Demand Accountability. Letters to President Heible

Back-to-back PL champs 2016 and 2017.... but need to get back to relevance in the national FCS scene.
LUEngineer
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Re: Demand Accountability. Letters to President Heible

Post by LUEngineer » Sat Oct 30, 2021 11:03 am

Remember that in the rebranding years of the 1990s, Lehigh was ranked #32 by USNews when we were the “Engineers”.

What Likens didn’t get is that political science & liberal arts majors generally don’t make millions ever!! Engineers from Lehigh used to dominate the executive ranks of major Corporations & Wall Street.

That ended when we gave up our brand to become more liberal arts & Ivylike & here we are25 years later tied for #49 in US News Rankings.

Really bad decision but at least they saved the Wrestling legacy where hopefully this year we return to Top 10 where we belong.


JAD77
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Re: Demand Accountability. Letters to President Heible

Post by JAD77 » Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:59 pm

LUEngineer wrote: Sat Oct 30, 2021 11:03 am Really bad decision but at least they saved the Wrestling legacy where hopefully this year we return to Top 10 where we belong.
Not going to happen this season, the team is far too young.

I jumped in this thread towards the end, so I don't know if the following point was already mentioned:
Uncapping football rosters has a huge Title IX implication. Wrestling already has a roster of over 40, and added together with football, that's a lot of women's sports that are needed to balance that out. And don't think Lehigh is predominantly male - women account for 46% of the student population. So for every 10 roster spots you add on a football team, you need to add 9 female spots somewhere.
I suggested a female wrestling team on the wrestling forum, as that is a growing sport, but the idea was not accepted favorably.
HFO
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Re: Demand Accountability. Letters to President Heible

Post by HFO » Sat Oct 30, 2021 5:10 pm

In any organization, leadership drives performance, whether faculty producing relevant cited papers in their fields of knowledge or athletic coaches producing student-athletes. If you aspire to be world class or national class institution, excellence all begins with talent acquisition and talent development.

My experience in life was coal cracker country, Lehigh, military, back to Lehigh, medical school and then a career within Johns Hopkins. The Lehigh Presidents for past 20 plus years, despite the progression up from solid professor, department heads, provosts, all pretty much were mediocre Presidents from Farrington on. They did their 5-7 year stint for the money and moved on. Each never mastered what Lehigh and attempted to execute vague concepts of "their" strategy to elevate Lehigh nationally. They all pretty much failed miserable except getting more students to apply. Very few disciplines at Lehigh are significantly more competitive than 30 years ago.

Now we have the $135 million boondogle of the last idiot President with this College of Health. 1 year in it loses its founding Dean. The research drive within the 6 full time faculty member is indigenous people health. Nothing against that area of medical research, but last I looked despite the area once having Leni Lenape, there is not a single Federal Indian Reservation in DE, MD, PA, WV, OH, NJ, the closest ones are in upstate New York. Then you have problem of total student population after 2 years of only 63 students. What LEHIGH has not had is PERSONS OF STRATEGIC THOUGHT.

So one can only pray that the new President, a Lehigh man, might have a grasp of what it takes to succeed and engage in strategic thought. Equally, the existing Board of Trustees should be held to the fire for their failings too.
TMH
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Re: Demand Accountability. Letters to President Heible

Post by TMH » Sat Oct 30, 2021 7:58 pm

HFO wrote: Sat Oct 30, 2021 5:10 pm In any organization, leadership drives performance, whether faculty producing relevant cited papers in their fields of knowledge or athletic coaches producing student-athletes. If you aspire to be world class or national class institution, excellence all begins with talent acquisition and talent development.

My experience in life was coal cracker country, Lehigh, military, back to Lehigh, medical school and then a career within Johns Hopkins. The Lehigh Presidents for past 20 plus years, despite the progression up from solid professor, department heads, provosts, all pretty much were mediocre Presidents from Farrington on. They did their 5-7 year stint for the money and moved on. Each never mastered what Lehigh and attempted to execute vague concepts of "their" strategy to elevate Lehigh nationally. They all pretty much failed miserable except getting more students to apply. Very few disciplines at Lehigh are significantly more competitive than 30 years ago.

Now we have the $135 million boondogle of the last idiot President with this College of Health. 1 year in it loses its founding Dean. The research drive within the 6 full time faculty member is indigenous people health. Nothing against that area of medical research, but last I looked despite the area once having Leni Lenape, there is not a single Federal Indian Reservation in DE, MD, PA, WV, OH, NJ, the closest ones are in upstate New York. Then you have problem of total student population after 2 years of only 63 students. What LEHIGH has not had is PERSONS OF STRATEGIC THOUGHT.

So one can only pray that the new President, a Lehigh man, might have a grasp of what it takes to succeed and engage in strategic thought. Equally, the existing Board of Trustees should be held to the fire for their failings too.
May I ask by what metric you are measuring Lehigh's failure. If providing an education that ensures financial success is a criteria, shouldn't being ranked #10 in the country in this area among some pretty heady company say otherwise

25 Private Colleges Whose Graduates Go on to Earn the Most Money

https://www.newsweek.com/private-colleg ... ey-1607825
Sundayamqb
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Re: Demand Accountability. Letters to President Heible

Post by Sundayamqb » Sat Oct 30, 2021 9:28 pm

The SAD reality is transformational leaders -- great university presidents, athletic directors and coaches for example -- are few and far between.

Joe has had a great run as AD and helped modernize/improve Lehigh's athletic program. But it's tough to do that decade after decade as individual institutions, college sports and students evolve.

Kevin Higgins was a transformational coach, helping to build and cement a winning legacy and Air Lehigh. His coaching tree is impressive (as is the transformation at Wake Forest since his arrival and that of Dave Clawson).

It's not just about winning; it's about succession planning, building culture and much more.

Our new president likely won't last much more than 10 years -- he's about 60 now. He can make an impact. How much? Who knows? Maybe he can at least put the wheels back on track.

But what if Lehigh could find someone to truly transform Lehigh into a Top 20 (academic) institution?
Go Lehigh TU Owl
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Re: Demand Accountability. Letters to President Heible

Post by Go Lehigh TU Owl » Sat Oct 30, 2021 11:21 pm

I'll try to keep this as simple as possible...

The current failures of the football program are simply unacceptable. It was far too predictable given the current leadership structure.

Gilmore and company have to go at the end of the season barring some unforeseen barnstorming November. At this point of the process there needs to be definitive development and tangible progress shown. The program needs to be past the point of endless excuses given the adversity other programs face. Winning is hard but so is losing 15 straight games and scoring 5 touchdowns through 8 games. I'd love to see analytics explain some of these facts and figures. Especially, when you consider PL competition. I applaud what Dakosty is doing at Colgate given the brutal situation he inherited. The Raiders have a chance to finish second in the league....

TMH,

First, I told you where this is headed. There's, I've said my peace...

As for institutional placement HFO makes a logical, reasoned assessment of Lehigh's School of Health. I believe his concerns and questions raised are worthy of further scrutiny from faculty, who lost possible resources, and alums who question the net gain/loss of the decision relative to institutional perception.

I thought a law school might serve Lehigh well instead? Some would argue the competition already owns the market and anything after the T14s serve niche/regional needs? I say Lehigh could have made it a success...

Lehigh absolutely should expand their graduate offerings imo. From the periphery it would appear the institution has the potential to be a Northeast Rice or Northwestern (something of that ilk). I read nearly every Rossin, Business and Education faculty bio. The Rossin faculty is tremendously diverse but does that mean it's "as good as it could be"? Rossin needs to remain Lehigh's calling card. I'm guessing a significant component to elevating its status is finding ways to establish noteworthy research endeavors in the post steel Lehigh Valley/Rust Belt? The business and education programs remain nationally viable but the competition is extremely stiff. Especially when factoring in tuition costs...
toddcudd
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Re: Demand Accountability. Letters to President Heible

Post by toddcudd » Sat Oct 30, 2021 11:37 pm

Hey gang. Just stopping by to retract all my previous comments re: Andy. Whoa, Nelly - the stink is brutal! 🤢🤢

On the upside - the comments on this thread re: academics are embarrassingly uninformed.
The business school overtook engineering in the late '80s. The big 8/6/whatever it is now took every LU accountant with a pulse.
Get over it. And adding a med school is absolutely an enormously positive move.
TMH
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Re: Demand Accountability. Letters to President Heible

Post by TMH » Sun Oct 31, 2021 11:10 am

LUEngineer wrote: Sat Oct 30, 2021 11:03 am Remember that in the rebranding years of the 1990s, Lehigh was ranked #32 by USNews when we were the “Engineers”.

What Likens didn’t get is that political science & liberal arts majors generally don’t make millions ever!! Engineers from Lehigh used to dominate the executive ranks of major Corporations & Wall Street.

That ended when we gave up our brand to become more liberal arts & Ivylike & here we are25 years later tied for #49 in US News Rankings.

Really bad decision but at least they saved the Wrestling legacy where hopefully this year we return to Top 10 where we belong.
To me, there is little doubt that engineering provided Lehigh with the identity that created our name recognition and thus our higher rankings decades ago. With that said, Lehigh cannot move forward while constantly looking in the rear view mirror.

There are a lot of factors contributing to the demise of Lehigh's reputation in engineering.

1.)Obviously, the elimination of our support system in Bethlehem Steel from so many perspectives
2.) Co-education. Lehigh had a goal from early on to create a campus that had a ratio of 55/45 gender ratio. Culturally, women shied away from the sciences and engineering especially in those early days.
3.) Even more obviously, the re-branding
4.) The evolution of engineering and our inability to adapt quickly.

Like it or not, the lure of the 5 (I think) engineering disciplines (mechanical, electrical, chemical, civil and industrial) in the 80s has diminished, replaced by technology, biomedical and supply chain management.

IMO, engineering will continue to be a strength of the University and with good leadership will continue to improve. I just don't think that it will provide the identity nationally or internationally like it once did unless there is a complete sea change and we become forward thinking.

As always, just my opinion.
TMH
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Re: Demand Accountability. Letters to President Heible

Post by TMH » Sun Oct 31, 2021 11:14 am

toddcudd wrote: Sat Oct 30, 2021 11:37 pm Hey gang. Just stopping by to retract all my previous comments re: Andy. Whoa, Nelly - the stink is brutal! 🤢🤢

On the upside - the comments on this thread re: academics are embarrassingly uninformed.
The business school overtook engineering in the late '80s. The big 8/6/whatever it is now took every LU accountant with a pulse.
Get over it. And adding a med school is absolutely an enormously positive move.
Hi Todd,

Lehigh is indeed ranking #20 nationally in terms of accounting, depending on what subjective survey you look at. BTW, I think it's down to Big 4.

Lehigh is in the early phases of opening a College of Health, not a med school. There is a huge difference.
TMH
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Re: Demand Accountability. Letters to President Heible

Post by TMH » Sun Oct 31, 2021 11:32 am

Go Lehigh TU Owl wrote: Sat Oct 30, 2021 11:21 pm I'll try to keep this as simple as possible...

The current failures of the football program are simply unacceptable. It was far too predictable given the current leadership structure.

Gilmore and company have to go at the end of the season barring some unforeseen barnstorming November. At this point of the process there needs to be definitive development and tangible progress shown. The program needs to be past the point of endless excuses given the adversity other programs face. Winning is hard but so is losing 15 straight games and scoring 5 touchdowns through 8 games. I'd love to see analytics explain some of these facts and figures. Especially, when you consider PL competition. I applaud what Dakosty is doing at Colgate given the brutal situation he inherited. The Raiders have a chance to finish second in the league....

TMH,

First, I told you where this is headed. There's, I've said my peace...

As for institutional placement HFO makes a logical, reasoned assessment of Lehigh's School of Health. I believe his concerns and questions raised are worthy of further scrutiny from faculty, who lost possible resources, and alums who question the net gain/loss of the decision relative to institutional perception.

I thought a law school might serve Lehigh well instead? Some would argue the competition already owns the market and anything after the T14s serve niche/regional needs? I say Lehigh could have made it a success...

Lehigh absolutely should expand their graduate offerings imo. From the periphery it would appear the institution has the potential to be a Northeast Rice or Northwestern (something of that ilk). I read nearly every Rossin, Business and Education faculty bio. The Rossin faculty is tremendously diverse but does that mean it's "as good as it could be"? Rossin needs to remain Lehigh's calling card. I'm guessing a significant component to elevating its status is finding ways to establish noteworthy research endeavors in the post steel Lehigh Valley/Rust Belt? The business and education programs remain nationally viable but the competition is extremely stiff. Especially when factoring in tuition costs...
Sticking to the academic portion of your post. Great observations. See my earlier post on the Rossin Engineering School.

The School of Health intrigues me. I was very disappointed when it was first announced. I thought it was grossly mismanaged but lately, I'm wondering if we may have stumbled onto something. I don't view the college so much on an undergraduate level (although they are offering one or two majors) but more as a research institution which can draw both a lot of money and an array of graduate level study, especially in this post-pandemic(ish) period we're going through. The indigenous people study was likely propelled by the $1.8 M grant from the American Cancer Institute. Health may also be an area that we can get in on the ground floor and establish a reputation nationally much in the way that Johns Hopkins did, which is who we were trying to emulate anyway.

The new massive building, I'm told doesn't have a lot of classrooms but it does have a lot of research space and a state of the art science lab which can and will be utilized by all disciplines across all colleges. Inter-disciplinary studies is a huge element of Joseph Helble's plan. The building will only fully open in spring. We are still in the infant stages here.

Once again, just my opinion.
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