ACC and Academics

[SoCal_Pony]

Here are the latest rankings by US News. To what degree this will play a role, who knows?

Duke 8
Virginia 24
Wake Forest 27
UNC 30
Boston College 31
Georgia Tech 36
Miami 44
Maryland 58
Pittsburgh 58
Syracuse 58
Clemson 68
Virginia Tech 72
Florida State 97
North Carolina State 106

Rice 17 - 10th largest TV Market
SMU 58 - 5th largest TV Market
Connecticut 63
Rutgers 68
Temple 125 - 4th largest TV Market
Cincinnati 139 - 34th largest TV Market
Louisville 160 - 50th largest TV Market
USF 170
UCF 174
Houston 184
ECU 199
LA Tech 199 (included them as point of reference)

[gostangs]

given that the last few they let in are at the bottom of the list - it means nothing.

all the b.s. you hear about academics is a smoke screen. TV guys calling the shot from here on out.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

all the b.s. you hear about academics is a smoke screen. TV guys calling the shot from here on out.

Other than the Big Ten AAU stuff you are right. I was actually surprised to see Rutgers is in the AAU.

It is funny Nebraska (the N is for nowledge) left the AAU after joining the Big Ten. What frauds (Nebraska and the Big Ten).

[SMU_Alumni11]

Dang SMU needs to improve their rankings, I get we are a regional school, but we seriously need to be 30s to 40s.

[East Coast Mustang]

Dang SMU needs to improve their rankings, I get we are a regional school, but we seriously need to be 30s to 40s.

For comparison's sake, UT-Austin is 46

[SMU_Alumni11]

I know but if SMU is going to charge 40+k to most of heir students then they need to back it up. I wish we could be a prototype school that bans tenure or at least have performance based tenures. I get the school can work around it but we are small unsubsidized school and need to make sure we have the best. We do in some parts of the school but I know there also a lot of lazy idiotic tenured professors who would get the axe at any half decent school. I'm always against the idea of tenure since it destroys any incentive to be better.

[East Coast Mustang]

I know but if SMU is going to charge 40+k to most of heir students then they need to back it up. I wish we could be a prototype school that bans tenure or at least have performance based tenures. I get the school can work around it but we are small unsubsidized school and need to make sure we have the best. We do in some parts of the school but I know there also a lot of lazy idiotic tenured professors who would get the axe at any half decent school. I'm always against the idea of tenure since it destroys any incentive to be better.

Take away tenure, and why would profs want to come here in the first place?

[SMU_Alumni11]

I know it would be tough but status quos have changed, it can happen this way too. It just needs to be talked about. The tenure policy needs to be updated so professor aren't going around being morons and getting arrested and acting like their god. Whoever the first person to start the tenure policy deserved to be a hobo on the street for ruining academia.

[couch 'em]

You aren't getting far being critical of academia when you aren't even using the correct "they're".

[East Coast Mustang]

1. Abolish tenure
2. Have enormous difficulty attracting quality professors as a result
3. ????
4. Improve US News ranking!!

[Comet]

I know but if SMU is going to charge 40+k to most of heir students then they need to back it up. I wish we could be a prototype school that bans tenure or at least have performance based tenures. I get the school can work around it but we are small unsubsidized school and need to make sure we have the best. We do in some parts of the school but I know there also a lot of lazy idiotic tenured professors who would get the axe at any half decent school. I'm always against the idea of tenure since it destroys any incentive to be better.

Take away tenure, and why would profs want to come here in the first place?

Getting rid of tenure for the sake of a merit-based contract with noticeable raises would be enticing to most professors. The tenure track is unnecessarily stressful to all professors, and let's be honest, you go from associate professor -> assistant professor -> professor. So you might work for 20+ years and only get two promotions. There's a lot of things administrators can do to rectify the problems of tenure-ship, and do it in a way that would appeal to professors. I'm still an advocate of branching professorship paths: teaching and researching. There should be reviews and emphasis for each, and let's be honest, most professors I know revel in one of those aspects and despise the other. It's a broken system.

I'm getting my PhD from SMU and I'm honestly looking at interning at local businesses because I no longer want to be a part of academia. It's parochial, it's broken.

[SMU_Alumni11]

Well written comet. ECM ill defer all my comments to Comet as I'm on board with his suggestion. Saying something cant be changed hasnt met reality.

[MustangStealth]

You aren't getting far being critical of academia when you aren't even using the correct "they're".

Don't look now, but in his login he also refers to himself using a plural. 3 out of 4 MustangStealths think that he/they may be trolling us.

[East Coast Mustang]

I'm not sure if this is serious, but SMU isn't going to be the trendsetter that drastically changes the concept of tenure in academia.