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<TITLE>RE: [Vision2020] Keeping Focused (was: Open Letter)</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Hi Ken,<BR>
<BR>
Nice analysis and nice civil tone. I knew that our "hate BSU" rhetoric would get us into trouble. And the excuse that everyone else does it was children say.<BR>
<BR>
Nick<BR>
<BR>
Nicholas F. Gier, Professor Emeritus<BR>
Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho<BR>
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFT/AFL-CIO www.idaho-aft.org/ift.htm<BR>
208-882-9212, 1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
-----Original Message-----<BR>
From: vision2020-bounces@moscow.com on behalf of Ken<BR>
Sent: Wed 7/28/2010 1:55 PM<BR>
To: vision2020@moscow.com<BR>
Subject: [Vision2020] Keeping Focused (was: Open Letter)<BR>
<BR>
On Wednesday 28 July 2010 08:27:34 Tom Hansen wrote:<BR>
> Courtesy of Mountain Home News (Mountain Home, Idaho) at<BR>
> <A HREF="http://www.mountainhomenews.com/blogs/1137/entry/36258/">http://www.mountainhomenews.com/blogs/1137/entry/36258/</A><BR>
<[snip]><BR>
<BR>
After 40 years of marriage, Al and Tipper Gore announced a couple of months<BR>
ago that they will part ways and divorce. This announcement shocked some and<BR>
surprised many, considering the Gore union had been considered happy and<BR>
stable. On what caused the breakup I am no expert, but I suppose one should<BR>
not rule out the possibility that Al's Nobel prize and his rejuvenated status<BR>
as a globe-trotting environmental advocate may have had some effect.<BR>
<BR>
In stadiums far removed from symbolic campaign kisses, it should not be so<BR>
shocking that when one partner in a 40-year football game series has been<BR>
able to parlay its performance record into offers to travel to new venues for<BR>
more money that it will seek the necessary freedom to accept the invitations.<BR>
The Boise team's desire to divorce itself of its ties with the Moscow team<BR>
should be handled with the good grace and sophisticated style exhibited by<BR>
the mature adults the Gores are, and that others would do well to emulate.<BR>
<BR>
After the divorce, then what? Well, there are separate lives to lead; separate<BR>
loci of foci to maintain for the former partners. In the preferable situation<BR>
where one hopes the best for both parties, one hopes that each will do better<BR>
at what it does best. And so it is with the University of Idaho.<BR>
<BR>
In Taylor's letter to Kustra, he used a link labeled "only 26 percent" to<BR>
point to the web site www.collegeresults.com and its comparison of the two<BR>
school's 6-year graduation rates. BSU's is 26.2 % and UI's is 56.6 %. Rather<BR>
than churlishly remarking some epithet about BSU's academic prowess, one<BR>
might better inquire why the UI's graduation rate is over twice as high as<BR>
BSU's.<BR>
<BR>
One set of clues might be found in the characteristics of the school's<BR>
students. Boise has 13,381 full-time equivalent (FTE) students compared with<BR>
Moscow's 8,334. Of BSU's students, 36.5 % are part-time, and 38.2 % are over<BR>
age 25. By contrast, only 11.4 % of Moscow's students are part-time, and only<BR>
15.4 % are over age 25. What is one to conclude?<BR>
<BR>
BSU has a larger portion of its student body comprised of older individuals<BR>
from the much larger local population (Ada county 384,656 versus Latah county<BR>
38,046) who are taking a course or two at a time, probably while pursuing<BR>
other vocational or retirement activities concurrently. One expects that<BR>
revealing a larger number of individuals taking a larger diversity of classes<BR>
in the evening, for example, would support the idea that more part-time<BR>
students require more calendar years to complete degree requirements at Boise<BR>
State versus Idaho. Consider, too, that a greater portion of those students<BR>
may not be seeking degrees, but rather just personal enrichment as they work.<BR>
<BR>
If Boise State changes leagues and goes a different way in the world, what is<BR>
the University of Idaho to do? Well, first of all, stop comparing itself with<BR>
its former football rival to the south. Idaho's only land grant and premier<BR>
research university would do well to embrace its greater freedom from<BR>
responsibility to provide sporting and entertainment services to the state,<BR>
and to continue to improve its performance relative to peer academic<BR>
institutions out-of-state, even as the continual comparisons with in-state<BR>
funding rivals must continue for legislative and state board decision-makers.<BR>
<BR>
For example, if one looks westward from Idaho, one sees at WSU the full-time<BR>
faculty percentage at 83.6 versus 83.8 at the UI, and the FTE to faculty<BR>
ratio of 11 to 1 at WSU versus 13 to 1 at the UI, yet the 6-year graduation<BR>
rate at WSU is 66.9 % of 18,309 FTE versus 56.6 % of 8,334 FTE at UI. Why is<BR>
WSU doing better graduating students in Pullman versus UI in Moscow? Answers<BR>
might lead to changes and improvements in Moscow.<BR>
<BR>
(And if that's not challenging enough, even further west, the UW-Seattle<BR>
campus graduation rate is 76.9 % of 25,663 FTE. What's up with that? Yes, I<BR>
understand there are lots of variables, and many of them have dollar signs<BR>
associated with them, but still, interesting questions are raised by these<BR>
statistics.)<BR>
<BR>
If Boise State University wishes to focus its resources on sports and<BR>
entertainment, let it have the freedom to do so. The University of Idaho has<BR>
its own life, its own achievements to attain, its own excellence to seek.<BR>
That it may do so with fewer comparisons in conflict is even more satisfying.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Ken<BR>
<BR>
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