[Vision2020] The Future

[Mark Solomon]

Phil,

The shipment of UI jobs to campuses elsewhere has 
less to do with local real estate and a lot more 
to do with the parochialism of the Idaho 
Legislature. The Legislature, for reasons known 
(Simplot, Micron, the Boise "mafia", etc) and 
unknown have been doing their best to shave off 
programs from the UI Moscow campus for over 20 
years. The engineering programs have been their 
largest target. You're right... those programs 
stand the best chance of receiving grants that 
focus on technology and they are to a large 
extent going elsewhere. The University Place 
project (before it turned into the debacle it now 
is) was primarily a UI response to that 
Legislative pressure.

Until the Legislature changes their tune on both 
program emphasis location and appropriate 
employee compensation, local Moscow development 
issues are just about irrelevant to retaining a 
quality research faculty at the UI.

Mark Solomon

At 9:14 AM -0700 7/1/05, Phil Nisbet wrote:
>Tom
>
>You can have all the little stores in downtown 
>that you dream of and it will not replace any 
>lose of high paying University Salaries.  And 
>other Universities are snapping up what this one 
>either turns away or ships to other locations.
>
>Just as an example, the plastics industry is 
>moving to include nanotechnology into its 
>designs to make nano-composite materials that 
>will help to improve the life of products.  If a 
>plastic bummer is stronger than steel and has 
>half the weight, energy savings result.  If a 
>nano-composite can make a house less flammable, 
>lives are saved and inert nano-composites can be 
>used to replace more toxic fire retardants.
>
>So the plastics industry sees growth in those 
>types of materials going from less than 1% of 
>their sales to 30-40% of their sales in the next 
>decade, from a current sales of just under a 
>$100,000,000 to in excess of 4 trillion dollars.
>
>University of Alaska Fairbanks just snagged 
>$17,000,000 in a grant to study just one aspect 
>of nanotech composites.  University of 
>Pennsylvania picked up some research initially 
>done here in Moscow and got a DOE grant for 
>about ten million to look at how nano particles 
>could assist in nuke waste disposal.  Heck, the 
>NIST of the Department of Commerce is handing 
>away $600,000,000 a year in grants and do we 
>have any active here in Moscow?
>
>You have to sell one heck of a lot of Wild Women 
>Traders dresses or a pot of Tie Die T-shirts to 
>equal even a fraction of what’s out there in 
>terms of research money, let alone the potential 
>for spin off technology businesses that this 
>kind of work could be bringing in.
>
>If we keep losing jobs at U of I and refuse to 
>get in touch with the future of technology, this 
>will end up being nothing more than an admin 
>center for branch campuses that get all the good 
>jobs and all the Research Grants.  How many 
>shops can we have in Downtown, Tom, if the 
>University loses more jobs and payroll?
>
>The reason that the non-conforming businesses 
>are siting in downtown is that the business 
>climate here makes downtown space cheap. 
>Housing costs are through the roof here and what 
>sort of disposable income do you think that kids 
>making minimum wage at Wendy’s or Tri-State have 
>once they pay their landlords?  Half the school 
>year population is living hand to mouth and we 
>offer no better paying jobs to them.  Want to 
>see non-conforming uses move?  Increase 
>disposable income by getting some real jobs in 
>here.  If downtown businesses could make more 
>profits, they would of a matter of course push 
>those other businesses out and expand.
>
>How many jobs will beating the CCers up and 
>forcing them to leave bring in?  How many jobs 
>will turning Wallmart out end up ponying up here 
>in Moscow?
>
>And its not that I concur with Doug Wilson’s 
>ideology or that I am in love with Wally World’s 
>stores, I just see people chasing their tails 
>and refusing to deal with real economic 
>development issues.  This area needs jobs and 
>yet this very list felt free to jump all over 
>Barbara and claim she was part of an evile 
>conspiracy for even suggesting that we need 
>economic development.  As the person in charge 
>of Economic Development in the county, rather 
>than assist her and get some desirable growth, 
>she ends up fighting an uphill battle to get 
>even a few things going in the Alturas Park.
>
>So stop whining about downtown and tell us, what 
>sort of development should we be looking at? 
>How should we as a community get with the 
>University to see that it ships no more jobs out 
>to Boise or CDA?  How should we go about 
>attracting firms to move here and use our access 
>to a large intellectual community to increase 
>hob opportunity here?
>
>That’s what the FUTURE is about, not NSA or 
>LOGOS or any of the other piddling issues that 
>absorb your time.
>
>Phil Nisbet
>
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