joeblow70

Oh please. I regularly lurk on these forums and he is always making passive aggressive comments whenever Cleveland is mentioned. He's looking for a response just like freethink's.

http://www.ohio.com/news/104552209.html "For decades, donors have milled around the corner of East Exchange and Brown streets near the University of Akron as they waited to sell their blood — or more accurately, their plasma. That could end in coming months when CSL Plasma moves several blocks south to the former Akron Teamsters Building at 727 Grant St."

http://news.thomasnet.com/companystory/The-University-of-Akron-Chooses-Acuity-Brands-Lithonia-Lighting-RTLED-Luminaire-to-Meet-Sustainability-Goals-835951

http://www.uakron.edu/im/online-newsroom/news_details.dot?newsId=1430248&pageTitle=UA%20News&crumbTitle=UA%20to%20unite%20area%20biomaterials%20experts%20for%20event ^ I thought this might be relevant, considering that this will have a direct impact upon the new "biomedical corridor" downtown. http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/103727179.html ^ Akron soccer sells out a week ago. Awesome atmosphere at the games. I suggest any soccer fans in the NEO area to take a trip and watch the #1 team in the country. Easily the best sports team in Ohio(yes, better than OSU Football).

The building with the unfinished looking storefronts is new student housing(privately owned). I beilieve ~400 UA students live there now. It's had a great a effect on the south side of downtown. I've read stories about the local pizza/sub shops pushing their hours later into the night. Before the student housing, most of these places were closing up shop in the early evening. Since the new student housing has been in operation, they've started staying open much later into the night! Akron is such a small city that UA can(and is) save it from further "rust belt decay". There's student housing going up everywhere, and the city is certainly reaping the benefits. BTW, nice shot of the Cal-State Northridge student. This must have been last weekend, because the #1 ranked Akron zips played CSNR in front of a sold out crowd just last Friday.

New apartments are replacing the old East Crown complex. http://www.ohio.com/news/103261564.html

I second that! JamesM, this had better not be mere speculation! How dare you get us so pumped! ;)

Beats me, X. UA is without a doubt cementing itself as the premier public research University in Northeast Ohio. This fall, enrollment will be at an all time high: ~30,000. That makes it the third largest university in the state behind UC and OSU(obviously). Anyway, perhaps it's a new research center they're putting in Cleveland? I agree though. If it's just a branch campus, then it's rather redundant. The city of Akron is quietly turning into something special. It's fun to watch.

"Currently the university has 3,365 beds on campus, including the 450-bed Spicer Street residence hall that will open later this month." "The University of Akron may build another residence hall with 735 beds — and eventually up to 2,500 — through a partnership with a private developer." So unless I'm misunderstanding something, that would bring our on campus enrollment to 5865! That's what I'm talking about baby! :mrgreen: Combine that with the 10,000 living in University Park/Highland Square and you've got yourself a nice little college town going.

According to a poster on Ohio.com: "As soon as the county welfare department vacates that end of Main Street and goes to Goodyear, the buildings will be demolished and there will be new development there. This is just a first step. Not sure why the city and county don't just say so. People would be happy I think."

I promise that I will take some pics of campus. My summer officially starts this Friday so I will do my best to get down there sometime this May(one of the many perks to living in Akron year 'round:) ).

http://www.ohio.com/sports/zips/52521307.html With new stadium, high expectations are set for Zips, Brookhart By Tom Gaffney Beacon Journal sports writer POSTED: 11:00 a.m. EDT, Aug 05, 2009 The University of Akron football team has its first practice Thursday knowing that the particulars of the season make success a necessity, not a suggestion. The pressures of 2009 are unique, compared to the circumstances of the recent past...

Update: Pictures of the stadium http://zipsnation.org/forums//index.php?showtopic=14373 Enjoy.

Just an update: Akron has eight verbal commitments to play football here in 2010. Some of the kids turned down offers from BCS schools like Indiana, North Caralina, Iowa, Boston College, Cincinatti, Air Force, Columbia, and Harvard, and just about every other MAC school. Did I mention Harvard? I digress. Anywho, Akron typically would be lucky to have any commitments yet. Gee, I wonder why this year is different? "I've seen the new stadium twice and it's really sweet," Hoobler said. "Their facilities all-around are some of the best I've seen on any of my college visits." http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/4638240 :-o

http://www.uakron.edu/information/stadium/ Some cool pics on the university's website. :mrgreen:

Although I see your point, and I sort of agree with you, I want to be sure we're all on the same page. UA is city campus, but it's not like CSU. From your other posts, it seems you're referring to the use of eminent domain, which is a whole different story. But a lot of people still have the idea that Akron uses the city as it's 'campus'. When in reality all the streets have been closed off through the main campus area. Of course there are still areas in the campus foot print that have streets, but this is no Cleveland State(nothing against CSU). It's closer to a Toledo sort of vibe, but unlike Toledo, 'campus' as we know it is still expanding. Akron is a sleeping giant. And it's growing every year(in acres and in enrollment). The future is bright.

Pictures of the stadium construction. :-P http://www.ohio.com/sports/zips/47267352.html

http://www.ohio.com/news/47315392.html UA students filling up unfinished apartment complex By Carol Biliczky Beacon Journal staff writer POSTED: 12:30 p.m. EDT, Jun 09, 2009 Martin Mehall could use the motto, ''Build it and they will come.'' He did, and they have. University of Akron students have snapped up all 140 beds in the first phase of an apartment complex in downtown Akron...

That's a great story, and it helps shed light on the positive effects that open enrollment can have on non-traditional students and their traditional peers. Actually, your post makes me rethink my ideas on open enrollment. It's not the adult students that hurt the university, but the unprepared traditional students that it attracts. I can't tell you how many kids I went to school with my freshman year who just didn't show up the second semester or for their second year. None of them transferred. They were all a bunch of partiers who were accepted on open enrollment and failed to make decent grades. I agree that continuing education programs for adults should be pushed, but open enrollment for entering freshman should be abolished. Because those students typically take full course loads, many will fail out after the first year or only finish a year or two of a degree, at best. Send those kids to a branch campus or a community college first, and let them prove that they are worthy of the state's resources. Remember, this is a public university. Should our tax dollars be thrown toward kids who will waste them anyways? It's not like this discussion matters much. Open enrollment has less to do with the state and more to do with Doc Proenza's policies. He's pushing for a more diverse student body through the use of inclusive admissions. I commend him for this, but I don't think open enrollment is needed to achieve this goal. You can check out an ad for his ideas here: http://www.uakron.edu/dotAsset/532369.jpg I may disagree with him here, but hey, it could be worse. The guys done enough good things for this university that we should trust his ingenuity until he proves us wrong.

I'm a Chemical Engineering major at Akron. Most kids I know have something lined up before they graduate, be it through a co op or plans for grad school. The chair of our department told me that 97% of our graduating seniors have jobs lined up before graduation. I'm willing to relocate somewhere if I need to, but I'd love to stay in Cleveland if I had the opportunity to.

That would be so cool. Could you imagine? Really quick transportation to and from football games for the students. Not to mention all the faculty members who teach at both schools. I know UA and KSU have joint PhD nursing programs, and I'm sure that's not the only collaboration between the two schools. Speaking of the football games, is anyone going to head up to the new stadium for the annual battle for the wagon wheel? If that isn't a sell out then I'm not sure what will be. There's so many UA and KSU alms in NEO.

Which brings up another flaw in the open enrollment system. It lowers the graduation rates of the schools C Dawg mentioned(Akron and Toledo). Selectivity in admissions and graduation rates are two of the most important factors in the US News and World Report unviersity rankings and other systems like it. Thus, UA nor UT will ever be able to climb to much higher national recognition without open enrollment being lifted, no matter how much money if invested. Open enrollment is a really polite and fresh idea. The idea of inclusiveness is truly how colleges should be run--if money weren't involved. Because American taxpayers will now be forced to foot the bill in forms of financial aid for students who on average don't graduate anyway makes open enrollment an economically irresponsible process at best. I agree. I'm majoring in Chemical Engineering at Akron, and although I plan on graduating on time, it is still intensely difficult. But it's worth it because of the monetary benefit after graduation. The average Chemical Engineer makes about 60,000 their first year out of college. I'll take four years(actually its five years because of co ops) of hell for that kind of pay. That's probably what he does mean. There's a shortage of people with degrees in engineering and nursing right now. If anything, the worth of those degrees is rising. On the other hand, business and marketing degrees are so commonly handed out to partiers, that a degree there with an average GPA can leave you jobless, or worse, at Taco Bell.

http://www.chicagosports.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=68248&Sport=2 One of the top 50 recruits in the country and the sixth best center in the '09 recruiting class. Dambrot has things looking pretty good in zip town! :clap:

http://www.ohio.com/news/top_stories/46564547.html University of Akron leader marks 10 years at helm of campus transformation, ambitious research initiative.

As a student let me say that this university is on an upswing, there's no denying that. We have absolutely great faculty in the engineering college. Also, I've had some awesome profs from the math dept. UA is experiencing all the things that are needed to rise in the national rankings...now all we need is to reevaluate how we handle open enrollment. Proenza wants to give an education to everyone--and that's great! But what he's doing is raising the acceptance rate, lowering the quality of incoming classes, and drastically decreasing the graduation rate. All of these aspects of open enrollment count against UA in the national ranking systems. And if he wants to see the true rise of this university, that's were it starts. I love what UA is doing, but I feel like I was deceived. I was accepted to Miami University and chose UA over them because I felt UA was really up and coming. But as long as open enrollment exists the way it is now, UA will never be respected academically, and high caliber students will be scared away. GO ZIPS!