Nebraska loses AAU status

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We have known we were at risk of this for ten years, and successfully fought off a similar threat in 2000," Perlman said. "I had hoped our extraordinary accomplishments and steep trajectory would have made us less vulnerable, but the AAU's approach to the review made this result inevitable."

UNL joined the AAU in 1909. Perlman said UNL has ranked at the bottom of the AAU's members for more than a decade based on the group's ranking system, which ranks all research universities. That ranking system consists of four criteria: research expenditures, National Academy members, faculty awards (from a specified list) and citations.

Those criteria are weighted based on the number of tenure-track faculty at a particular university. Based on those criteria, a number of non-AAU institutions ranked higher than 15 AAU institutions, including UNL, Perlman said.

Perlman told the World-Herald that he didn't think the loss of AAU membership would affect Nebraska's admission into the Big Ten, which officially takes place July 1.

But here's what Perlman said about the AAU and the Big Ten shortly after Nebraska was admitted to the league.

"All the Big Ten schools are AAU members. I doubt that our application would've been accepted had we not been a member of the organization."

The Huskers' nationally known football program might have had a little to do with it, too.

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, speaking at last year's spring meetings as expansion was heating up, had this to say about the Big Ten and its AAU ties: "AAU membership is a part of who we are. It’s an important part of who we are."

While this shouldn't impact Nebraska's transition to the league or its involvement in the league's internal academic consortium (Committee on Institutional Cooperation), it is, as Perlman told the World-Herald, "in the short-term, an embarrassment."

WTF.
 

It is definitely an embarrassment for them. I sounds as if it largely came down to the amount of research money brought in and which departments it was brought in under. The AAU doesn't count research dollars brought in for agriculutural research which is obviously a major research focus for a state like that. The university also didn't get to count a ton of research dollars brought in by their medical school because it was formed by the state as a separate entity from UNL, unlike most states medical schools. I would imagine the university and state will consider bringing the medical school under the same university entity and try to get back in.
 

GopherGod said:
It is definitely an embarrassment for them. I sounds as if it largely came down to the amount of research money brought in and which departments it was brought in under. The AAU doesn't count research dollars brought in for agriculutural research which is obviously a major research focus for a state like that. The university also didn't get to count a ton of research dollars brought in by their medical school because it was formed by the state as a separate entity from UNL, unlike most states medical schools. I would imagine the university and state will consider bringing the medical school under the same university entity and try to get back in.
Click to expand...

I looks like the criteria is divided into two phases. Phase I counts competitively awarded research and phase II is non-competitive which apparently includes Department of Agriculture research. This link has some information: https://www.cu.edu/sg/messages/1672.html
 

Nebraska should have never been admitted to our great conference. Total money grab. Take away their football team and they are NOTHING just like all the other Big XII schools except Texas. They will always be a Big XII school to me.
 


Yeah, Kansas has nothing aside from their football team.
 









I'm assuming that the member institutions of the Big 10/11/12 are going to work closely with UNL so that they may regain their AAU status. We're only as strong as our weakest link. Just remember that 8 out of 12 Big 10 schools (including the U and UNL) are land grant universities. We are not considered a "high-brow" school .... We are sod busters (god I love Kenny Jay) and damn proud of it.

Maroon and Gold
CBS '76
 



Here is the latest data available for R&D expenditures from federal sources: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf10311/pdf/tab28.pdf Nebraska isn't really doing that bad according to this document (#71 - compared to #65 Mich St)

Obviously the AAU has other criteria, but I would think with access to the CIC it shouldn't be hard to attract whatever the number of ____ criteria qualified faculty are needed. I also find it hard to believe that research for Ag does not count, even if it's from USDA, FDA, etc sources. I would think bio-research on genetically modified seed organisms would be as compelling/relevant research to humankind as any other.
 

Tommy Lee TV Show at UNL

They let Tommy Lee do TV show on their campus. That should have been the end of the UNL into the BT discussion.
 

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