My alma mater mentioned in TMQ

[Gandalf]

It's not every day I see UMR mentioned when reading a national sports column such as TMQ (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/081111):
Bonus Obscure College Score: Missouri S&T 63, Southwest Baptist 23. Located in Rolla, Mo., Missouri University of Science and Technology hosts such events (http://calendar.mst.edu/index.html) as "The Role of Intelligent Systems within User-centered Computational Environments for Conceptual Design and Early-Stage Decision-making." That's not a course catalog entry, it's a public event, for tomorrow.
It's nice to see their football team has improved ... I think they went almost two full seasons without a win while I was an undergrad - including one 0-x season. But the mention does present the school fairly: presentations on technical subjects are commonplace since it's a highly ranked engineering school, and not much else. :)

[Buttabean]

My brother Matt goes to UMR (M S&T, whatever) and he actually enjoyed their failing football team. He has been known to say that "the students were good at the important stuff, not sports." :rolleyes: He's a nerd. Triple major, a minor, and a teacher's certificate! Yowza!

[Gandalf]

They started doing better in football primarily because they changed to a conference with weaker teams to compete against. :) They did win the Division II men's swimming national championship last year or the year before, though.

I agree with your brother on academics being the priority. Athletic programs at universities should be complementary to the academics, and intended to further the education of the student, not to be a profitable entertainment franchise. That's why I won't follow NCAA college sports as if they were professional sports.

As for the name change, I've yet to meet anyone aside from Chancellor Carney who liked that idea. I still think of it as UMR, myself.

[danbos]

My little tiny hometown of 7000 people, Hudsonville, was mentioned on ESPN during the Michigan game last week. They were talking about someone that played at Muskegon High School, and the announcer mentioned that Muskegon had a big game that week with his alma mater, which was Hudsonville. :D

[Buttabean]

They started doing better in football primarily because they changed to a conference with weaker teams to compete against. :) They did win the Division II men's swimming national championship last year or the year before, though.

I agree with your brother on academics being the priority. Athletic programs at universities should be complementary to the academics, and intended to further the education of the student, not to be a profitable entertainment franchise. That's why I won't follow NCAA college sports as if they were professional sports.

As for the name change, I've yet to meet anyone aside from Chancellor Carney who liked that idea. I still think of it as UMR, myself.

Yeah, Matt hates the name change. I mean, anyone who knows anything about UMR knows that its a science and technology college primarially. But, I'm not a fan of any of the name changes that have gone on as of late. I mean, University of Central MO? Missouri State? Pfft. :P

[Gandalf]

Agreed. I blame Northeast MO State / Truman State for starting the whole silly trend.

[Buttabean]

Agreed. I blame Northeast MO State / Truman State for starting the whole silly trend.


Ah yes, my mother's (and grandmother's) alma mater. And one of my relatives used to be university president!

When NEMO changed to Truman, my mother was in grad school. Her program was dropped, and her hours were all for naught. :(