eulessismore

When we went to a North Texas basketball game in those years, we expected a North Texas win.

Proud Toyota driver here; I think it's some of both: a slower than necessary response by Toyota to a problem that is still not completely understood, and some piling on by the usual suspects. The Prius thing did seem a little suspicious in its timing and circumstances (it's like after the Gore kid's speeding with a Prius; now some are saying, "wow, 94 mph, a Prius!"). I do feel there is some political/pr/legal department stonewalling content in the information or lack thereof coming out about the Toyota "unintended acceleration" issues; not only driver age, but vehicle condition, etc, or just a general lack of statistical and anecdotal information that could be useful to drivers of the involved models. I do think the driver of the Prius should be left alone until "further information" comes in, but if he does turn out to have faked some of this, I would hope he would suffer the legal consequences for a veritable industrial sabotage.

I like your new avatar. Oh, and as someone who became a basketball fan watching Bill Blakeley basketball, it's pretty exciting that JJ has surpassed him.

Not only that, but an interim interim President. These are good points being made in the preceding two posts; the issues are more important than the people, although Bataille will always be a sentimental favorite for me. Oh, and am I the only one who thinks that men and others should be left alone as much as possible during things involving the toilet?

Hey, it will just be a late lunch in the break room.

That's what I don't get; rural folk taking a drug that keeps them up all night to do.....what? Maybe that explains crop circles. And yeah, +1 for all that you do. I just had this epiphany of pointing you and quoner out to my coworkers at our game watching party at the office Thursday.

I'd love to see that on Youtube.

I'll take a try at this; I feel less than qualified to do so, since I only attended one game this season. We're good at winning games our fans don't expect us to win. Also, we have one of the all time great basketball fans in TheTastyGreek, an excellent band (as is anything musical at North Texas), and the known world's most beautiful cheerleaders.

I just don't see how she and Ransom could in good conscience not oppose the centralization of the HR and IT functions in Dallas. I guess that leaves the difference in percentage tuition increase, but UNT had a real difficult task in raising the money to work together the tier one research status; I'm fairly certain there's some part of the requirements that additional tuition money could have helped with. Now, increased financial support seems that much further away, what with the resignation of the woman in charge of the initiative to raise $170 million, allegedly over the Bataille "resignation". In view of that, I guess the $1 million payout seems like chump change, and unworthy of an effort by two adults to resolve differences. I guess, having worked in IT for a career, the consolidation of that in Dallas is really galling to me. How can that improve things in Denton and at the UNTHSC? Honestly, I doubt if it is even good for UNT Dallas. And no, it's not that I'm saying Bataille's way or the highway, it's mostly that these recent moves by Jackson and the BOR just seem bad for the system, and possibly only good for one person's ego.

Wasn't their coach that year the guy who got into some legal trouble recently? It seems like they definitely upgraded their coaching staff after him . I can't remember his name, but I believe it was his father who was a legendary coach there.

I certainly think UNT can win it's first game in the Big Dance this time. I guess, if I had one question to ask, it would be: 1. How much do we miss Brett Vito now?

Life is handing him more important things at this point, but I'm glad the Men's basketball team has given him another chance to follow their fortunes.

I wasn't sure we would win until I saw Tasty on my TV screen with 7 ticks to go, jumping up to lead the cheer just before the timeout.

I think that is in their plans; as I recall, they're planning to play D2 basketball at some point. The Jaguars? As far as the bad area, I can remember when some areas of Dallas where pricey real estate is located were "bad areas". UNT can work as a university system. I think the real questions are: 1.) Does the UNT System have the best possible leadership at this time? 2.) If so, what would be an appropriate level of support from any of us? 3.) If not, what can be done to change the leadership? Here's a question that came to me today: if Gretchen Bataille got a negative evaluation on research funding, what were the funding levels like before and after she was President?

Well said. I don't think I've seen a sadder facial expression than Bayh's. I know I'm left of you, but right of my sister in San Francisco, but would like to see some more "country first" attitude like you've shown.

Is there really anyone here who didn't think some assistants would be gone? This was just a way of handling things in a dignified manner and minimize the pain and pr problems from the changes.

Hey, I'm just basically not convinced that the tuition deregulation, which was, as I recall, passed by a Republican legislature and signed by a Republican governor was uniformly good. It may be that it has led to improvements in Texas higher education. I do know that tuition and fees have increased more than the overall rate of inflation since it was passed in 2003. Still, things have changed since I was an undergrad in the 1970's and in state tuition was dirt cheap. Even then, it would have been difficult for me to get that first degree if I hadn't earned VA benefits and afterwards, got a teaching assistantship on my way to a master's. So, things like that are available; although I wish I weren't still hearing about veterans' benefits being received late...and no credit to the Democrats or Republicans on that. Overall though, I think there is a logic to decentralizing tuition, in placing some power with those who have the responsibility for providing educational services. But, it's discouraging to me seeing a reversal of that by the centralization of so many UNT functions in the System offices in Dallas by Lee Jackson and the Board of Regents. Why is it that the governor and the legislature are not responsible for these appointees, and the appointees responsive to the entire UNT community? And I don't really care whether the appointees are Democrats or Republicans; they still need to evaluate and take appropriate actions regarding the staff they hire, even the Chancellor. I'm not even advocating at this point, "Fire Jackson"! Still, the BOR could show some independence regarding his proposals, such as moving the System offices and IT administration to Dallas. It seems there are limited ways for those who are displeased with the recent actions by the UNT System leadership to express that; 1.)hold those who appointed and confirmed them responsible at the polls, or 2.)withhold financial giving to UNT. I don't think the latter is a good idea. Oh, and by the way, I don't think it is, or really was, significant that Lee Jackson was a Republican when he served as Dallas County Judge. At that time, one had to be a Republican to get elected to countywide office in Dallas; now the reverse seems true. Those who want to be in those elected county offices will usually just join whatever party they think gives them the best chance to win. I think Jackson has always worked in a bipartisan fashion, and still does, notably with Royce West. What really matters, in my opinion, is whether Chancellor Jackson is working for the greater good of the UNT community. Personally, I think he has in many ways, but not in the recent matters regarding transfers of functions from Denton to Dallas and in the "resignation" of Bataille.

Dang. Well, since it's just one thing after another, I'm blaming Lee Jackson.

It just makes sense...geographically.

Hope our football team can learn that trick.

Sounds like that last game on the UTA stage.

Thanks, I guess it's time to upgrade my acrobat reader. I found a link to an article announcing his hire, which was by the board of regents, so I don't think you'll get rid of him until you get new regents; I think people should feel free to question candidates for governor as to criteria for appointments as University Regents. Appointment of Lee Jackson as Chancellor

Here's a link to the UNT System org chart, which if you click, you will receive a message, ("...damaged and could not be repaired."). UNT System Org Chart

Well, to make a long story short (and I won't paste links to the Denton Record Chronicle article that NT03 posted in UNT News, where there are also links to the "Transition Agreement"). But, just in case you haven't noticed, many of us are not pleased with the situation wich resulted in the resignation of Gretchen Bataille as President, which was voted on and accepted 7 to 2 by the UNT Board of Regents, all of whom have been appointed by Governor Perry. Maybe the almost $750k that this action cost UNT is no big deal to some, and maybe (for reasons unknown to the public), there were good reasons for it, but, couldn't this have been handled better, at a time when the University is undertaking to start asking a lot of people in the UNT community to increase their giving levels, or to start giving for the first time? And, doesn't it make it a little harder that Gayle Strange, who had been in charge of a campaign which was intended to raise $170 million for the University, resigned from that position, giving as her reason the handling of the Gretchen Bataille situation? But, if you don't think the governor should be held responsible for the appointments he/she makes, I will disagree. I will commend you for having mentioned in the Republican GOP Gubernatorial primary thread (although not too directly) the problems with the Republican Gubernatorial candidate Medina, over her recent self destructing remarks on the "9-11 Truther" beliefs (while others were still making positive comments about her AFTER those remarks were make public). And, by the way, one of the Democratic candidates, Farouk, followed her on that position shortly thereafter. I guess what I'm suggesting is that we may be coming to a time when considering political candidates, the person, their statements, and their actions may become more important than their political party. And I do feel it's fair, since you mentioned digressing in your original post, to bring up statewide political issues on higher education, since we must have a strong economy in order to make everything else possible, and higher education is at least a part of preparing for the future economy.

Honestly, at this point, I'm pretty ashamed at what the Republicans have done in regards to higher education in Texas, especially at my UNT, and I'm not even a Republican. But, I guess Governor Perry should be given a pass on his appointees, because he's only been in office for ten years, and needs another four to get things right.