Date Posted:08:24:40 04/08/04 Thu Author: NTKHC64 Subject: Apples and Oranges...but some principles for HC?
-------------------------------------------------------------New York Times -------------------
April 8, 2004
From Cow College to Campus of Champions
By WILLIAM YARDLEY and JANE GORDON
ARTFORD, April 7 - First came basketball. Then came a ton of money, more than $2 billion from the state toward an ambitious 20-year campus construction plan. Then came this week, when the University of Connecticut men's and women's basketball teams delivered twin national championships on consecutive nights.
"When you think of UConn," Diana Taurasi, who led the women's team to its third consecutive title, said after defeating the University of Tennessee on Tuesday night, "you think of domination."
Winning basketball has raised the profile of the university for more than a decade, and along the way, it has also increased support for UConn - some call it an obsession - among the school's fans in Connecticut and the politicians who represent them.
But in the glow of the championships, the school is claiming a larger victory - rising test scores of entering freshmen, more selective admission standards, better research and academic facilities and a reputation that improves every semester.
"There's no question that a lot of the academic excitement arose from the basketball success," Philip E. Austin, the university's president, said in an interview from a mobile phone while he was returning from watching the women's team in New Orleans on Tuesday.
Even with the revenue of championships and television contracts, successful sports programs have not proved to be a panacea for schools seeking to increase their academic stature and financial stability. UConn continues to wrestle with its annual budget, and last year some faculty members and administrators chose to forgo raises rather than have the school face job cuts. While UConn cites higher test scores and increasing enrollment, other state schools without great sports teams do, too.
But in interviews with a range of people close to the school - from students to alumni to business people who hire UConn graduates to the director of the faculty union - all say the old "cow college" in the state's rural northeast has come a long way in the last decade.
And many say it is no accident that the new success in both sports and enrollment has happened in Connecticut, where sports teams are few, but where public education is prized and where having no one else to cheer for has left devotion for the home team undiluted.
"It's the reality of our part of the country," said Mr. Austin. "We're surrounded by Boston and New York. This is our little niche."
Building dominant basketball programs has taken nearly two decades at the university, after the arrival of the women's coach, Geno Auriemma, in 1985 and the men's coach, Jim Calhoun, in 1986. But construction on the campus in tiny Storrs, Conn., has transformed a faceless and by many accounts dreary and declining college outpost in less than half that time.
Alumni who watched the school fade now return to a campus where they have to ask for directions. Most undergraduate students live on campus, many in new dormitories, and prospective faculty members and researchers are drawn to sparkling new buildings and laboratories.
"I'm not sure the color of the bricks would appeal to them, but then you go inside and see the laboratories," said Edward Marth, executive director of the UConn chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which has 1,300 members at the school. "The university needs it, desperately needs it. When I came here the buildings were terrible."
While there is near unanimity that UConn is in resurgence, change has come with a stunning price tag. Beginning in 1995, when other states were tightening higher-education budgets, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a giant revitalization program called UConn 2000. In the years since, the state has committed $2.3 billion to capital improvements on campus.
In turn, UConn has evolved from being a "safety school" for state residents to a college of choice that draws, and often must deny, students from across New England and beyond.
UConn's primary competition for students comes from Boston College, Boston University, Syracuse University and Rutgers, according to Mr. Austin.
UConn has more than 26,000 students, with about 7,000 of them in graduate programs including law, dentistry, medicine and social work.
Freshmen entering UConn in 2003 scored on average 18 points higher on the SAT than those entering the previous fall, and 139 points higher than those entering in 1995. The average SAT score is now 1167. Between 1995 and 2003, 462 valedictorians and salutatorians enrolled at UConn. Rankings by U.S. News & World Report placed UConn among the top 25 public universities in the nation.
While the school grows, some say, the size and experience of the faculty has not yet caught up with the construction boom.
"If you're going to have a new facility you ought to be able to staff it properly," Mr. Marth said.
The school lost almost 100 faculty members to retirement in the past few years. A report on Princetonreview.com gives UConn a low rating for using too many teaching assistants in its upper-level courses. The school is closing its geology and geophysics department.
But most assessments say the big picture is promising.
"Both the quality of the engineering graduates and the quality of the basketball teams have improved over the past decade," said John F. Cassidy, senior vice president for science and technology at the United Technologies Corporation. Four years ago, the corporation gave UConn a $4 million gift for four endowed professorships in engineering-related studies, scholarships and research grants.
"In the past few years, we have hired more engineering graduates from UConn than any other school," Dr. Cassidy said. "The best UConn graduate is in the same ranks as a graduate from M.I.T. or Stanford or Georgia Tech or pick-your-favorite top-notch engineering school. UConn graduates are holding their own in my view, and that was not the case five or 10 years ago."
Jere Longman, in New York, contributed reporting for this article
If you think competing for students with the likes of Syracue, BU and Rutgers implies that UConn has raised its academic reputation, you are very wrong. The only standard those schools have is the body must be warm. Syracuse has justed recruited a BB player that has had problems with the law and certainly is not up to HC academic standards. In fact, it is one of the easiest schools in the country to get into and stay in. These schools have a long way to go.
That's not what I think. In fact, I thought there were some points in the article that were pertinent to the debate about PL vs. non-PL for HC. It appears that the article didn't capture the interest of many, if any. I know and have told all here for a long time that HC is staying in the PL. I agree with sader 1970. This topic became old a long time ago whatever is written here will have no impact.
One person I know at HC received the article from me and replied:
No question the basketball program has helped build the university.(UConn.)
That is why people cut corners. It is a shame it works that way, but there
it is.
It is an interesting article and yes I believe there is some relevance to HC and where we were, where we've gone over the past 17 years and where we are today.
One small misconception in the article....
Uconn hoops was, like HC, pretty good pre-Calhoun under Dee Rowe and before Dee as well ( I'm sure you remember Wes Balisouknia(sp), yes ? ). And as mentioned, it's well known that Doug Flutie's gridiron exploits nearly single-handidly transformed BC from a good school into a great school with national exposure, soaring applications and dramatically increased alumni gifts annually.
On a smaller scale, Brooks's financial wooing of Edward Bennett Williams back in the early 1980's and putting him in charge of resurrecting HC's football program ( hiring Rick Carter ), resulted in positive national exposure, dramatic increased home attendance, tripling season tix sales plus much needed revenue from 3-4 regional television appearances which put the program in the BLACK. Among other things, we may not have been able to afford the purchase of the Taylor & Boody organ if not for the football revenue at the time.
I can't recall what effect all of the above had on admissions - specifically increased interest via % increase in applications to the College between 1981 and say 1986. Nor can I recall what % increases in the Alumni Fund took place during this period. That's a relatively narrow time frame but I think it's safe to say that there was 'some' positive effect generated in these two areas.
As you know, in the early post Patriot League decision years, season tix sales and home attendance dropped-off markedly even as the program under Duffner had super statistical years. Again, I don't know if there was a leveling off in both admission applications and Alumni giving say between 1988 and 1994. Obviously, we all know what has happened since Duffner left as regards season tix sales, home attendance, Alumni/student/general fan interest and the enormous red ink that has accumulated annually for the football program.
I think the article is equally of interest as regards Uconn versus Umass. Both were long-time Yankee Conference members and bitter rivals in each's backyards but both have traveled different financial, athletic and academic paths over the past 20 or so years. It's telling that Uconn's President feels they now compete for students with BC, BU, Syracuse and Rutgers with no mention of Umass, would you agree ?
