UM no longer top 50

[mirednmediocrity2]

Yes, a lot of people have a Bachelor's now. But not all Bachelor's are created equal. A Bachelor's from Duke or NYU or USC gives a you a better chance for a better job than a degree from Liberty or Lehigh or North Dakota State.

A lot of people care about the academic credentials especially if there's a particular field you are interested in. As an example, Chad Thomas said that the modern music specialty in the music school at Miami was a major draw for him.

2 candidates with equal credentials apply for the same job. One went to UM and one went to Lehigh, same degree.

The dude that went to Lehigh knows the director of HR. He's getting the job.

Sorry. Welcome to the real world.

Of course that's true. But to assume that connections like that exist all over the place is disingenuous so that high assumed advantage is rare.

The Miami alumni link around the country, especially in South Florida, is incredibly strong and stronger than most schools. It carries more weight than most.

The reputation Miami has among alumni is not so good, at least that's the perception among the alumni I have spoken with. Perhaps that's why we struggle to pull in donations.

My gripe with the administration is that they are tone deaf to the feedback they get from former students (and the community at large), and that they are more interested in fundraising than they are in actually using that money to build anything of value.

The university needs managers, not fundraisers. Good management wouldn't have purchased the hospital. Good management would make this a Top 25 university, academically. Good management would not have lost the Orange Bowl stadium, nor would it have mismanaged the Miami brand to the extent the university has.

On that point, that they are totally clueless as brand managers.... consider that in the 80's and 90's, EVERYBODY knew who the University of Miami was due to the football team. Now, was all of that publicity positive? No, of course not. But a good brand manager knows that all publicity is good publicity. Good brand management would have embraced our "swagger" image and turned it in to something positive.... the University chose to run away from it and bury it.

Then, a decade later, we had ANOTHER athletics scandal anyway! That's poor management. At least according to the NCAA governing body, which cited UM with "Lack of Institutional Control," as I recall.

But that's what happens when you hire a bunch of fundraisers and yes-men, and don't give a **** about the actual managerial, strategic and administrative duties of running a university.

And people wonder why I don't donate. Pshhh...

The last few years have seen a decrease in Miami alumni support for the school itself due in large part to a fed up attitude with upper administration and a backslide in academic success from our peak in 2011. Donations are still at a high with the success of the Momentum 1 and Momentum 2 programs but it comes from less donors giving just more money. The recent presidential change has excited a lot of the alumni base because improvement can be achieved almost immediately with Dr. Frenk.

The school needs both administration and fundraising for success. In the last few years, the music library has been revamped and the new Student Activities building is pristine. There's a cancer treatment building being put on campus right now. However, the hospital purchase has been a hemorrhaging of money until the last few years and that's pretty much canceled out any attempts to use the fundraised money for expansive projects. With the hospital being the labor that it was and is, spending on other projects became less of a priority until the hospital was sorted out. Again, Dr. Frenk will really make that a strength.

Dr. Frenk is by his literal definition an effective manager. He'll make the hospital a true success. He knows what it likes to be at a top institution and can intimate that progress. The Orange Bowl falls on both the city and the administration and with how bad the stadium situation got and the gravity of it wasn't appreciated at the time.

As far as the brand goes and my fellow recent alumni on the board can attest to this, the school got so protective of the logo and the brand that they ended up hurting it by not making it as a public a fixture as it could and should be. With the change in administration, a change in attitude should be on the horizon. I know I'm pumping Dr. Frenk pretty high, but his track record and differences from the previous regime speak for themselves.

Am wondering, was Dr. Shalala actually pushed out? I've heard numerous rumors about this.

 

[TedHendricksOffspring]

The reputation Miami has among alumni is not so good, at least that's the perception among the alumni I have spoken with. Perhaps that's why we struggle to pull in donations.

My gripe with the administration is that they are tone deaf to the feedback they get from former students (and the community at large), and that they are more interested in fundraising than they are in actually using that money to build anything of value.

The university needs managers, not fundraisers. Good management wouldn't have purchased the hospital. Good management would make this a Top 25 university, academically. Good management would not have lost the Orange Bowl stadium, nor would it have mismanaged the Miami brand to the extent the university has.

On that point, that they are totally clueless as brand managers.... consider that in the 80's and 90's, EVERYBODY knew who the University of Miami was due to the football team. Now, was all of that publicity positive? No, of course not. But a good brand manager knows that all publicity is good publicity. Good brand management would have embraced our "swagger" image and turned it in to something positive.... the University chose to run away from it and bury it.

Then, a decade later, we had ANOTHER athletics scandal anyway! That's poor management. At least according to the NCAA governing body, which cited UM with "Lack of Institutional Control," as I recall.

But that's what happens when you hire a bunch of fundraisers and yes-men, and don't give a **** about the actual managerial, strategic and administrative duties of running a university.

And people wonder why I don't donate. Pshhh...

The last few years have seen a decrease in Miami alumni support for the school itself due in large part to a fed up attitude with upper administration and a backslide in academic success from our peak in 2011. Donations are still at a high with the success of the Momentum 1 and Momentum 2 programs but it comes from less donors giving just more money. The recent presidential change has excited a lot of the alumni base because improvement can be achieved almost immediately with Dr. Frenk.

The school needs both administration and fundraising for success. In the last few years, the music library has been revamped and the new Student Activities building is pristine. There's a cancer treatment building being put on campus right now. However, the hospital purchase has been a hemorrhaging of money until the last few years and that's pretty much canceled out any attempts to use the fundraised money for expansive projects. With the hospital being the labor that it was and is, spending on other projects became less of a priority until the hospital was sorted out. Again, Dr. Frenk will really make that a strength.

Dr. Frenk is by his literal definition an effective manager. He'll make the hospital a true success. He knows what it likes to be at a top institution and can intimate that progress. The Orange Bowl falls on both the city and the administration and with how bad the stadium situation and the gravity of it wasn't appreciated at the time.

As far as the brand goes and my fellow recent alumni on the board can attest to this, the school got so protective of the log and the brand that they ended up hurting it by not making it as a public a fixture as it could and should be. With the change in administration, a change in attitude should be on the horizon. I know I'm pumping Dr. Frenk pretty high, but his track record and differences from the previous regime speak for themselves.

Of course I will give President Frenk a chance, but as you can tell I'm cynical after the last few years of what I perceive as unfocused mismanagement.

I'm critical of the university because, as a former student, I harbor high expectations. I see the world of potential that we have, I see our failure to reach it, and I see that the cause for that failure would be easily addressed - if only the will and proper focus existed.

Strategically, the city of Miami has two unique things going for it: Retirees and Latin Americans.

With respect to the former, it makes perfect sense for the University to prioritize the medical school, as South Florida is well positioned to become a nexus for medical advancement in the coming years. I'm on board with the hiring of Dr. Frenk to this end, and I appreciate the planning and vision of the BOT to look ahead see this as an opportunity.

With respect to the latter, what have we done? The city of Miami has the reputation among Latin Americans as being the crown jewel of that culture. Among wealthy Latin Americans, vacationing to Miami, or sending your kids to Miami, is seen as a status symbol... much as a Swiss boarding school or a trip to Vienna are seen as status symbols to Americans.

Why have we not capitalized on this? We should be positioning ourselves as the #1 school in Latin America, a very realistic goal. We could cherry pick the best of the best from a pool of 600 million people. Think of what that could do to our rankings and success. If we just made it a point of emphasis to admit the top 1% of all high school students from countries like Brazil, Argentina, Chile, etc, we could rather quickly see our international stature rise. We should be offering undergraduate degrees in Spanish, as well as English. We should hire away the best published professors from Spain, Brazil, etc.

Where is the focus on international business, shipping, trade, etc? Especially with the rise of free trade and the BRICS countries, we should be ahead of this curve, not leading from the back.

I can't blame you for your cynicism. It's been fostered over the course of a decade of lukewarm behavior and unachieved potential by the school.

I agree with you on most points. The school has always done a tremendous job of really reaching out to the elderly starting with getting George Jenkins to support the business school. As far as reaching out to the Hispanic community, up until very recently that's been limited to a strong emphasis actually found in the History and Religious Studies departments. In about 2003, you saw the influence in the art and drama departments. Now with Dr. Frenk running the ship, he's aware of the untapped resource of the community and the surrounding countries that you mentioned. The wealthiest man in Colombia has a son at Miami. Brazil just had their biggest economic boom ever and really have started to view Miami as their hub school. With a Mexican citizen as our new president, I would think that a channel of success between the Hispanic world and the school would open up and become a strength starting with medicine and then business. I'd be surprised if the business school, which has fallen in recent years, isn't the single department that undergoes the most attention and revamping.

You represent the university well. I like what I'm hearing.

That the wealthiest man in Colombia's son attends Miami is a tribute to the status the city of Miami has within Latin America. Building on that inherent advantage, we should actively recruit top faculty and top students from the Latin American region. We should realign the university toward a more international focus generally - offering degrees in Spanish, for example, and develop relationships with regional employers - to broaden our appeal to the top minds from the region.

To be a bit blunt - Miami has, for a long time, been a school to which rich parents from the Northeast send their underachieving kids. If the goal is to raise the prestige and status of the university, then at some point we should pivot from this toward actively recruiting overachievers. Due to our already-existing prestige in Latin America, I believe that to be the most accessible market to target.

The "Stanford of the South" can come later. Realistically, we have more to overcome in the way of branding and performance if we wish to compete with the likes of Virginia, Duke, Rice, UNC, Vanderbilt, etc. than we do positioning ourselves as the top university in L. Am.

Thank you very much. I'm flattered and really appreciate it.

The school has seen a change where they've started to recruit faculty from Latin America for particular departments namely the Women's Studies department. There's an expert in Latin American History and Latin American Religion in their respective departments. Most other schools do not. It's starting to open up where professors from top Latin colleges such as University of Sao Paulo, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and the University of Buenos Aires are being recruited with steady success namely literature professors. Students of wealth and privilege in Latin American are being aggressively targeted now (the rich Colombian man's son) and the school has had surprising success gaining their admission already and that can only continue. It's been a long time coming but better late than never. As far as relationships with the school, it's just beginning to view international limits as the goal of the school. Before only regional jobs and relationships in the Miami-Dade area were the goals because Miami had all the power and clout. That's beginning to change with the growth of significant faculty members. We do offer a degree in Spanish and is universally looked down upon but the Spanish Literature at the school is viewed as a strength. Why? The quality of the respective professors. The appeal is broadening in specific ways but the new administration seems to want to expedite it.

Your next statement is spot on. It's still a vacation for spoiled Northeast kids who went to great private schools to a certain degree. My biggest belief is that the school should actively recruit the best public schools students in the tri-county area and Latin American sphere. The new directors of administration have slowly given those kids priority and significant aid.

Totally agree with you here. Sports can propel the school and then be used a fulcrum to bring the Latin American students and the bubble public school kids who need an extra incentive to come to Miami. With a few changes, this can be done.

 

[TedHendricksOffspring]

2 candidates with equal credentials apply for the same job. One went to UM and one went to Lehigh, same degree.

The dude that went to Lehigh knows the director of HR. He's getting the job.

Sorry. Welcome to the real world.

Of course that's true. But to assume that connections like that exist all over the place is disingenuous so that high assumed advantage is rare.

The Miami alumni link around the country, especially in South Florida, is incredibly strong and stronger than most schools. It carries more weight than most.

The reputation Miami has among alumni is not so good, at least that's the perception among the alumni I have spoken with. Perhaps that's why we struggle to pull in donations.

My gripe with the administration is that they are tone deaf to the feedback they get from former students (and the community at large), and that they are more interested in fundraising than they are in actually using that money to build anything of value.

The university needs managers, not fundraisers. Good management wouldn't have purchased the hospital. Good management would make this a Top 25 university, academically. Good management would not have lost the Orange Bowl stadium, nor would it have mismanaged the Miami brand to the extent the university has.

On that point, that they are totally clueless as brand managers.... consider that in the 80's and 90's, EVERYBODY knew who the University of Miami was due to the football team. Now, was all of that publicity positive? No, of course not. But a good brand manager knows that all publicity is good publicity. Good brand management would have embraced our "swagger" image and turned it in to something positive.... the University chose to run away from it and bury it.

Then, a decade later, we had ANOTHER athletics scandal anyway! That's poor management. At least according to the NCAA governing body, which cited UM with "Lack of Institutional Control," as I recall.

But that's what happens when you hire a bunch of fundraisers and yes-men, and don't give a **** about the actual managerial, strategic and administrative duties of running a university.

And people wonder why I don't donate. Pshhh...

The last few years have seen a decrease in Miami alumni support for the school itself due in large part to a fed up attitude with upper administration and a backslide in academic success from our peak in 2011. Donations are still at a high with the success of the Momentum 1 and Momentum 2 programs but it comes from less donors giving just more money. The recent presidential change has excited a lot of the alumni base because improvement can be achieved almost immediately with Dr. Frenk.

The school needs both administration and fundraising for success. In the last few years, the music library has been revamped and the new Student Activities building is pristine. There's a cancer treatment building being put on campus right now. However, the hospital purchase has been a hemorrhaging of money until the last few years and that's pretty much canceled out any attempts to use the fundraised money for expansive projects. With the hospital being the labor that it was and is, spending on other projects became less of a priority until the hospital was sorted out. Again, Dr. Frenk will really make that a strength.

Dr. Frenk is by his literal definition an effective manager. He'll make the hospital a true success. He knows what it likes to be at a top institution and can intimate that progress. The Orange Bowl falls on both the city and the administration and with how bad the stadium situation got and the gravity of it wasn't appreciated at the time.

As far as the brand goes and my fellow recent alumni on the board can attest to this, the school got so protective of the logo and the brand that they ended up hurting it by not making it as a public a fixture as it could and should be. With the change in administration, a change in attitude should be on the horizon. I know I'm pumping Dr. Frenk pretty high, but his track record and differences from the previous regime speak for themselves.

Am wondering, was Dr. Shalala actually pushed out? I've heard numerous rumors about this.

On a pretty significant issue she overruled the Board and with the school's slipping academic, athletic, and all around profile, she seemed to realize that her power had run its course quickly and that she was not on a celebrated pedestal as she had been. With her mother's death, she made the decision herself but was lightly prodded in that direction. She was not pushed out, but it was close to that terming.