U of Akron admitted to ICU, on ventilator.

[ORD_Buckeye]

Build it, and they will come.....

....to the bar down the street to watch the Buckeyes.

 

[ExpatAkronite]

In the early 80s I returned to OH and took some classes at Akron. Pretty unremarkable save for one thing: a lecture by the playwright Edward Albee. I don't have a transcript or a link (lol) but it stuck with me. The gist was Americans were too soft and spoiled to go to the barricades for anything. They'd complacently surrender their liberties as long as they could surround themselves with cheap consumer goods and some cash--and thereby feel enriched and successful. And here we are 40 years later...some go to the barricades and some worry about their "wealth". Kind of interesting. I'll always think fondly of Akron U. (and even the wretched Rubber Bowl where I played some high school games).

 

[JCOSU86]

I've always thought that Akron U should rename themselves "Ohio Tech" and focus on STEM. Apparently, they are pretty good in Polymer research. Go with your strengths!

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

I've always thought that Akron U should rename themselves "Ohio Tech" and focus on STEM. Apparently, they are pretty good in Polymer research. Go with your strengths!

One of their recent Presidents did try to rename them Ohio Tech. As for their polymer program, that's really just a legacy of the tire companies being in Akron. The rest of engineering and science are no different than any other MAC school. Also, I believe that Duke blew through and strip-mined that polymer program a few years ago and didn't even leave cab fare on the counter. I'm pretty sure it's all but gutted now.

 

[NJ-Buckeye]

I've always thought that Akron U should rename themselves "Ohio Tech" and focus on STEM. Apparently, they are pretty good in Polymer research. Go with your strengths!

STEM are their strengths... they expanded the Business college to address the needs of the major rubber companies... they expanded Education and Nursing because of the needs of Akron population... same for Law school... the other colleges were most likely UA trying to play in the big leagues

What is an absolute shame... is the campus is very impressive... very well equipped... modern... but therein is also the issue... they can't afford the improvements they made...

 

[muffler dragon]

I've always thought that Akron U should rename themselves "Ohio Tech" and focus on STEM. Apparently, they are pretty good in Polymer research. Go with your strengths!

It was one of the six schools I looked at for undergrad, because of that program.

 

[JCOSU86]

It was one of the six schools I looked at for undergrad, because of that program.

My son did as well (for athletic training). Fortunately he chose OSU.

 

[muffler dragon]

My son did as well (for athletic training). Fortunately he chose OSU.

If tOSU had had a program for the career I was choosing, I would've been there in a second. Due to the economical status of SE Ohio at the time, I would've been able to get significant scholarship monies as well.
*What could have been*

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Committee formed at Akron to examine athletic costs. Seems like this time they might be serious and nothing is off the table. Rest of the MAC will be at this point before too long. You can't spend like a pimp when all you have is one toothless crack ho.

https://www.beaconjournal.com/news/...-to-form-athletics-task-force-to-review-costs



And here comes the stupid from zipsnation:

The ongoing PR mess just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. What would you think if you were a football recruit and you saw this? How would you use this if you were a coach at another MAC school. I don't know much about the head football coach, but how can you ever hope to be successful at Akron when there is a steady drip of this poison coming out of the University? How can so many smart people be so stupid?

This is not a PR mess. Sometimes, the mess is an actual freakin' mess, and no amount of "better pr" can make that rotting, dead fish edible.

 

[BuckBackHome]

https://www.beaconjournal.com/news/...on-of-board-of-trustees-following-layoff-vote

Looks like things will be getting worse at Akron. I do agree with their vote for former president Proenza to finally step down. Dude is on contract through 2026 and made nearly $400,000 last year. Way to be a leader, Proenza.

 

[shiznit7]

Totally honest question here. What’s the reasoning for having both Kent State and Akron? As a NW Ohio boy who’s spent time in Columbus and Cincinnati, I don’t understand having both.

 

[exhawg]

Totally honest question here. What’s the reasoning for having both Kent State and Akron? As a NW Ohio boy who’s spent time in Columbus and Cincinnati, I don’t understand having both.

My buddy was in admissions at the UofA 10+ years ago and ran some numbers to show them admissions were going to go down based on number of kids in school, but they thought they could keep admissions up by upgrading and spending money. He ended up quitting to go back and get a PhD to be a prof at a different school.

I wonder what % of the $37M athletic budget is paying off the on campus stadium they had to have? Noted the Rubber Bowl was a shitty stadium, but probably not worth it in the long run. To answer your question I don't know how Akron became a state school, but there isn't a need for both if they could merge any programs that are unique to Akron into KSU and scrap the rest. If anything make part of it the KSU Akron branch and sell the rest of the buildings. In actuality Akron might be too in debt to completely fail. Death by 1000 cuts rather than:

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Totally honest question here. What’s the reasoning for having both Kent State and Akron? As a NW Ohio boy who’s spent time in Columbus and Cincinnati, I don’t understand having both.

It goes back to Jim Rhodes whose higher ed policies were very populist: lots of colleges but nothing that smacked of elitism. His goal was a four year state college within 50 miles of every Ohioan (you get a commuter school and you get a commuter school and everyone gets a fucking commuter school), and it's why the Ohio system is so bloated and overbuilt with too many four year colleges, an unruly decentralized community college system with the unnecessary branch campuses of the four year campuses running parallel to it, and masses of redundant, crappy Ph.D programs that can't crack the top 100 in a national ranking spread all over the Akron's, OU's, Bowling Green's and Fredo's of the system. Any sane public policy at the time would have simply merged the failing "metropolitan" universities of Akron and Toledo into their nearby existing state campuses, probably not founded Wright State at all, stopped the four year colleges from building branches, and recognized that a state system could serve the masses while still maintaining an elite, quality flagship campus at the same time. That's what California was doing in the 60s with the "Master Plan," and they ended up with the global gold standard for a public university system.

 

[NJ-Buckeye]

Totally honest question here. What’s the reasoning for having both Kent State and Akron? As a NW Ohio boy who’s spent time in Columbus and Cincinnati, I don’t understand having both.

My vantage point... the rubber companies... both programs pretty much service locals albeit Kent may bring in more non-locals than Akron... but there are zero notable companies anywhere near Kent... whereas the Akron rubber companies needed science, math, engineering, IT and business... that extended to nurses, teachers, MBAs and lawyers.

Akron and Kent are in areas in which a 30 minutes commute is considered borderline max vs, for example, here in Jersey.. if you get to your destination in an hour (distance is immaterial), that's acceptable. When working at Goodyear, we'd bitch half the day about traffic because it took us 25 minutes to get to the parking lot.

 

[shiznit7]

Fantastic answers all around. BP never fails to amaze. Thanks, fellas!