Petition against DivIII changes

[Muskieman]

Originally posted by Ralp Baer:

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The following message was posted by Pete Pedone, RPI Alumni Coordinator on the RPI Sports list:

quote:
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The question was asked, “Is the Alumni Association getting involved in this?” My response is MOST DEFINITELY.


The Office of Alumni Relations and the Rensselaer Alumni Association (RAA) have sent the details of this proposal to 30,000 alumni and asked each and every one of them to respond to Myles Brand ’64. The RAA will be drafting a resolution to be sent to Dr. Brand supporting Dr. Jackson and Rensselaer’s stance on this proposal. We are sending newsletters to our regional chapters with this information included, and the information is on the Alumni web page, along with an e-mail address for Dr. Brand. There will be a postcard in the September issue of the Rensselaer magazine that alumni can remove and mail to Dr. Brand, to show their interest in and concern for defeating this proposal.

So yes, the RAA is certainly involved!!

Peter

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My question is whether CC, Clarkson, and SLU are doing the same and, if not, why not? Does anybody know on this?

Brian

[miker]

Suppose I'm still looking for THE reason for this proposal, but haven't found it yet. Reading the entire "Future of D3" including agendas, focus groups and minutes just aggravates me further. It is curious to note that the "membership" never brought up the mult-division classification or scholarships, either in the membership responses or focus group. This actually was an agenda item with the "Joint Subcommittee"...repeatedly.

Just curious, who wrote the survey???

Key Points:
1. The focus groups state "many felt that institutions with already established multidivisional programs should not be restricted, but that current D3 institutions should not be allowed to enter into multidivisional status because it creates an uneven playing field".

They always said, if you want to control a meeting, create the agenda first.:rolleyes:

[bigfish]

Originally posted by MikeR
Sorry Ralph - should have warned you, but that is my tendency - stir the pot up and let others comment first. I can relate to the feeling of aggravation and frustration. October or January is a loooooong ways away.
Take Bigfish with a big beer, he does it to get people to debate....today excluded, notice he hasn't been around that much lately.

I think he secretly signed the petition.:D
Mike- haven't you noticed that I was busy exposing the UNH fans to the wonder that is kash?:D

I'm very close to signing the petition- the Star Wars Kid one;)

[miker]

Originally posted by bigfish
Mike- haven't you noticed that I was busy exposing the UNH fans to the wonder that is kash?:D

I'm very close to signing the petition- the Star Wars Kid one;)

I noticed...Kash is the poster of the year :). He's a favorite of mine.

[Ralph Baer]

Mike, FWIW, I posted on one of the LaxPower threads about the proposal.

[Ralph Baer]

Someone must be spreading the word at CC about the petition. There have been a lot of CC signatures today. (Currently up to 6925.)

[Ralph Baer]

Myles Brand's lecture at RPI "The Ethical and Academic Challenges of College Sports" next Friday (9/19) at 4pm EDT will be broadcast live on WRPI. See http://wrpi.rpi.edu/ for a blurb. The link to listen is http://wrpi.rpi.edu/wrpi.ram

[Ralph Baer]

Past 7000 signatures now. (7019)

[HighlanderRPI]

Originally posted by Ralph Baer
Someone must be spreading the word at CC about the petition. There have been a lot of CC signatures today. (Currently up to 6925.) Yea, I wonder what caused the enormous influx of CC signatures. There was an increase of RPI signatures after the Poly ran an article, but nothing like the increase in the number of CC signatures.

[Ralph Baer]

Is there anyone reading this from CC who can explain what happened? Whatever it is, the other schools should do the same thing.

[cetaele]

At CC, an electronic memo was sent around to all students, faculty, and staff...thus the dramatic increase in number of signatures from CC.

[miker]

Great job again by CC. Hopefully they are communicating this to all affected schools.

This was posted by a user on the Knights board...

http://goldenknightshockey.com/roundtable/attachment.php3?s=&postid=6721




Edit: Petition Link (http://www.petitiononline.com/NCAAD3/petition.html)

[Ralph Baer]

Mike,

I have yet to see an official link on the web page or anything official that recommended signing the petition. I think that the student-run newspaper is the only place that I have seen it.

I hope that someone asks Myles Brand a pointed question at teh press conference after his talk on Friday. (See link below.)

[chilly]

Interesting article in yesterday's (Sunday) Boston Globe. With all the brouhaha about overemphasis of athletics at DIII schools, it seems that the ultimate academic geek school (no offense intended), MIT, is sick of losing and wants to make their athletics programs more competitive.

The article also states that MIT upgraded their women's rowing program to DI this summer. Just wondering how they were able to do this if the "moratorium" is still in effect. No mention was made of scholarships, but I doubt that rowing is a scholarship sport anyway.

[Sejast]

Originally posted by Ralph Baer
Whatever it is, the other schools should do the same thing.

This is an area where I fault the powers that be at RPI. (Before anyone at RPI gets upset, I am pleased with the response from the school and their efforts to combat the proposal. I've even said as much in my editorial in the Poly.)

I know RPI and the alumni house are pushing people to contact Brand because of his position and the fact that he's an alum. From what I've seen of responses people have gotten from him (and whomever Brand has forward comments to), it doesn't look like there's any support there to draw from.

I can understand why the 'Tute wants people to go to Brand. He's an alum and asking an alum for help isn't an unreasonable thing to have RPI do. What bugs me is that RPI doesn't want to support the petition (and if I've missed something tell me), and ignores it entirely in favor of telling people to contact Brand. Why not do both? The petition was started by RPI alums, though they may not have the position or prestige (yet) of the NCAA pres.

Where's the harm in supporting the petition? I can understand why the non-hockey schools might not want to support the petition. But the petition is specifically to help RPI. All the school or alumni house needed to do was post the link to the petition (and put up a disclaimer if they felt it necessary). Including it in an e-mail like CC did would have been incredible. Is RPI concerned about offending Brand if they show any support for the petition?

From what I've seen Brand doesn't seem to care. Now ok, he may have to be publically neutral because of his position, but my take on the responses people have gotten from him/his office seem to support the proposal. I would also think that if there was going to be any publuc support for RPI and the other affected schools, we would have seen it by now. If Brand really doesn't care about how this will impact his alma matter then why not move to a different strategy?

I guess it just bugs me that the school won't post or support the petition at all. I'm sure they have their reasons, I just don't understand it.

[Ralph Baer]

Well said, Sejast. I can see no reason why the school couldn't have mentioned the petition.

As we know, Brand was formerly a college President. I would think that in that capacity he knew other college Presidents and could influence some if he were against the proposal. However, I too suspect that he would rather see it pass.

[miker]

Is this the dominance that President McCardell was concerned about????:D
September 14, 2003
CLARKSON WINS 20TH ANNUAL DUKE NELSON GOLF TOURNAMENT
The Clarkson University Golf team captured the 20th annual Duke Nelson Golf Tournament hosted by Middlebury College on the Ralph Myhre Golf Course. The Golden Knights were in a first place tie with Hamilton, both firing 307's on day one. Clarkson came back strong on day two with a 311, led by senior Eric Wallace's (Ilion, NY) 72, to capture the tournament.


Clarkson beats Middlebury (http://www.clarkson.edu/athletics/golf/news.html#sept14)

[Ralph Baer]

Originally posted by MikeR
Is this the dominance that President McCardell was concerned about????:D
September 14, 2003
CLARKSON WINS 20TH ANNUAL DUKE NELSON GOLF TOURNAMENT
The Clarkson University Golf team captured the 20th annual Duke Nelson Golf Tournament hosted by Middlebury College on the Ralph Myhre Golf Course. The Golden Knights were in a first place tie with Hamilton, both firing 307's on day one. Clarkson came back strong on day two with a 311, led by senior Eric Wallace's (Ilion, NY) 72, to capture the tournament.


Clarkson beats Middlebury (http://www.clarkson.edu/athletics/golf/news.html#sept14) Well, the Clarkson hockey players can get out on the links earlier, now that they haven't made the NCAA tourney since 1999. It helps the golf team. ;)

[miker]

If this thing passes, Clarkson should have one of the best D3 golf teams in the country. Also noticed that Colgate may be getting scholarships soon...(see Colgate thread)

[Ralph Baer]

Originally posted by MikeR
If this thing passes, Clarkson should have one of the best D3 golf teams in the country. Also noticed that Colgate may be getting scholarships soon...(see Colgate thread) That will further negate the argument that only one ECAC team will be giving scholarships if the proposal passes, and thus it doesn't matter that RPI, Clarkson, and SLU won't offer them.