Nebraska Booted from the AAU

why isn't UNMC a part of UNL? My daughter goes to UNO and I have wondered why the med center is separate. Could they split UNMC from UNO, but still leave it in Omaha?

 
krc1995 said:
why isn't UNMC a part of UNL? My daughter goes to UNO and I have wondered why the med center is separate. Could they split UNMC from UNO, but still leave it in Omaha?
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I think it is part of the state university system but they have entirely separate administration, funding, etc.

 
Gee. Being REALLY upset; lurking other boards for info; fans from other schools being pissed...I don't know who is the weirdest in this equation. With this whole kicked out of the AAU thing everyone needs to abide by the old stand-by: the one who cares least wins.

Let's see....I could say that I think you are the weirdest because you don't care or I could be weirdest because I care too much or we could just put our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn't matter....or.... It does matter...but perhaps only to me.

BUT! Won't it be fun to be able to watch the 'nay-sayers' eat crow if Nebraska wins the B1G championship their first year out? THAT would be sweet.

P.S. I hope you're not offended by what I wrote. I'm just mad and if caring for NU is weird then yeah, I'm a HUGE weirdo lol I just don't like people bad-mouthing our school. I hope this all gets resolved very soon.

 
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krill said:
ladyhawke said:
Also, if Dr. Perlman KNEW that there was a danger that NU would get booted out, why wasn't something done about it WAAAYYYY before now?
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I doubt there are specific actions that can be taken at the drop of a hat to boost research funding or whatever the specific metrics are.

Here's something to think about: Since 1999 tuition at MIT has quadrupled while it's "only" doubled at UNL. There are arguments that the mad dash to expand university research and funding has come at the expense of undergrads with higher tuition and absentee professors. Pork spending in the federal budget is quite often research grants requested by congressmen for their home district or state, and on that note the only tangible benefit of the AAU is their lobbying arm.
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I guess what puzzles me is 1)Why didn't they fully investigate Nebraska's AAU standings before now and 2)When Dr. Perlman was notified 10 years ago, why didn't the university develop an action plan to take care of the areas of weakness? Or did they?

 
knapplc said:
This is less about Nebraska being a good university than it is about the AAU saying, "We don't value the kind of research you do."

Nebraska isn't Harvard, but it isn't peanuts, either. Nor does this in any way alter what we were when the Big 10 came after us last year. We are, in fact, a better school this year than last. And we'll be better next year than this year.

In fact, we're in a better position now than we were ten years ago, and we weren't kicked out then.

Ask yourself what changed.
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You mean other than leaving the Big 12 for the Big 10, whereby we stood up to the egotistical jackasses in Austin? Or how that butthurt burnt orange university's President Emeritus Larry R. Faulkner just happens to be the chairman of the AAU Membership Review Committee that kicked us out?

Other than that? I'm not sure what changed.

 
Texas isnt the bogeyman here. If you read the letter from Perlman, he mentions that Nebraska enjoyed the support of ALL of the Big12 AAU universities, which would include Texas. Which only makes sense. It's in Texas interests to protect the other schools in their conference, and, as one of the schools on the low end of the totem pole, NU could be relied on to vote against kicking out other low performing schools. Schools like Kansas and Missouri, both of whom still share a conference with Texas, and both of whom are probably among the most likely to be next on the chopping block. This desire not to lose an ally is, more than anything, why the Big12 schools all voted to support NU.

As for what changed, if you read between the lines of Perlman's email, what changed was NUs acceptance to the Big10 and the subsequent expectation of an increase in resources and prestige. If the AAU didnt get rid of NU now it was going to get very difficult to do so in the future. And as Perlman said, there are those in the membership who want to see AAU membership shrunk, probably to consolidate research dollars between a smaller number of universities. That's the most likely reason why NUs recent accomplishments and trajectory were completely ignored - the AAU wasnt concerned so much with the quality of the institution as they were with trimming numbers. Unfortunately this also means that NU probably doesnt get back in soon, if at all. Not only would they have to show they are better candidates than all the other schools waiting for admission, a lot of the shot-callers wont want to be admitting other members anyway, let alone a member they went through the trouble of kicking out.

TBF, some people here don't seem to be as upset as they should be. This copuld have a significant impact on future research funding, which is honestly more valuable to the school than the football team is.

 
krc1995 said:
why isn't UNMC a part of UNL? My daughter goes to UNO and I have wondered why the med center is separate. Could they split UNMC from UNO, but still leave it in Omaha?
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UNMC isn't a part of UNO. It is considered its own campus and entity for state funding.

 
I would be very interested to see how state funding for UNL per student compares to other schools in the AAU. Not trying to be overly political here but it seems like every time there's a budget problem in this state schools are the first in line for cuts.
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I don't have exact numbers, but there is an article about how Ohio has cut state funding to various Universities. (In case you didn't know, Ohio is part of the "Rust Belt" and as such has been hit hard by the recession)

Per the Dayton Daily News

Ohio now ranks in the bottom third nationally for the amount of state funding per student, according to the 2010 State Higher Education Executive Officers finance report.
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http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/colleges-spend-more-even-as-state-funding-levels-off-1139698.html

 
Chimpsmack said:
TBF, some people here don't seem to be as upset as they should be. This copuld have a significant impact on future research funding, which is honestly more valuable to the school than the football team is.
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Don't get me wrong, I'm upset about this. But I don't think there's a lot to be gained by posting my indignation here.

Further, and this is much closer to the point, "The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will join the CIC as a full member on July 1, 2011, the same day it becomes a member of the Big Ten Conference."

Why does that assuage my concerns? Because in 2006-2007, the CIC received $3.5 Billion in federal funding.

I didn't bother to dig up the figures for recent years (if they're even available), but slicing that pie 13 ways (the 12 Big 10 members plus the University of Chicago) means UNL will still get no less than $269 million from the CIC in 2011-2012, and likely more, since I would imagine those monies have increased since '06/'07.

This is assuredly a black eye on Nebraska. But it's not the end of the world. Ten years from now, AAU or no AAU, we're going to be a much stronger university than we are today.

And we'll still be kicking a$$ in football. :bigredn:

 
knapplc said:
Chimpsmack said:
TBF, some people here don't seem to be as upset as they should be. This copuld have a significant impact on future research funding, which is honestly more valuable to the school than the football team is.
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Don't get me wrong, I'm upset about this. But I don't think there's a lot to be gained by posting my indignation here.

Further, and this is much closer to the point, "The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will join the CIC as a full member on July 1, 2011, the same day it becomes a member of the Big Ten Conference."

Why does that assuage my concerns? Because in 2006-2007, the CIC received $3.5 Billion in federal funding.

I didn't bother to dig up the figures for recent years (if they're even available), but slicing that pie 13 ways (the 12 Big 10 members plus the University of Chicago) means UNL will still get no less than $269 million from the CIC in 2011-2012, and likely more, since I would imagine those monies have increased since '06/'07.

This is assuredly a black eye on Nebraska. But it's not the end of the world. Ten years from now, AAU or no AAU, we're going to be a much stronger university than we are today.

And we'll still be kicking a$$ in football. :bigredn:
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Do they actually just divvy it up in 13 slices?

I guess kinda figured gaining access to the CIC meant easier access to that large pool of research money but that it still was distributed based on research grants and who was researching what, where.

 
redblooded said:
knapplc said:
Chimpsmack said:
TBF, some people here don't seem to be as upset as they should be. This copuld have a significant impact on future research funding, which is honestly more valuable to the school than the football team is.
Click to expand...
Don't get me wrong, I'm upset about this. But I don't think there's a lot to be gained by posting my indignation here.

Further, and this is much closer to the point, "The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will join the CIC as a full member on July 1, 2011, the same day it becomes a member of the Big Ten Conference."

Why does that assuage my concerns? Because in 2006-2007, the CIC received $3.5 Billion in federal funding.

I didn't bother to dig up the figures for recent years (if they're even available), but slicing that pie 13 ways (the 12 Big 10 members plus the University of Chicago) means UNL will still get no less than $269 million from the CIC in 2011-2012, and likely more, since I would imagine those monies have increased since '06/'07.

This is assuredly a black eye on Nebraska. But it's not the end of the world. Ten years from now, AAU or no AAU, we're going to be a much stronger university than we are today.

And we'll still be kicking a$$ in football. :bigredn:
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Do they actually just divvy it up in 13 slices?

I guess kinda figured gaining access to the CIC meant easier access to that large pool of research money but that it still was distributed based on research grants and who was researching what, where.
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You're right, they don't just divvy it up. But it sounds better the way I wrote it. ;)

 
The way to rise in the criteria of the AAU and other rankings is well-known to those running the NU System. That is to find a way to be able to bring the two research-intensive institutions, UNMC and UNL, under a single administration, as they had been at the time of the university's induction into the AAU in 1909. The 'University of Nebraska' at that time was the school in Lincoln, and that university had bought a little down on its luck medical school in Omaha in 1902.

It is not important that the 'flagship' institutions share a home city. What is important is that they share an administration. For an example, look south to Kansas. KU is in Lawrence. The KU Medical Center is in Kansas City. They are, for reporting purposes, the same institution.

If you want a really opposite example from the other end of the Big Ten, Penn State's President Graham Spanier oversees the whole 22-campus operation from the flagship campus in State College, and reports all of the 90-some thousand students, all the research dollars, everything.

This is all about small-minded Nebraska politics, Omaha-Lincoln sibling tensions, entrenched interests in the administrations at UNL, UNMC and perhaps most important, the system office. Now we'll see if they can do the right thing for the state, which would involve rejoining UNL and UNMC (at least) as a single University of Nebraska.

In the end, you can hardly blame the AAU, as we effectively had a ten-year warning. The fact that both the AAU president, Berdahl, and the guy running the review committee, Faulkner, are former presidents of UT-Austin doesn't escape notice, though.

 
beanman said:
Lots of Husker haters out there that are loving this news(see comments at base of blog)

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/26078/nebraska-loses-aau-status
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Yeah, I saw that. Sad, twisted folks, the lot of them. So many years of ingrained jealousy for our football program that they'll latch onto the slightest bit of dirt they can find and vent their pathetic, petty little hearts over it. It is amusing, however, when fans of non-AAU schools decide to pile on. What they should be saying is: "ONE OF US. ONE OF US. ONE OF US..."

 
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