HBO’s INW: Nellis Takes UI Reins

Three comments on this post so far. Add yours!

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  OfCoffee on July 01 at 4:07 p.m.

  Re-establish? UofI is already a top-notch college. I think the addition of Dr. Nellis will make it even better.

  One of his challenges will be to continue to support the improvements in the athletic program while keeping funding strong in research and academics. But I think it is vital to develop the athletic programs, especially football, because it has such an impact on the perception of everything else at a school.

  BSU is a good example of that: until they had a good football program, everyone accepted the fact that BSU was a masters-level commuter school, adequately fulfilling its role as such. Now with the notarity of the football program, people are talking about what a “good school” it is. But it’s the same school - it just has a good football team. The perception has changed.

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  idawa on July 01 at 4:22 p.m.

  Good question -

  First priority, better operational management - the UofI has been plagued by a lot of stupid decisions as of late that should never have been made, have cost money needlessly, and have hurt the image of the school.

  Second, the UofI is a good research University - the best the State has. However, the School was better in the 70-80’s because it was cheap! The school attracted a lot of talented post-grads who were drawn to a University with a significant research portfolio but that was often cheaper then many in-State tuitions at other, larger schools. As our State funding has dried up, tuitions have risen, and we have lost appeal to those talented post-grads. Sure, the life blood of a university is the undergrads and we need to focus there, but the academic reputation of a University is made on the post-grad side and that has been neglected. So, I would devote more attention to our best asset, something that would take BSU billions to duplicate, our research portfolio and attrativeness to grad students. However, I understand that this is largely dependent upon a legislature that doesn’t give a squat about higher ed…but that’s another post.

  Last, I think he should use the media better. The U of I takes, IMHO, a passive seat and lets a very biased Boise media beat it over the head while pretending that their own local school s(*! don’t stink. But Boise is not the only media market in Idaho - we have the Pocatello/IF market, Salt Lake, and Spokane markets which probably reach a comparable number of Idahoans. The University needs to do more to let Idahoans know what they are getting for their investment.

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  jazzyvandal on July 01 at 4:28 p.m.

  UI just has a public relations problem is all. Look at BSU, they never have anything negative printed about them. It sucks as an alum to see the amount of negative articles printed about the UI. I think UI is still a pretty good school, just look at the graduation rates and the number of national merit scholars that enroll.

  BSU has a winning football team and that of course cures everything. BSU is pretty much the same school as it was before.

  PR is just part of the problem - the state doesn’t do a very good job funding higher education either.

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