3XNTGRAD

Just a correction - That would be the new Life Sciences Complex, not a new chemistry building (they got theirs a few years ago), that just had the groundbreaking.

The AD is not telling us to "not get involved" in the program (that would be very different!). They are saying that we should let students take the lead in pushing a student vote. Backlash against alumni involvement was one of the motivating factors for the opposition in the last vote. It would be deja vu all over again if we give them ammunition to fire up the anti-crowd. Let the students handle this one. We've got passionate, capable leaders in student government who are pushing this among the student groups. I trust them to do what is necessary and appropriate.

As many have already said on this thread, any attempts by alums to sway this vote are likely to have more negative consequences than positive. As much as we all want this to pass, we are more likely to energize the "anti-" crowd with these tactics. Every comment made on this board is "public". We should do our very best to avoid giving the opposition bulletin board material to use against the referendum. The administration and RV are not saying that alumni cannot try to push this issue -- but they are saying loud and clear that it is a bad idea for us to get involved. This is a delicate time for UNT Athletics, and our own good intentions are more likely to backfire on us than help the cause. Let the current students like UNTFlyer handle this phase of the fight. Our turn will come with the legislature and when it is time to step up with our stadium fund donations.

It's all SMU's fault!! Look at them looking down on us from #117! They are still conspiring to get us

Verizon FIOS Internet in Denton carries ESPN360 - so I'll get to watch!

Thanks!

Just wondering who is catering the Mean Green Club deck before the Tulsa game. I couldn't remember whether or not that information was sent out, and I can't find anything on my desk right now about it.

Mine received their shirts, but only because they attended the "meet your buddy" event a few weeks back. Otherwise, like already posted, you can get them at the Fun Zone.

Do you have any information or connections that could let me know what kind of donations they might need for the people they are expecting. I lead a cub scout den and was thinking this might be an opportunity for them to put together some kind of small care packages, but I don't know what is needed or where it should go. Can you send me a PM with any info you know? Thanks.

Please update me. I still have the 4 seats in F row 20, but no longer have the seat on row 19. Thanks.

I love that book. Even though NTSU was a second choice name, the others before it (NTNC, NTSNC, NTSTC, NTSC) also had the "North Texas" moniker at the start of the name. That is why I will always prefer "NT" and "North Texas" in the abbreviated form over "UNT", and definitely why I preferred "North Texas Exes" (heck, I'd even prefer "North Texas Alumni Association") over "UNTAA".

I'll take a catchy "ripoff" over the same boring thing everybody else has (it's okay to be like everyone else except Texas, then?). My pet peeves about this whole deal: 1) Why the phobia over being like anyone else - particularly emulating a very successful organization like the Texas Exes (we know there is nothing original out there anyway). 2) I get a little PO'd by the constant removal of any reference to "North Texas" in favor of "UNT" (don't get me wrong, I was strongly in favor of the name change back in '88). We have been some version of "North Texas" since the 1890's and that is something that EVERY Alum of this university shares, no matter what version of the institution's name they graduated under. I was an NTSU alum before I was a UNT alum (I made the old name by one year). The diploma I hang on the wall in my home office is says "North Texas State University" on it. So does my class ring. I am proud of that heritage and see this latest name change away from "North Texas Exes" as one more effort to forget the past history of this institution rather than celebrate it. Sorry for the rant, but this strikes a nerve with me.

Is that the full-size DITKA or the mini-DITKA?

There is also an unfortunate effect of time - policies of 20-40 years ago are the ones that probably most affect those giving rates. Those are likely to be the alumni who have the income to donate. We could be doing everything perfectly right now and not see an appreciable increase in donated dollars for 10-15 years. However, our percentage of donors should be increasing (even if they donate small) if we do things correctly. I think some of those rankings look not only at dollars, but also at percentage of alumni who donate. I guess my point is that we may not see a quick rise in dollars, but we SHOULD expect to see more new graduates donating, as a measure of progress. Do we know whether that is occurring or not (say, since 1994)?

Yeah - this one is SO original [/sarcasm].

It comes down to hard choices that the administration has to deal with some times. Yes - athletics is a great advertising tool and way to instill pride in the university, but there are always funding issues involved. Take Hurley, for example. He gets a lot of grief from posters on this board because we dropped to I-AA during his presidency. Well, the seeds for that drop were sowed before he arrived and it is hard to blame him entirely for that decision (be thankful he didn't take the UT-Arlington route of dropping the sport entirely). On the other hand, where was the money to support a I-A football program at that time. He inherited a campus with decades of deferred maintenance and buildings that were literally falling apart across campus. He took the money we had at the time and put it into stabilizing the campus infrastructure. It was the thing that had to be done at the time. Does that make him a bad president? I would remind you that he also was the president when we moved back up. Fast forward to now - what are the decisions the current administration has to face? There are plenty. State-support to the university has all but dried up, so maintaining the funding needed to run things has fallen more and more on the user (student) than when most of us went to school. Adding yet another fee is not always a palatable option (though I agree it is one option that needs to be seriously considered). What would make this a whole lot easier would be if a lot more of our alumni would get up to the plate and put some money back into their alma mater. It is definitely a chicken-egg problem since there is a lot of talk that a new stadium will generate pride and get alumni to donate, but you can't get the stadium without the alumni donating either! No easy solutions here, so I'm probably just rambling.

No this is specific to the "Texas State University System", which is the system that includes TSU-San Marcos, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Sul Ross (I think) and others that are not part of the UT, A&M, UH, Texas Tech, UNT systems and also do not have their own board of regents (like TWU and Midwestern do).

Not to put a damper on the speculation - but could this have anything to do with the new Business Building that is planned?

I will also point out that many of the comments in this thread pertaining to lack of scholarships at UNT for strong students are also on target. Rather than trash the idea of the Emerald Eagle Scholarships program because you have issues with it, then step up and make a donation to the UNT General Scholarship Fund or to your department's scholarship fund. Either way, you are helping to solve the problem. For what it's worth, I personally match my Mean Green Club donation amount with another donation to the academic program of my choice each year.

First - I'll say I do believe that we will have a new stadium. It may be getting there more slowly than we liked, but we've been on the right path ever since the new AC was built. To Checkfacts: I have a different opinion from you on some things, just for the record. I wanted to make just a few comments about a couple of things your raised. One, Hurley was named "Chancellor and President" in the early 80's, so UNT functioned as a system that far back with the TCOM (now UNTHSC) campus and the Denton campus. Addition of the UNT-Dallas campus does add a little bit more credibility to such a system to some and is probably just as much a political move as an academic one (don't forget the THECB has a "Closing the Gap" plan that calls for adding hundreds of thousands of students in attendance at state universities, so a 20,000 student campus is not unrealistic IF the state comes through with the funding to build that kind of capacity). Second, I don't know where you get the position that Hurley "ruined" the core curriculum and designed it to funnel people to the liberal arts. Since 1999, the core curriculum includes a MANDATED state core curriculum, giving the institution very few options (and the Faculty Senate, not Hurley, had the biggest part in determining the rest of the curriculum). On another note, it appeared that there is some questioning because the provost also comes from a humanities background. However, the provost is not the person with the greatest responsibility for pushing forward our research agenda (though she is obviously important as well) since we have a Vice-President for Research. Our new VP for Research, Dr. Prasad, comes from an engineering background and from a school that is on the trajectory we want to be on (he came from FIU, which quadrupled its sponsored research from 13 million to 60 million in a ten year period). I think our administration is firmly committed to working toward the tier I status and is moving forward on initiatives to help that happen (for the record, I am in the sciences at UNT).

Well, if the fraternities would just show up in the right color green to our new stadium for the pizza party to celebrate our brand new conference which was advertised during Band day at which we unveiled the new eagle design du jour on our helments, then we would finally get the respect we deserve from the Metroplex media (despite SMU's obvious interference)!!!!!

And we all need to wear the same shade of green!

Sorry, but I have to ask -- so next year you are going to move to section G because you'll have to pay $250 to be in F?

I thought this information might cheer some of you up. This is posted in the Feb. 13th minutes of the Faculty Senate, concerning a report Dr. Bataille gave at that meeting which summarized her budget presentation to the Board of Regents earlier: "Dr. Bataille emphasized to the Regents that the strategic plan cannot be reached without additional dollars and that UNT needs to be concerned with providing a high quality product rather than being a 'best buy'."

Go SUN BELT!!!!