Role of Big Sports at Universities

In an interesting post today in Bleacher Report, there is a discussion of the ongoing situation at the University of Michigan, as well as at UNC. While the article does not talk about Michigan much, it does raise an interesting point as regards athletics at universities. Many people have been complaining for years that the "student" part of student-athlete has been de-emphasized, and many of the athletes who play revenue sports (men's basketball and football) are used by schools, and then spit out when their eligibility is up. Many schools, especially in the Big Ten, have been trying to combat this, and athlete graduation rates are up to record highs in the conference. However, there is a new NCAA President who is looking to get tough on compliance and reemphasize academics, and this could bode badly for both Michigan and UNC. Although UNC has much more serious violations, which regard academic dishonesty.

However, it also raises interesting questions about admissions. Should a student who is not as qualified but plays a sport be given admission preference over someone who is more academically qualified but does not play a sport? Pretty much every school does this, even Ivy League schools that don't claim to offer athletic scholarships, but many people would say this is unfair. On the one hand, it does up the diversity of a school and bring prestige in terms of national recognition when the school does well in athletics, but it also hurts some students who have worked very hard to get good grades and lose their spot to an athlete.

University of Michigan Medical School Growing Very Rapidly

In the academic year 2009-2010, the University of Michigan Medical School added 184 jobs. Most of this growth has been attributed to the fact that it is one of the very few medical schools that has the money to hire people at this time. More than a third of Michigan's research budget goes to the Medical School, and it has been very effective at attracting NIH grants. The average growth rate for medical schools from 2007-2009 was 3.1 percent.

Concessionaires to Return to the Big House This Year

For the first time in two decades, people will be walking the aisles selling concessions such as soda and cotton candy at Michigan Stadium. This practice had existed at Michigan Stadium up until 20 years ago, when crowding in the aisles made it too hard for people to walk between people. Now that renovation to add seats has taken place, some of the crowding should be alleviated.

Possible Movement of Michigan-OSU Game

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that this summer Nebraska joined the Big Ten to make 12 teams and the possibility of a championship.This necessitates that teams be split into two divisions. Now, the question is how to split the divisions, and which teams to put where. It has been stated by the Big Ten commissioner that competitive fairness is the biggest criteria for divisions.

While at first it was assumed that Michigan and OSU would be kept in the same division and would continue playing the last regular game of the season, in the last couple weeks there has been a push to split them, so they can play each other for the championship, as well as during the year. Many officials at both schools have expressed support for this, but fans of both schools have been against the idea. The President of OSU, Gordon Gee, supports moving the Michigan-OSU game from the last game of the season to sometime during the season, meaning Michigan and OSU would be in diferent divisions. The ADs from Michigan and OSU have stated that no final decision has been made.

UM Grad Students Start Venture Capital Company

According to an article in Med City News today, two former MBA students at the Ross School of Business that graduated this last year have started a venture capital company. Michael Godwin and Jason Townsend returned to Michigan after having both started technology and business careers in Silicon Valley. While at Michigan, they managed the Wolverine Venture Fund. They are hoping to be a scout in Michigan for other VC firms from the coasts that would like to invest in Michigan companies but might not know the local market so well. So far they have raised $510,000 of a hoped for $20 million.

Colleges Hit Up New Students for Money

In an interesting article today from the AP, many colleges are now not waiting until their current students are alumni to ask them to donate money. Michigan (and public schools more generally) is one of the main topics of the article, but it also mentions private schools such as Emory and Penn. These schools are doing all they can to build loyalty among students.

One of the interesting things the article mentions is that public schools are having more of a problem with alumni support than private ones, simply because many public school alumni attended when the state picked up more of the tab for education, and aren't used to being expected to give money. In 1960, Michigan received about 80 percent of its money from the state every year. Today it's more like 20 percent.

However, the further issue here is the vast difference in tuition for in-state and out-of-state students, as well as in financial aid packages. Many out-of-state students don't get the kind of financial aid packages that in-state students get, and feel like the school has already gotten enough money from them from tuition, so they are not as willing to donate later in life. For donation rates to go up, this will have to change.

Michigan Researcher Develops New Pixels

A researcher at the University of Michigan has developed a new kind of pixel. It is eight times smaller than the current pixel in the iPhone Four. This can be useful in bendable or extremely compact surfaces, as well as projection screens. There are also military applications.

Chair of Gulf Oil Spill Team to Teach at Michigan

Donald Winter, the chair of the Gulf Oil Spill investigation team, will be teaching a graduate level engineering class at the University of Michigan in the winter semester.

UM, MSU Partner for Entrepeneurship Competition

According to a a press release from MSU today, UM, MSU, and Wayne State University are collaborating with The Business Accelerator Network for Southeast Michigan in the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition. The competition has a million dollars in prizes to give away to people with good business ideas, and has a specific category for students.

Jesse Jackson Speaks at Michigan

According to an article in annarbor.com, Jesse Jackson came to speak on campus today. It is part of a tour across the country that includes stops at Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Flint,Dearborn, East Lansing, and Detroit. The tour will culminate in a march on Saturday.

Whistler Prints on Display at Michigan Art Museum

Many rare and high quality prints by James Mcneill Whistler will be on display at UMMA from 21 August to 28 November. They come from a bequest by Margaret Watson Parker, a major early collector of Whistler's art.

Proposed Michigan University System

There has been talk recently of consolidating all the universities in Michigan into a statewide system, according to MLive.com. It is unclear whether this is a good idea or a bad idea.

Ohio has been implementing this policy, and while most Michigan students would never want to be like OSU, according to the most recent USNWR rankings, OSU is one of the 20 most improved universities in the country this year.

It would be useful to look at different models and how they have worked for different states.

For example, California has an integrated state university system, involving community colleges, four year schools, and flagships. However, they have two tiers with the UC system being the high end, and the CSU system being the lower tier. They also have two extremely highly regarded flagship campuses with Berkeley and UCLA, with UCSD also being considered very good. In fact, Berkeley and UCLA are the two most highly regarded public schools in the nation, and have the two lowest acceptance rates of public schools. However, California is also the biggest state in the nation, and it is in fact easier to get in as an out of state student than an in state one, so a system of this much scale might not be the most useful model for a smaller sate like Michigan.

New York doesn't seem to quite have had the same success with their integrated university system. They don't particularly have a flagship, besides maybe Stony Brook or Binghamton, and those have a hard time competing with private schools in the state and elsewhere for students.

It seems like the most important part in an integrated university system would be to decide which schools got more money from the state, and were considered "flagships", but this might hurt non-flagship schools. For example, the two schools that would most likely be considered flagships in Michigan would be MSU and UM, and if push came to shove, they would probably get money over all the other schools in the state, which might hurt more regional schools who might get shorted on money.

This move would also hurt the independence of individual schools, who would no longer have autonomy. But, on the other hand, this would also streamline things, and give power over tuition increases to the legislature, which might be more conservative in raising tuition than individual boards of regents. There would also be a more clear and direct path from community college to a four year school, and less overlap in course offerings.

Overall, a unified system should probably be considered a qualified good, with the need to run it carefully very apparent. There already exists a tiered system of universities in the state, and if the system could be unified and streamlined, this would be good, but strict legislative control over institutions of higher education could be dangerous.