The RG has the story, here:
University of Oregon: goosing Google for a better reputation
President Schill:
“What we don’t want is — when you put in a Google search that says the ‘University of Oregon’ — we shouldn’t be coming up primarily about basketball players doing things, sexual violence-type stories, (instead) you’re hearing about all the great things that are taking place here in terms of research,” Schill said.
VP for Enrollment Roger Thompson:
Roger Thompson, vice president for enrollment management, declared victory — at least among Oregon audiences, in his annual year-end enrollment report.
“A study of Oregon residents showed that top-of-mind associations with the University of Oregon moved from ‘Ducks,’ and ‘football’ to ‘great school,’ ‘research,’ ‘Ducks’ and ‘football.’ Our target audiences’ perceptions of the university’s strengths also improved,” according to the report.
Yes, I’ve asked Roger for a copy of that study.
I have never been more proud of my team than last night when we played one of the secret, shh, the new Adams plays, there, in that game, when he could have won but refused, no, not him, a king who raised an entire Bowl Game on his own great arm and let lose the game itself that his colleague in shame may have his day at home, even him, a win for Adam’s zipper, WHEW! Way to go, Vern!
Now that our athletic programs have been reduced to mediocre, can we go back to focusing on our teaching and research missions? Please?
So the problem is the media? What we don’t want is — when you have a President talking about “athletic scandals” speaking primarily about google searches and bad publicity, (instead) you’re hoping to hear about leadership. And I don’t mean firing anyone who happens to embarrass an administrator by speaking the truth. If UO didn’t want the bad press, they had plenty of opportunities to make different decisions.
yes, the “Ducks athletic stigma” has been reduced dramatically just in the past 24 hours!
Or is it the other way around?
An embarrassment since the Ohio State fiasco, especially when it counts.
Maybe we need to Phil Knight to shake things up around here!
Seriously — I have to give them credit for at least trying. Haven’t seen that at least since the days of Myles Brand, if not Paul Olum.
Have to be skeptical about Roger Thompson’s story.
But he DOES have a good story — the pretty sharp rise in SAT scores this year? Am I the only one who is surprised that nobody is talking about that much?