LOL. So tone deaf. Why don't you and ru66 get a room and figure out how to drive more wedges between RU fans. Yes, you are pathetic, and you get what you deserve. Try building bridges instead of blowing them up.
Was Politi's latest artcle about Delaney and donations discussed?
- Thread starter ru66
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Okay. That’s why I said the following.
“But seriously I think it is more to do with southern state schools are better supported by state government and don't have to rely on endowments as much”
Crap on the fans?, but don't say a word about some of the multi-million dollar athletes that have gone through Schiano 1.0 era and haven't given any big donations.
Let's talk to the McCourty twins, Clark Harris, and others and get the giving going from those that can afford it and can make a change happen from that high level first before trickling it down. Remember the B1G build? Now this? Can't expect the middle class to give and give when they have families to provide for and are hoping to retire one day.
Let's talk to the McCourty twins, Clark Harris, and others and get the giving going from those that can afford it and can make a change happen from that high level first before trickling it down. Remember the B1G build? Now this? Can't expect the middle class to give and give when they have families to provide for and are hoping to retire one day.
You also said: "Simple solution to southern schools with small endowments. They donate to football not book learning." That's why I wrote there are outliers. They are all southern schools that DO donate to book learning.
Rutgers didn't even have a professional foundation until 2007 or so. It was all volunteer donations run by the various alumni associations for each individual school. The amount of progress made in about a decade and a half has been astounding.
Unfortunately, the foundation has been going through some transitions over the past four or so years. Lots of turnover as the University decides who will or won't run certain areas.
Yes. They seem to finally have a functional organization. It was pain for a while, and they are going out of there way to provide a first rate experience, as they should. It's not on the new people. This is an indicator that Rutgers needs to handle transitions better in a key department such as the Foundation. Too often, this gets overlooked and chaos ensues.
Anyone have data on what percentage of RU grads send their kids to RU? And comparable data on legacy students at leading state flagship schools?
NJ's got some cultural or socioeconomic hobgoblins that work against support for dear old RU, methinks....
NJ's got some cultural or socioeconomic hobgoblins that work against support for dear old RU, methinks....
One bell I've been ringing for years is the need to give. The payouts are great but that's the baseline entry. Every B1G school gets those.
To truly compete it's the donations where we are lagging woefully behind.
To truly compete it's the donations where we are lagging woefully behind.
Exception on the state government support front based on what I've read is UVA, which is apparently not that well supported by Richmond these days. The portion of UVA annual budget covered by the state has eroded in recent times. There have been some folks advocating for UVA to go private as a result. I believe UVA charges significantly for out of state/int'l students to make up for some of it and will also take a substantial number of them within each entering class and not necessarily apologize for not keeping more seats set aside for Virginians. UVA is also not, as many public flagships go, a big school for a relatively populous state. Enrollment (less than 20K undergrads) is on the smaller side compared to peer institutions.
Separately, UT and A&M do have huge endowments as far as southern public schools go due to oil reserves in land holdings in West Texas so they are a completely different animal. The UT system as a whole might be Top 5 in endowment behind only the Harvard and Yale types, but even UT and A&M both have Top 15-20 endowments when listed separately.
I never understood this whole RU screw thing. grad of 85 and don't recall anything but a positive experience with classes, selecting them, or anything else. In fact my roomate and I got caught shooting a pellet gun out of our dorm window freshman year and were simply given a warning by the Dean not to do it again in addition to anymore stupid behavior would mean loss of housing. The confiscated the pistol but I got it back the last day of school.
How do you know they are not donating? If not, maybe they feel their $$ could be better spent with a social cause they believe in?
I think it’s fair that he called it out. It’s true, and it does need to be rectified if we are to compete. However, i suspect he’s preaching to the choir here. I doubt that the 7 million dollar donor is reading and caring. Nor do I think that joe the plumber is reading this and caring either. I disagree with jon’s take that this started when we joined. Although we did blow the opportunity at that time. The die was cast years ago. Did people donate when the school was small? My sense is that everything at Rutgers got too big too fast when we became the state university followed by our transition to “bigger time “ athletics under bloustein. We didn’t put building blocks in place to be successful. It created a bloated university with way too much red tape, and a troubled athletic department. Students had bad experiences. No one helped them feel connected and they understandably didn’t donate. This is a problem that goes back 50 years. Add to that the state sending their kids elsewhere , not supporting the school and here we are
I don't know if they are donating anonymously, but this is NJ. If they gave a large donation nj.com would be all over it or RU would be outspoken about it. I mean I still remember when Michael Vick donated to VT.
They can donate wherever they want, but asking fans that are making less than 6 figures, or barely above, to donate more is not feasible for most families especially in today's world.
Glad you had that experience. Don't get me wrong I had a great time but not because the administration made it easy. I can tell you the roadblocks the administration put in the path for me, my roommates, friends and family members that attended but we would be here awhile.
I think I went 3 straight semesters where I was deregistered from all of my classes (administration didn't process internal payments). I knew the people at the registrars office by name. When one lady left Rutgers College to run the University College branch. I kept her information and would go to her because she was the only person that knew how to navigate the registration process efficiently to make sure I got back into all of my classes.
It is very unique. For most of its history.. it was just another eastern private.. a good one. Even when it was founded it was far different that the nine that came before it because it was started by the Dutch Reformed Church... whereas Princeton was.. what.. Presbyterian? Other Protestant sects for other schools.. but Dutch Reformed was a minority even then. And of the two New Jersey colleges for New Jersey's elites..who could go anywhere in the east.. Rutgers was the second choice for those not wanting the other eastern elite schools. This is very UNLIKE the schools NAMED for their states who were created for STATE PRIDE to serve the state's residents.
Then you got the whole.. when did they become "serious" thing about sports. In Texas, your state pride was on the line with hope Texas did in football. Same for Michigan, Alabama, etc... not so in New Jersey.. NEVER so in New Jersey. So recruits and their families have not been indoctrinated.. invested.. in state pride through sports and through their flagship state U. NO northeast school, save Penn State had that (and I suppose Pitt and Syracuse had some smaller version of it. for a time).
Saying it is unique is proven true. Is it an excuse? No.. it is a challenge that others don't have to face. NOT recognizing that would mean you are ignoring something that should be considered in finding a solution.
People dont want to talk about it but RU has a much different demographic for alums than the rest of the Big 10
Rutgers University merged Rutgers College, by far its most successful school and a fringe top 20 rated institution, out of existence, and several generations of very successful alumni who graduated from Rutgers College don’t donate much because the school they went to no longer exists.
NJ should just impose a fee on cable and/or cell phone bills. I’m thinking $1/month. Think of all the $ that would bring in. They can say it’s for the National Institute for Literacy (NIL). The dummies in NJ will say “it’s a great cause and it’s only a dollar a month!” Like they do for every fee or toll increase. 99.9 percent won’t even notice the charge on their bill or if they did won’t care. And the 0.1 percent can move to Texas
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I am a Rutgers College alum, and I don’t know anyone that I went to school with who to this day isn’t extremely pissed off about this.
I think this is most accurate. The complaints I’ve heard came from alums who graduated prior to the Bloustein/ Werblin era.
If you are upset think about the alums from earlier generations 1972 (when it was converted to coed) and 1945 when it became a public college. Many of those are the donor base we have lost.
Been saying the same for a while. We lost generations of fans and donations through a complete disaster of an athletic department.
Those things were very different. First of all, the school you went to no longer exists. Secondly, the value of the degree was completely degraded by the dissolution of the college because the ratings dropped significantly. It was a completely idiotic move by the administration and it had significant negative repercussions on alumni relations with Rutgers College grads.
Bloustein was a great President for a small liberal arts college. Maybe even an established university. What he wasn't prepared for was Rutgers going "bigger time".
The school needed someone who understood the landscape. We truly weren't competing on a close to level playing field across the department until very recently. And now that's changed with NIL.
I was in the last graduating class of the "original" Rutgers College ('81). I can't say I was pissed at the change. But did feel a sense of loss, that the school that meant much to me was no longer. By the way, I have donated to academics since I graduated. Only donated to athletics since I became a season ticket holder many years later. Now I make two donations annually.
Whoa. Douglass had a stellar reputation, especially before Princeton, Yale and Dartmouth went co-ed.
The value of the degree may have fallen off with the reorganization. But that core education is forever. Emphasis on independent critical thinking. I'm grateful for that. And it served me well.
I will admit that the admission people wanted me at Livingston ( I think to raise their SAT average.. 😏) but I fought for Rutgers College.. even changed to be math major so I'd get it. They were trying to push all comp sci people to Livingston at teh time, IIRC. But I really wanted the whole well-rounded major-minor-mini thing.
Yea I’m in the same boat. I remember my uncle having a similar experience when “his school” no longer existed (all male Rutgers college). I remember my buddies grandfather talking about Rutgers before it was a public school.
I’m RC ‘80 and my story is the same. There is no doubt the university ranking went down for some years after the change as acceptance standards were lowered. Rutgers College was not accepting anywhere near the percentage of applicants that the university does even today. Despite that my close friends have continued to stay connected to RU and I suspect give something.
As for other schools, my daughter graduated from UNC in 2015 and was always complaining about program cuts.
I wasn’t talking about Douglass or reputation. We were discussing donations and how peoples experience changed. Classmate in high school mothers was a dean at Douglass. She would regularly say that Douglass alumni were equally upset when they were folded into the mix. Their donations fell off considerably . And Douglass didn’t technically go co-Ed.
Look if we want to go back and play Princeton and William
And mary then some of these posts make sense. Bloustein decided to get big and no one prepared for it. That is what the problem is. Has anyone done this!?? We were one of the original 8 colleges inthe country. We get a stripe on our gowns because of it. We transitioned from that to this and didn’t prepare !!! So what the hell do we do now??
And mary then some of these posts make sense. Bloustein decided to get big and no one prepared for it. That is what the problem is. Has anyone done this!?? We were one of the original 8 colleges inthe country. We get a stripe on our gowns because of it. We transitioned from that to this and didn’t prepare !!! So what the hell do we do now??
This. This. 100x this.
The biggest problem the school has with attracting donors is that attending the school was a miserable experience (created by the administration, faculty and staff) for a massive portion of the alumni that is of age and means to have donatable-income. This is exacerbated by the school's historically terrible football and mens basketball performance.
I've told this story before, but on the day we graduated in May 1998, my best friend and I (while we were standing in the procession line) laughed about how great it was to be leaving New Brunswick and right there on the spot we made a pact to never donate a dollar to the university. This was almost entirely because the RU Screw attitude pervasive in the staff and tolerated by the administration. My decision was only solidified when I went to graduate school 1700 miles away and the staff experience was night-and-day different ("Holy sh-t, you mean you ask for help and they just help you?!? Without giving you a lecture about how it's not their problem?!? Or without passing-the-buck to six other staff members is six other buildings somewhere on campus?!?")
One thing that is almost never discussed when lamenting why Ohio State and Alabama and USC have tons of donors and Rutgers does not is that Alabama graduates had near-universal positive experiences when they attending the school. The same cannot be said about Rutgers graduates.
Put another way, I'm in my mid-40s. When I was a senior, I lived 20 miles off-campus and drove to school every day to attend classes. Despite all of my classes being on college avenue, the only parking permit the school would issue me was so that I could park at the RAC (and take a bus into New Brunswick) - adding about an hour onto my commute (both ways) each day. It's 25 years later ... if I could punch that administrator in the face today and get away with it, I would. I have similar stories regarding on-campus housing, class selection, parking tickets, purchasing books, etc.
... and that's a large reason why we don't have any donors.
tl;dr:
The RU Screw is not something I look back on fondly in a "haha, didn't it suck that we had to deal with that occassionally?" type of way. Like many (most?) others my age, it is something I view with visceral hatred and it affects how I view the school 25 years later.
I resent it to this day. De-valued my degree overnight - for no reason.
Speaking only for me ... the education was worthless. The only thing that has had an effect on my career was the piece of paper they gave me as I walked out the door (and the belief on the other coast that "Rutgers" still means Ivy League).
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