aggie2039
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Post by aggie2039 on Feb 12, 2020 0:16:32 GMT -5
No Bornthrilla, This is not about xenophobia...... This is about how you want A&T to look in 20-30 years. If we want 20,000 students at A&T, can we get 20,000 students at A&T with the demographics being still 81.1% black students? Personally, I don't think so. Maybe the chancellor doesn't think so either. So if our goal is to get a certain number of students on our campus by a particular year, what are we doing to amass that number? Maybe it's by switching conferences to make A&T more attractive to non-black students......I didn't say it was wrong; I'm stating I don't think we can get to a population of 20,000 students (If still 81.1% black - that would equate to 16,220 students being black) with that same demographic breakdown. That's not being xenophobic - I'm delving into the mind of the powers-that-be as to what THEIR ENVISIONS OF GROWTH look like. In 2011, I think the 2020 goal was 13,000 students, 70% Black. Much of that was to come from growing the graduate school and the online school. I'm not sure how we are tracking in those two areas. ~74/75%
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aggie2039
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Post by aggie2039 on Feb 12, 2020 0:19:28 GMT -5
Yeah, you are going full reverse Steve Bannon now. And you are not even trying to hide it. To be honest, it is kind of disappointing that you would seriously question's Chancellor Martin motives like that. You are taking things way past the Big South move and now targeting his overall vision for this university's racial makeup. Let's remember that he is one of the main reasons why our enrollment is even over 12,000 today. You are now making baseless accusations about a man who has ushered his own alma mater into its current golden age He deserves better than this from us. Honestly this is embarrassing and ashamed to be associated with such thinking.
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Post by neighborhoodsuperstar on Feb 12, 2020 0:25:20 GMT -5
You keep on making this like I'm calling Chancellor Martin an Uncle Tom.......far from it. Please tell me where my numbers are inaccurate. Aggie2039 stated that he's interested in having a 30% non-black student population and 14000 students by 2023...... A&T has been in the education game since 1891........so here it is, 129 years deep into A&T's existence......yet we don't even have 2000 non-black students on campus after 129 years.... But he apparently (per Aggie2039's numbers).....wants a 30% non-black student population, preferably by 2023.....ie. 4200 non-black students. Those are huge benchmarks to hit in such a short period of time......wanting more diversity isn't a bad thing, but man, to reach such numbers in less than 3 years when you haven't been able to get half of those numbers when you've been 129 years in the game. BT - in order for this to happen - A&T HAS TO GO THROUGH SOME TYPE OF RE-BRANDING PROCESS. You can call me Steve Bannon (which is asinine) all you want.......but A&T cannot reach such numbers doing the same thing it's been doing for the past 129 years......and frankly, it can't do the same things it's been doing for the past 10-15 years to get such numbers. Leave Steve Bannon or any other xenophobe out of this please......you can't look at these numbers and tell me A&T can keep doing what it's doing to get more non-black students on campus. You're right - he is a major reason why our enrollment is 12,000 today (whatever number you want to use - it still equates to our school being 80% black)......if he wants to bring the non-black enrollment up to 30%.......it takes re-branding of some degree. www.journalnow.com/z-no-digital/celebration-bowl-is-about-more-than-football-for-a-t/article_be90c701-eeeb-5816-a091-a32f234117b5.htmlIn this article, Todd Simmons (assoc vice chancellor of university relations) gave this quote: “ Intercollegiate athletics at their best makes a great front door to the university. Our student-athletes are great representatives of our academic standards.” If we want our enrollment behind that proverbial front door to more diverse, THE FRONT DOOR needs to look more diverse. Front door = our athletics = greater diversity In some shape or form, the move to the Big South has to incorporate some type of diversity element that can potentially benefit A&T.....especially if we're trying to hit numbers that the chancellor (based upon the number Aggie2039 gave) is aiming for.
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aggie2039
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Post by aggie2039 on Feb 12, 2020 0:29:49 GMT -5
Dude, we are already at ~74/75%...are you a racist? You don’t want the campus to be 30% non AA?
If not just say it...we don’t care about your facts and figures. You have a problem with A&T being 30% non-AA.
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Post by Bornthrilla on Feb 12, 2020 0:30:14 GMT -5
Man, you are just grabbing numbers now and trying to make them add up to equal Martin wants his alma mater to be less black.
I'm not interested in playing that game. We'll just have to agree to disagree on your whole approach to this debate.
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aggie2039
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Post by aggie2039 on Feb 12, 2020 0:31:44 GMT -5
Man, you are just grabbing numbers now and trying to make them add up to equal Martin wants his alma mater to be less black. I'm not interested in playing that game. We'll just have to agree to disagree on your whole approach to this debate. This thread is about non conf opponents not whatever this has turned into.
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DECKS
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Post by DECKS on Feb 12, 2020 0:34:46 GMT -5
Remember, you asked me for my personal opinion about the move ... not what I thought our leader's overall plan was. I am not a member of the Sunshine Gang. I have been highly skeptical of the decision since it was announced. My gut feeling tells me this was a panic move, motivated primarily by the current instability of other MEAC schools. We decided we did not want to go down with that ship so we found a life raft. To make all the survivors onboard feel more comfortable, we are now trying to make that life raft sound like it is a 5-star luxury cruise ship, but really it is just a life raft. It's only benefit is that it is keeping us afloat. Sometimes I think you just take folks at their word. Martin and Hilton deserve that much. In 2015 Hilton said in an attempt to save on travel expenses he was looking at the possibility of joining a more geographically compact conference. On Feb 7, 2020 Martin and Hilton essentially gave the same reason for switching to the BSC.
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Post by Bornthrilla on Feb 12, 2020 0:41:04 GMT -5
And I dont think Hilton was lying. In 2015 he probably realized the MEAC conference was about to crash and burn and he needed to find an exit ramp. I personally felt the exact same way in 2015.
One of his criteria for a new landing spot was a more geographically compact conference. In 2020, he found that desired landing spot ... but his initial motivation was just to find an exit ramp from an impending disaster.
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Post by Bornthrilla on Feb 12, 2020 0:45:14 GMT -5
My contention is that I dont think Hilton and Martin would have left a stable and growing MEAC just for another more geographically compact conference. They left because the MEAC was unstable.
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Post by DOOMS on Feb 12, 2020 8:44:01 GMT -5
Let's put it out there then.
The MEAC is unstable athletically and academically. There's entirely too much of a variance between the schools academically to reasonably consider staying. We've been on the bottom academically ourselves and the best way to avoid going back is to change what wasn't working. Part of that is changing addresses I guess, and the BOT agreed with that line of thinking regardless of what was stated in the press conference.
As far as Martin and Hilton being the equivalent of Darth Vader and the Emperor, remember there's a whole Board of Trustees (sans one) that also rolled along with the package so there's no pinning it on just a figurehead. If they thought there was a problem in the move we wouldn't be making the move.
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aggie2039
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Post by aggie2039 on Feb 12, 2020 8:50:08 GMT -5
Let's put it out there then. The MEAC is unstable athletically and academically. As far as Martin and Hilton being the equivalent of Darth Vader and the Emperor, remember there's a whole Board of Trustees (sans one) that also rolled along with the package so there's no pinning it on just a figurehead. If they thought there was a problem in the move we wouldn't be making the move. Don’t forget the tiger team that unanimously voted to transfer conferences 🤷🏾♂️
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Post by Aggie Monster on Feb 12, 2020 9:24:33 GMT -5
At this rate it will fail strictly due to lack of support/faith in it.
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Post by Bornthrilla on Feb 12, 2020 9:39:05 GMT -5
Part of that is changing addresses I guess, and the BOT agreed with that line of thinking regardless of what was stated in the press conference. See, this is where Chancellor Martin's lack of PR skills are causing a serious problem in the fanbase. There's just too much stuff being left for personal interpretation and assumptions right now. We have all been sitting here for the last couple of days trying to guess the real motive behind this move because most people with common sense know that there has to be more than what was officially stated at the press conference. It's almost like a rorschach painting. Everybody is now viewing this move through the prism of their own personal biases, fears, hopes and aspirations. I believe Martin needs to hold a townhall meeting or something in the next few weeks and address the A&T fansbase directly. Just take off his tie, pick up a cordless mic and spell out everything in full detail - the good, the bad and the ugly. That, in my opinion, would go a long way in taking some of the misinformation and raw emotion out of this discussion, and it would help us start to bring Aggie Nation back together.
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Post by DOOMS on Feb 12, 2020 9:52:53 GMT -5
it is a "myth" that changing conference affiliations helps a school to grow. if that's the case, then tell me why hasn't tennessee state grown more than us? Wow. Great question .... I ask because I honestly don't know. Did Tennessee State move to the OVC in order to help itself grow? If so then the comparison is sound. If not then there isn't a comparison. I'm not sure they even made their own decision to join the OVC in the first place. I remember hearing the state of Tennessee mandated they join the conference. Please don't take that as gospel because I don't know that for sure at all. My point is our leadership has very specific targets and goals that are different from the majority of the MEAC at this point. At this point we have to get on board or get on The Board. When we're in a time where we're looking for continued growth and we have a few conference-mates that are looking to keep their doors open, there's a problem. Would we be better situated to help the other MEAC schools by staying in the MEAC and saying "this is what we did" or leaving for a more viable conference with more viable schools, calling up our former MEAC brethren, and saying "this is what we did, this is what we're doing, and this is what we've learned from our new conference?" I for one don't think for one second just because we left the conference we'll stop communicating and sharing ideas.
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Post by DOOMS on Feb 12, 2020 9:55:38 GMT -5
Part of that is changing addresses I guess, and the BOT agreed with that line of thinking regardless of what was stated in the press conference. See, this is where Chancellor Martin's lack of PR skills are causing a serious problem in the fanbase. There's just too much stuff being left for personal interpretation and assumptions right now. We have all been sitting here for the last couple of days trying to guess the real motive behind this move because most people with common sense know that there has to be more than what was officially stated at the press conference. It's almost like a rorschach painting. Everybody is now viewing this move through the prism of their own personal biases, fears, hopes and aspirations. I believe Martin needs to hold a townhall meeting or something in the next few weeks and address the A&T fansbase directly. Just take off his tie, pick up a cordless mic and spell out everything in full detail - the good, the bad and the ugly. That, in my opinion, would go a long way in taking some of the misinformation and raw emotion out of this discussion, and it would help us start to bring Aggie Nation back together. You want a cat you know has poor PR skills to hold a town hall meeting? There's gotta be a better way.
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