Dr. Ping was my President, and I had high value for what he did for the university, however I never shared his opinion of the role ICA can play for a broader university vision.  I respect his right to his opinion as clearly he made his living in the business, but I respectfully disagree with it.

It's the same ole' discussion on the money to fund it.  If the students don't pay most of the current bill for ICA and you drop ICA to any level lower than FCS, the dollars saved by the reduced student fees aren't legally permitted to be funneled into academic pursuits.  Raise tuition the amount you reduced the student fee in order to bolster academics, OK.  But only increasing the funding of academic pursuits by 2% of the total annual budget will do little to move the academic needle.

I would actually counter him by postulating that if OHIO were dropping its sports to something less than FCS, then I think you should just fold them in totality and become strictly an academic enterprise, as I see little to no benefit to the university in an effort to heighten the university's perception as a national enterprise when you compete at such a minimal level.

I personally don't believe you would have seen the renaissance OHIO has experienced as a University in the last decade without the heightened marketing presence, much of which can be attributed to decisions made under Glidden and McDavis to increase ICA support via facilities and staff.

Under Charlie, OHIO was a nice little regional college.  But it is impossible to deny that our NATIONAL presence has increased significantly in the last decade.  Many people disagree with Rod, but you have to admit he has expanded the national perception of this institution for the better.


 

You make some great points D.A.

Ohio69 wrote:

UMass is going to play Amherst next year?!  That's a division 3 school.  Good grief.  What a joke.  Amherst plays only 8 games per year.  Against the likes of Bowdoin and Wesleyan.  Seriously?....  This would be like Ohio playing Oberlin.  Wow. UMass made the move too late.  The Big East died.  They ain't going anywhere.

 

The Ohio University Ping inherited was broke. It needed a 3 million dollar bailout from the state and scored a coup by landing the medical college down in Athens. There was almost nothing in the way of renovations on campus during his time as he tried to reduce the schools debt service from the 60's boom. Of course New South wasn't that old back in 1980 and renovations were not in order until the early 90's. I like that McDavis scaled back the campus master plan to put all the focus on the dorms. An alumni center was planned for Tailgate Park and now scrapped. The school is lucky money came through for the bypass and the richland avenue bridges and the availability of the Ridges for extra space. The moat around campus from the Army Corp of Engineers. 

The are knocking down new south and replacing it with suite style housing across from the Ping Center. The space that was once tennis courts on South Green then parking lots is a big construction lot for new dorms. Ohio State is also working on new dorms to require its 5,200 sophomores to live on campus. That could backfire on OSU because only one year in the dorms was a perk.How does a school with 56,000 students have only 5200 sophomores? Richard Vedder says OSU is using the monopoly card to force students to live on campus at OSU and buy food.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/osu-plan-to-add-dorms-costs/nTtH7/

 

Pushing the parking out while pulling South Green more tightly in will really tie together East-South-West and really make that area near Ping//Walter/Clippinger/Morton Halls a tighter part of campus. That walk from Baker to Morton on the bottom of the hill by the Pond will be awesome when this is done.

I think McDavis is really making moves to properly position this University for more national recognition. This campus renovation is a really perfect plan, IMO.

This picture is from the Messenger... They have had some good articles on this plan.



For athletics, I think this is a good thing. By pushing the dorms into this area I think Peden and even the Convo become more accessible and more tied into campus.