.
 
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ORD_Buckeye said:
Akron's the biggest basket case because Proenza thought that if he borrowed enough money to build enough new buildings that he'd turn the place into Ohio State, but Wright State and Toledo aren't too far behind. Even OU is feeling the bite. There's a strong argument that this was inevitable, a ticking time bomb waiting to go off as demographics shifted and the pool of high school seniors in Ohio began to decline
Click to expand...

I don't think the demographics are getting better either. Last I heard the local private high schools around Akron are missing their enrollment targets too. Or maybe people are wondering whether it makes sense to spend 5 figures a year on a high school education.
 
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ORD_Buckeye said:
Those are private. However, folding the old muni schools (akron and toledo) into the state system when there already existed nearby state campuses (kent and bgsu) was the height of stupidity. And then letting them all add on doctoral and research programs like they were the second coming of Berkeley was literally insane. But when you had a Board of Regents Chair whose primary goal was to weaken the state's flagship so his little college in the cornfields could prosper, rationality wasn't a driving factor.
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Yes I was speaking more just about the ridiculous glut of schools in an area with dwindling population. Kent, Akron, Case, Cleveland State, John Carroll, Wooster, Ashland, Mount Union, etc., etc.
 
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I’m hoping that’s a sign that the “if you don’t go to college you’re a failure” bubble is bursting. Formal college education has been overvalued for so long that it isn’t even questioned anymore. Not only that, it’s treated like it’s everyones right to go to college. It’s lead to the watering down of curriculum to make it more available, the explosion of marketing costs, the student loan “crisis”, and a host of other disasters.
 
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BuckBackHome said:
Living in the Akron area, it is tough to see how badly the University has struggled...for decades. It seems like one bad decision after another and that no competent person has run the place for years, especially the Board.

I do wonder how this news will impact their enrollment numbers for the incoming freshman class. Hell, I wonder what sort of drop-off there will be from current students not returning.
Click to expand...

At some point the possibility needs to be considered that it's not merely bad decisions and/or bad leadership but, rather, a fundamentally untenable existence with ksu 19 miles down the road. It really should be folded into Kent. Merge BG and Toledo too.

Have a top, flagship tier.

A second tier of NW Ohio, SE Ohio (Beavis), SW Ohio (juggalo) and NE Ohio. Throw Chicago's safety school into this tier too or better yet let them go private and be a poor man's Denison.

A 3rd tier of Wright State, YSU, Shawnee, Cleveland State and Central State.

Beneath that, the community colleges.

Each tier has its own funding methodology and appropriations bill based on its role.
 
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