Nebraska's transition to the Big 10 just took a low blow...

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the_system

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465 posts
Apr 30, 2011 11:22 AM
More of an academic thing, but I wonder what this will mean for the future?

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110429/NEWS01/110428852#academic-group-drops-unl

- UNL removed from AAU after being a member since 1909. This was one of the key factors that got them into the big 10 in the first place. They are the first institution to ever be removed.

- Oddly enough, the AAU review committee is headed by Larry R. Faulkner, president emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin. UT and UNL don't get along at all, especially after the conference realignment.

- According to an analysis by the Chronicle of Higher Education, UNL would rank above at least 11 AAU institutions if research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center were included in its statistics. Even though they have medical research, it isn't included because it is 'off campus' in Omaha.

- None of the agricultural research that Nebraska conducts is recognized apparently.




Now, Nebraska was never an academic powerhouse, but they weren't terrible either. It seems odd that agricultural research (which UNL is known for) and not including their medical research because it is stationed in Omaha would get them removed after over 100 years of....well....doing the same research. Why now? Why right before they join the B10? Shady shit if you ask me.
Apr 30, 2011 11:22am
SportsAndLady's avatar

SportsAndLady

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35,632 posts
Apr 30, 2011 11:35 AM
the_system;755141 wrote:Why now? Why right before they join the B10? Shady shit if you ask me.
I think I found the answer to that:
the_system;755141 wrote:- Oddly enough, the AAU review committee is headed by Larry R. Faulkner, president emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin. UT and UNL don't get along at all, especially after the conference realignment.
Seems like total bullshit to me, but i'm just some guy from Ohio.
Apr 30, 2011 11:35am
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the_system

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465 posts
Apr 30, 2011 11:49 AM
Supposedly from a letter sent to faculty/staff at UNL by their chancellor.

"In the end, while we received strong support from almost all of our Big Ten colleagues, all of our former Big 12 colleagues, and other public research universities, it was not sufficient. There were other troubling events during this process, which I may write about in another forum. "

The MSU board is saying that if all of the B12 members supported Nebraska (which seems weird to me if Faulkner from UT was on the review committee and wanted them out) and 'almost' all of the B10 members of the AAU did, then the B10 essentially f'd their own conference by having a member removed. Those votes alone, if the B10 would have stood united along with the B12 members, would have been enough to keep Nebraska as an AAU member.
Apr 30, 2011 11:49am
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Writerbuckeye

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Apr 30, 2011 1:06 PM
Makes you wonder who in the Big 10 was against this? I can't believe OSU, simply because they have a large agricultural school like Nebraska does. Wonder if these votes (or letters of support) ever get released...
Apr 30, 2011 1:06pm
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AcesinCalifornia

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67 posts
Apr 30, 2011 2:09 PM
A VERY unusual move for the AAU. The only previous institutions to leave the AAU did so of their own volition due to the fact that their schools no longer had a strong research focus or few/no graduate programs. Also, it is a long and complicated process to be admitted to the AAU (notice only 3 schools have been added in the 2000s), so even if Nebraska attempts to rejoin in the future (don't know if the AAU would even consider readmission, as there isn't a precedent for this situation) it will likely be a decades-long process.
Apr 30, 2011 2:09pm
T

the_system

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465 posts
Apr 30, 2011 2:50 PM
My question is: Did something change?

I can't figure out how a school that has been a member for over 100 years suddenly gets removed. If I understand it correctly, the AAU is less about 'academics' and more about research programs (and $$$ brought in from those programs). It's mentioned that Nebraska not having their medical research on campus means that it can't be counted towards the statistics. If that is the case, it's been that way forever. I just can't see how it would hurt them now.

Same with the AAU not counting a lot of the agricultural research funding, but counting the faculty/staff involved with it which hurts their statistics. The most recent article I read said that other schools who do a lot with agricultural research will be hurt as well, and more members removed in the future as the AAU wants to get 'smaller'.
Apr 30, 2011 2:50pm
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gamauter

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116 posts
Apr 30, 2011 3:46 PM
Who cares? The big 10 did not bring them in for achedemics it was football, no matter what anyone says. If we wanted good ach. schools Mo would be in now also, they do not have the football history though.
Apr 30, 2011 3:46pm
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Little Danny

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4,288 posts
Apr 30, 2011 7:56 PM
Cool, maybe UC will be added to the AAU in their place (we have been on the outside looking in for a while now).


http://chronicle.com/article/As-AAU-Admits-Georgia-Tech-to/65200/
Apr 30, 2011 7:56pm
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sleeper

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Apr 30, 2011 9:25 PM
Little Danny;755434 wrote:Cool, maybe UC will be added to the AAU in their place (we have been on the outside looking in for a while now).


http://chronicle.com/article/As-AAU-Admits-Georgia-Tech-to/65200/
lol'd. UC? I think you need to be more than a backup school to get in.
Apr 30, 2011 9:25pm
ts1227's avatar

ts1227

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12,319 posts
Apr 30, 2011 9:57 PM
Writerbuckeye;755193 wrote:Makes you wonder who in the Big 10 was against this? I can't believe OSU, simply because they have a large agricultural school like Nebraska does. Wonder if these votes (or letters of support) ever get released...

Considering they got the unanimous vote needed to join the conference from the Presidents/Chancelors, it is odd that one (or more) would do this, especially when they still say that they consider the AAU to be important.

Maybe the Big Ten will stop pretending that they actually care about the AAU now... I've generally believed it was one of those things they just claimed to make themselves sound superior, but in reality it was more coincidental/a product of the size and scope of the schools they had in the footprint.
Apr 30, 2011 9:57pm
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bigkahuna

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4,454 posts
May 1, 2011 12:12 AM
sleeper;755484 wrote:lol'd. UC? I think you need to be more than a backup school to get in.

For the first time, I'm going to laugh and +1 a sleeper post
May 1, 2011 12:12am
ts1227's avatar

ts1227

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May 11, 2011 7:15 PM
Bumping this, as Delany did say something about this a week ago that kind of went unnoticed by many.

They're filing this under "who cares" like many of the fans did, said it has no bearing upon their joining the conference
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6480763&campaign=rss&source=NCFHeadlines

Not too surprising, as I said before I felt that the AAU membership of the entire conference was more coincidental than intentional (though since it fell that way, it did make them look good to pretend they cared, regardless of if they did or not).
May 11, 2011 7:15pm
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bigkahuna

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4,454 posts
May 11, 2011 8:45 PM
Agreed. It'd be easy to tell it was intentional or not just based on years of induction to AAU and B1G.

Like you said though, regardless of it being intentional or coincidental, it is quite special and prestigious for a conference to have all of it's members in the AAU. The only other conference would probably be the Ivy League wouldn't it?
May 11, 2011 8:45pm
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gorocks99

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10,760 posts
May 11, 2011 10:09 PM
The AAU has been under some fire lately anyhow though, they don't count agricultural research funding or something along those lines, focused on data in which medical and scientific research is very very important. I think I remember hearing that UNL's med school is a separate entity from the school itself, which would definitely hurt their status. Regardless, it does suck that the B1G can't use the line that all members are AAU members .. but it's definitely not a dealbreaker.

Syracuse is leaving (leaving because they'd likely be forced out, but leaving nonetheless): http://chronicle.com/article/Syracuse-U-Facing-a-Forced/127363/
On Sunday, in an interview with The Chronicle, Syracuse's chancellor, Nancy Cantor, confirmed that the university will withdraw from AAU membership in the coming months.

"We respect what the AAU is doing and where they are going," Ms. Cantor said. "If that's what they are focused on, so be it. We have momentum and we're proud of what we're doing, and that won't be affected by leaving the AAU."

Ms. Cantor called the revised membership criteria that the AAU adopted last spring "narrow," and said they rely on data in which federal research dollars in medicine and the sciences, in particular, were favored over other factors that she believes account for a broad-based research university tackling pressing problems.

"I respect what they're doing, but it doesn't mean that it covers the landscape for what research universities need to be doing to be critical this century," said Ms. Cantor, a former provost at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and former chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, both AAU members.

For example, the AAU discounts a university's research dollars from private industry or states because they are not generally awarded through a competitive, peer-review process.

But Ms. Cantor said Syracuse, like a growing number of other universities, is working on research projects that receive money from a variety of sources outside the federal government. The university has several research projects with the urban Syracuse city schools to increase high-school graduation rates, among other improvements, that are paid for through federal, state, foundation, and business dollars.
May 11, 2011 10:09pm
SportsAndLady's avatar

SportsAndLady

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May 11, 2011 11:06 PM
OSU should drop out..they have a great agricultural school as well..show some support for newly Big 10 Nebraska.
May 11, 2011 11:06pm