As The Red & Black reported today, UGA (where I teach) finished in the Rate My Professor Top 10 universities. Full list here. We're #8! We're #8! So very exciting -- except that we were #3 last year, so we've dropped.
So, let's rate that rating. In other words, what's their methodology? Here's their methodology page, and from it we can tell a couple of things. There are a lot of ratings, millions of them, and nothing about this is random or systematic. The final rating is a combination of individual faculty ratings and campus ratings, which kinda makes sense, but beyond that there's no rigor in the data collection. It's big data, but necessarily good big data.
All that said, go UGA. We're #8.
Interestingly, in the Top Professor's list, two are from Georgia but neither is from UGA. I suppose we make up for it with lots and lots of well rated, but not top rated, professors.
In full transparency, my rating on a 5-point scale is 4.3.
My thoughts about stuff like this? Harmless fun. Don't take the numbers too seriously, given the lack of rigor, but if I were a student I'd certainly look at them for guidance. Keep in mind that often the students who post are those pissed off about their grades. And the N is small. Mine has 10 ratings based on posts from 2005 to 2015. Not exactly a good data source and, in fact, fairly meaningless.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Running the Name
UPDATE
This is no surprise. I fully expected either (1) UGA's athletics machine would lean on the young lady or (2) he'd apologize and all would be well or (3) it was all, of course, a misunderstanding, and anyone can confuse a death threat, or (4) she felt the pressure and just surrendered to the inevitable.
This makes even less excusable the use of the student's name in the story. See my post below.
Original Post
A 20-year-old UGA student accused a football player, Isaiah McKenzie, of making terroristic threats. According to reports, he said "he was going to call some friends and they were going to come out and he was going to kill her." Yes, that's a felony. It's also a felony to eat at Chili's, where this allegedly happened. Don't we feed our players?
Stories by ESPN's David Ching and AJC's (DawgNation)'s Chip Towers identified the woman by name. They were wrong to do so.
Thankfully, The Red & Black and The Athens Banner-Herald did not name her. They got it right.
She's filed a complaint. Until McKenzie is arrested, there is no compelling reason to name her. Indeed, look hard at the SPJ Code of Ethics, especially the part about "minimizing harm." College football fans are nuts, and that's putting it nicely. Just look at some of the Twitter and Facebook comments about this young woman. Sickening. By putting her name out there, Ching and Towers, you've put her at risk. Congratulations.
Let's look at some of the arguments for naming her.
Isaiah McKenzie will not face charges over Chili’s incident http://t.co/gY28hjqDWu
— AJC UGA (@ChipTowersAJC) September 30, 2015
This is no surprise. I fully expected either (1) UGA's athletics machine would lean on the young lady or (2) he'd apologize and all would be well or (3) it was all, of course, a misunderstanding, and anyone can confuse a death threat, or (4) she felt the pressure and just surrendered to the inevitable.
This makes even less excusable the use of the student's name in the story. See my post below.
Original Post
A 20-year-old UGA student accused a football player, Isaiah McKenzie, of making terroristic threats. According to reports, he said "he was going to call some friends and they were going to come out and he was going to kill her." Yes, that's a felony. It's also a felony to eat at Chili's, where this allegedly happened. Don't we feed our players?
Stories by ESPN's David Ching and AJC's (DawgNation)'s Chip Towers identified the woman by name. They were wrong to do so.
Thankfully, The Red & Black and The Athens Banner-Herald did not name her. They got it right.
She's filed a complaint. Until McKenzie is arrested, there is no compelling reason to name her. Indeed, look hard at the SPJ Code of Ethics, especially the part about "minimizing harm." College football fans are nuts, and that's putting it nicely. Just look at some of the Twitter and Facebook comments about this young woman. Sickening. By putting her name out there, Ching and Towers, you've put her at risk. Congratulations.
Let's look at some of the arguments for naming her.
- It's a public record. Yes, it is. So is the name of a rape victim, but we (the royal journalistic we) make an ethical choice to not name the victim. Just because it is a public record, that doesn't mean it has to be published or aired.
- It's unfair to McKenzie to name him and not her. Sorry, he has the whole University mouthpiece industry to back him. She has herself. This is a false argument. Again, if he gets arrested, that changes matters. It's just a complaint.
- It's all a plot by Bama, or the cops who hate football, or someone. Yes, conspiracy theorists, unite now. Jeez.
Quite simply, you do not name her. Not yet. Hell, they even named her father, the head of a government agency in Atlanta. Really? It's not like he's the friggin mayor or something. I expect this kind of crap from ESPN, defender of all that is athletic, but I expect more from the AJC.
Sports reporters, just don't do the cop beat. You'll hurt someone.
Oh, by the way, I tweeted this last night. Never got a response or justification from either. Sigh.
Oh, by the way, I tweeted this last night. Never got a response or justification from either. Sigh.
I'm only a former cop reporter, not sports, so explain @ChipTowersAJC and @ESPNChing why you ran the girl's name before charges filed?
— Barry Hollander (@barryhollander) September 30, 2015
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
The Ethics of Deleting Tweets
I don't often write about journalism ethics here, mainly because I have a certain moral flexibility when it comes to getting the story. A rather harmless Twitter mistake fluttered across my desk just a few moments ago and it got me wondering about the ethics of deleting tweets. So here's the tweet from our student newsroom:
A harmless misspelling of Heisman. No biggie. Three minutes later I responded:
Anyway, it raises the question (to me, perhaps not to you) whether you should delete the original offending tweet. Keep in mind this is about journalism ethics, not PR, in which obviously you'd delete a mistake or something embarrassing, especially to the boss or client.
On more serious stories, this piece does a good job arguing that, to me, you should correct but never delete the offending post. It's all about transparency. But does this apply to dumb typos? Especially typos that make it seem like Nick Chubb made the mistake when, we all know, it was a harmless mistype by a social media news editor. My own feeling is that it's OK to delete a tweet like above but it's not OK to delete a more serious mistake, as in saying someone is dead when they're not. Again, transparency. At some point we'd like to see a Twitter correction function or even a flag that says this tweet corrects an earlier one.
Or, perhaps, you can just put CORRECTION in the tweet, especially when there's still plenty of space to burn.
And thank your audience when it corrects you.
Yes, you're welcome. Again.
A harmless misspelling of Heisman. No biggie. Three minutes later I responded:
@GradyNewsource Heinemann?
— Barry Hollander (@barryhollander) September 29, 2015
And a few minutes later the original tweet was deleted and a corrected version posted. Without a thank you, I should note, so me being me I replied via Twitter: "Better. You're Welcome." That was a little while ago. So far, no thank you.Anyway, it raises the question (to me, perhaps not to you) whether you should delete the original offending tweet. Keep in mind this is about journalism ethics, not PR, in which obviously you'd delete a mistake or something embarrassing, especially to the boss or client.
On more serious stories, this piece does a good job arguing that, to me, you should correct but never delete the offending post. It's all about transparency. But does this apply to dumb typos? Especially typos that make it seem like Nick Chubb made the mistake when, we all know, it was a harmless mistype by a social media news editor. My own feeling is that it's OK to delete a tweet like above but it's not OK to delete a more serious mistake, as in saying someone is dead when they're not. Again, transparency. At some point we'd like to see a Twitter correction function or even a flag that says this tweet corrects an earlier one.
Or, perhaps, you can just put CORRECTION in the tweet, especially when there's still plenty of space to burn.
And thank your audience when it corrects you.
Yes, you're welcome. Again.
Monday, September 28, 2015
SEC Power Rankings
This week's SEC power rankings are out. I'm just gonna report the top three for several sites or sources. Three are national, one is the UGA newspaper, which I'll let pass without comment because I don't want to spawn any more "mommy he's picking on me" editorials. I find the SB Nation one interesting, with UGA 4th, otherwise no real surprises.
ESPN
|
R&B
|
SEC
Country
|
SB
Nation
|
|
1
|
Ole Miss
|
UGA
|
Ole Miss
|
Ole Miss
|
2
|
LSU
|
Bama
|
LSU & UGA
|
LSU
|
3
|
UGA
|
Ole Miss
|
Bama
|
|
(UGA 4th)
|
One based on 13 voters for all NCAA football is somewhat different. The highest SEC school is, of course, Ole Miss (#2 nationally, no real surprise), followed by LSU (#6), UGA (#8), Bama (#11), and Texas A&M (#12). The highest any ESPN individual voter has UGA is #6 (you can check out each individual voter's list). Skimming them, UGA's QB hasn't convinced anyone yet and the Bama game will say a lot about whether UGA is for real and moves into the Top 5.
As a Bulldog fan who remembers the last Bama blackout game, please God let no one suggest such a stupid idea again.
As a Bulldog fan who remembers the last Bama blackout game, please God let no one suggest such a stupid idea again.
Friday, September 25, 2015
Predicting Political Knowledge
Scholars have long tried to understand what factors predict political knowledge. Education is the standby, the consistent predictor -- with the more educated respondents doing better on political knowledge tests than those with less education. A few other factors come and go, depending on the analysis strategy and how you model the data. Media use, for example, sometimes is a factor and sometimes has no role to play.
This study asks a somewhat different question -- do personality traits better explain this than does education? The answer is, well, read below:
This study asks a somewhat different question -- do personality traits better explain this than does education? The answer is, well, read below:
Openness to experience and intelligence are found to be positive predictors of political knowledge and Neuroticism a negative predictor of political knowledge. In both studies education remains the single strongest predictor of political knowledge. Furthermore education can, to a large extent, even out the differences in political knowledge between those with high and low cognitive abilitiesSo education continues to boss around all the other variables, even interesting ones like personality traits such as openness to experience.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
UGA Travel
Sometimes I just mess around with UGA data. Out of curiosity, I wondered about the ratio of travel money an employee receives to the salary that same employee receives. So, using 2014 fiscal year data, the last available, I looked at a few winners. No names mentioned because, frankly, they're mostly techs and the like, not faculty.
- Research assistant, a $27k salary but $40k in travel expenses. Wow. I get maybe a thousand bucks in travel each year. This is the biggest difference I found between salary and travel.
- Another research assistant, $24k in salary, $26k in travel. Clearly if you want to see the world, be a research assistant at UGA.
- A "research professional" with a $27k salary and $29k in travel. Much like the jobs above.
- A lab assistant with only $2k salary and $3k in travel.
and so it goes. In fairness, a lot of these are folks assisting profs in their work, either in the field or at conferences and the like. The biggest gap in the other direction (fat salary, little travel)? Take out coaches and top admins, who get their travel paid in other ways, you end up with a chem prof who makes $377,584.80 in salary with $15,587.13 in travel. Biggest gap I could find. Next is a couple of biz school types who make over 300K. Yeah. Pffft.
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
SEC Presidents and Twitter
On one particularly dull day I looked up and wrote about how UGA's president and provost are not active on Twitter. That got me thinking. What about other SEC presidents? So let's take a look. In some schools the job is called chancellor, but I'm just gonna use president to keep life simple. It's my blog. I can do what I want.
Why should a prez be on Twitter? For a million good reasons, but mainly to reach out and connect with alumna, with students, and so on. Plus it's fun.
My search below is not complete nor is it comprehensive. I could easily have missed someone on Twitter, especially if they use a slightly different name. The ones I found tended to have an institutional name, like LSUPrez or some such. Which makes sense. In all, I foundfour five SEC schools presidents who I could find and identify on Twitter.
Why should a prez be on Twitter? For a million good reasons, but mainly to reach out and connect with alumna, with students, and so on. Plus it's fun.
My search below is not complete nor is it comprehensive. I could easily have missed someone on Twitter, especially if they use a slightly different name. The ones I found tended to have an institutional name, like LSUPrez or some such. Which makes sense. In all, I found
- University of Alabama, Stuart R. Bell. I don't see a real account, but there is a parody account (or I hope to hell it is, otherwise Bama has more issues than even I realized).
- University of Arkansas, Dan Ferritor (interim). No account found.
- Auburn University, Jay Gogue. No account found.
- University of Florida, W. Kent Fuchs (no, really). Finally, a real account. Not terribly active, with 274 tweets when I checked, but still good to see a prez up to technological speed.
- University of Georgia, Jere Morehead. There's a dormant, hidden account. Pffft.
- University of Kentucky, Eli Capilouto. Another prez who gets it, with 1,517 tweets. Good for you.
- Louisiana State University, F. King Alexander. Ditto here, a Twitter user. Not heavy, but still online and posted just five hours earlier than my search. Excellent.
- University of Mississippi, Morris Stocks (interim). There's one on Twitter, but it's locked up and I can't see that it's active. Only two followers.
- Mississippi State University, Mark E. Keenum. No account found.
University of Missouri, Timothy M. Wolfe. Found someone by that name, but not the Mizzou prez.I had this wrong (thanks, careful reader). Mizzou's prez, R. Bowen Loftin, tweets from here.- University of South Carolina, Harris Pastides. Yup, he's there. Good for him. A lot of followers, not so many tweets.
- University of Tennessee, Joseph A. DiPietro. No luck finding one.
- Texas A&M University, Michael K. Young, Common name. Did not find him.
- Vanderbilt University, Nicholas S. Zeppos, No luck.
It's a tough call on coolest SEC head's name, but I think I learn toward Eli Capilouto. Eli is just a cool name, though Zeppos as a last name has a lot going for it. And UF's prez name? I'm just gonna let that one slide because (1) I'm a UF grad and (2) at least he's on Twitter.
I'm open to any corrections if I missed someone.
I'm open to any corrections if I missed someone.
WUGA Radio
I often offer mild criticism of the local news media, even student efforts. It's kinda my job.
For example, this week I had an exchange with The Red & Black over something as silly as a sports list (I was, of course, right) and I've often criticized Newsource, the student broadcast/web site (and I really should criticize this awful package that is inappropriate to the point of being offensive, but that's for another day. Watch it. You'll see, or rather hear). And I often pick on the Athens Banner-Herald/OnlineAthens so often there are too many links to include, most often about misuse of poll numbers.
But I've never mentioned our local NPR station, WUGA.
In full transparency, I've done a few radio shows on WUGA and had a great time doing it. And I'm not picking on one particular story, but they had UGA President Jere Morehead on a jillion times yesterday talking about a PETA story and other UGAesque stuff and it occurred to me -- should they offer a disclaimer?
Let me explain.
WUGA falls under the PR arm of UGA, answering to a vice president of marking or some such nonsense. The station covers the university. Should there be a disclaimer on a UGA story that tells its audience of this very conflict?
Yes, I think there should be one, a sentence at most.
Be honest with your audience. The stuff ran yesterday was all from the university's side, Morehead giving his position, and it was all happy news. Happy happy news. We're ranked in this, we're ranked in that. People love us, they really love us. Yeah, we kick academic ass, but the point remains -- the station owes its audience transparency about how it's an arm of UGA's public relations department. Perhaps the flacks take a hands-off approach. Yeah, up until the point something goes terribly wrong. Then it'll be hands on and all over the place, especially at UGA where the administration is trying to centralize every thing possible. There's a story there, by the way, but one not easy to get.
So now WUGA gets its turn. Who's up next?
For example, this week I had an exchange with The Red & Black over something as silly as a sports list (I was, of course, right) and I've often criticized Newsource, the student broadcast/web site (and I really should criticize this awful package that is inappropriate to the point of being offensive, but that's for another day. Watch it. You'll see, or rather hear). And I often pick on the Athens Banner-Herald/OnlineAthens so often there are too many links to include, most often about misuse of poll numbers.
But I've never mentioned our local NPR station, WUGA.
In full transparency, I've done a few radio shows on WUGA and had a great time doing it. And I'm not picking on one particular story, but they had UGA President Jere Morehead on a jillion times yesterday talking about a PETA story and other UGAesque stuff and it occurred to me -- should they offer a disclaimer?
Let me explain.
WUGA falls under the PR arm of UGA, answering to a vice president of marking or some such nonsense. The station covers the university. Should there be a disclaimer on a UGA story that tells its audience of this very conflict?
Yes, I think there should be one, a sentence at most.
Be honest with your audience. The stuff ran yesterday was all from the university's side, Morehead giving his position, and it was all happy news. Happy happy news. We're ranked in this, we're ranked in that. People love us, they really love us. Yeah, we kick academic ass, but the point remains -- the station owes its audience transparency about how it's an arm of UGA's public relations department. Perhaps the flacks take a hands-off approach. Yeah, up until the point something goes terribly wrong. Then it'll be hands on and all over the place, especially at UGA where the administration is trying to centralize every thing possible. There's a story there, by the way, but one not easy to get.
So now WUGA gets its turn. Who's up next?
Monday, September 21, 2015
#AskTrump
Some of my favorite tweets in the #AskTrump Twitter debacle today.
OK, I'll stop. Poor Trump had his hashtag taken over by people mocking him. Funny stuff.
#AskTrump Do you have any health problems we can pin our hopes on?
— Joe Nelson (@joe___nelson) September 21, 2015
#AskTrump You say the Bible is your favorite book. Do you have any other favorite books that you've never read?
— Frank Conniff (@FrankConniff) September 21, 2015
#AskTrump Is Jon Snow alive?
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) September 21, 2015
#asktrump If one train was leaving San Francisco at 8am & another was leaving NYC at 10am how long before you say s'thing racist?
— A M'fing Problem. (@thewayoftheid) September 21, 2015
OK, I'll stop. Poor Trump had his hashtag taken over by people mocking him. Funny stuff.
Are All Opinions Created Equal?
Update is at bottom of this post
The answer to the hed above is of course not. But I got into a very very minor disagreement with The Red & Black sports folks today when they posted their SEC power rankings, which has Georgia #1 and Ole Miss (which beat Bama, at Bama) as #4 (behind Bama?). I pointed in a tweet to a different SEC power rankings that also came out today, which has Ole Miss as #1, LSU #2, UGA #3. That makes sense to me, though I might squeeze UGA above LSU.
I pointed this out in a Twitter exchange seen below:
Of course they can.
I'm an expert in certain areas. I've published extensively on new media and politics, on how people learn from the media, and other areas such as the media's role in conspiracy theories. My opinion on these topicsmattert matters more than the opinion of the kid who sacks my groceries at Kroger, or even UGA undergraduates. Look at the list of people voting in that SEC Country poll, pros in the field, versus the sports staff at The R&B, which while good, aren't pros (yet). Ole Miss got 13 first place votes in the pro power ranking. UGA got 2.
I love The R&B and the students do a good job there, but to name UGA #1 is a mistake for two reasons. First, it's just wrong. I'm a UGA fan, but Ole Miss beats a damn good Bama team at Bama, UGA stomps a weak USC team in its own stadium. Look at how the Rebels jumped in national polls. Wow.
Second, in sports journalism you really want to avoid looking like a homer.
So no, not all opinions are created equal. Even in something as subjective as sports, which, if you read 538, you know sports can also be objective as you crank out the analyses.
UPDATE
The paper responded with its lead editorial to my post, which manages to both waste valuable journalistic real estate and fails to fairly represent the post above, a j-fail. I never said student journalists "don't belong" and said the R&B staff are good (read it above).
Nor does the editorial respond in a rigorous way to how wrong they were in their initial ranking, nor does it address the risk of being seen as a homer. After all, every other power ranking I could find, pro or otherwise, had Ole Miss #1. You're at UGA, you put UGA #1, and you don't get it? Still? Sigh.
All that said and in full transparency -- something apparently not valued everywhere -- I provide a screenshot of the article below in case you didn't see it this week in print. There's no online version I can find, at least not yet. I apologize for the quality of the screenshot. I also especially love the condescending art that manages to miss my beard. Not sure which one I'm supposed to be, but I guess the guy with the glasses. Or the other one, who looks Trumpesque. If you click on the art, it should be easier to read.
The answer to the hed above is of course not. But I got into a very very minor disagreement with The Red & Black sports folks today when they posted their SEC power rankings, which has Georgia #1 and Ole Miss (which beat Bama, at Bama) as #4 (behind Bama?). I pointed in a tweet to a different SEC power rankings that also came out today, which has Ole Miss as #1, LSU #2, UGA #3. That makes sense to me, though I might squeeze UGA above LSU.
I pointed this out in a Twitter exchange seen below:
@barryhollander It's pretty hard for our opinions to be any more or less accurate than other opinions. But thanks for reading anyway.
— Nick Suss (@nicksuss) September 21, 2015
So, can some opinions be more or less accurate than other opinions?Of course they can.
I'm an expert in certain areas. I've published extensively on new media and politics, on how people learn from the media, and other areas such as the media's role in conspiracy theories. My opinion on these topics
I love The R&B and the students do a good job there, but to name UGA #1 is a mistake for two reasons. First, it's just wrong. I'm a UGA fan, but Ole Miss beats a damn good Bama team at Bama, UGA stomps a weak USC team in its own stadium. Look at how the Rebels jumped in national polls. Wow.
Second, in sports journalism you really want to avoid looking like a homer.
So no, not all opinions are created equal. Even in something as subjective as sports, which, if you read 538, you know sports can also be objective as you crank out the analyses.
UPDATE
The paper responded with its lead editorial to my post, which manages to both waste valuable journalistic real estate and fails to fairly represent the post above, a j-fail. I never said student journalists "don't belong" and said the R&B staff are good (read it above).
Nor does the editorial respond in a rigorous way to how wrong they were in their initial ranking, nor does it address the risk of being seen as a homer. After all, every other power ranking I could find, pro or otherwise, had Ole Miss #1. You're at UGA, you put UGA #1, and you don't get it? Still? Sigh.
All that said and in full transparency -- something apparently not valued everywhere -- I provide a screenshot of the article below in case you didn't see it this week in print. There's no online version I can find, at least not yet. I apologize for the quality of the screenshot. I also especially love the condescending art that manages to miss my beard. Not sure which one I'm supposed to be, but I guess the guy with the glasses. Or the other one, who looks Trumpesque. If you click on the art, it should be easier to read.
UGA Parking Tickets
As I wrote about the other day, I've been messing around with parking tickets written on the UGA campus last academic year. I'm going to add a little more. Today, a long long list, ranking every lot on campus in how many tickets were written there. Scroll down, find your favorite lot, see how it ranks.
| Row Labels | Count of Location | Rank |
| E03A-RAMSEY CENTER LOT | 1480 | 1 |
| HSCA-Health Sciences Campus | 846 | 2 |
| E09A-RAMSEY / LOWER | 761 | 3 |
| W06D-LEGION POOL | 710 | 4 |
| E06A-E RIVER ROAD AREA | 643 | 5 |
| S07B-LIFE SCIENCES A (UPPER) | 614 | 6 |
| N08A-RAILROAD/ TRAINING | 592 | 7 |
| S10A-CARLTON ST | 589 | 8 |
| W01D-CHI PSI HOUSE | 588 | 9 |
| S05B-HARDMAN HALL | 582 | 10 |
| S04B-LIVESTOCK - POULTRY | 572 | 11 |
| E07A-NORTH RIVER ROAD AREA | 522 | 12 |
| S03C-RUTHERFORD HALL | 514 | 13 |
| W01F-Kappa Alpha | 510 | 14 |
| W03C-Upper Baxter St | 508 | 15 |
| S17B-DRIFTMIER ENG | 497 | 16 |
| W02B - North Hull | 415 | 17 |
| S14A-W. COLISEUM | 403 | 18 |
| W03D-Lower Baxter St | 378 | 19 |
| E12A-EAST CAMPUS RD | 324 | 20 |
| S03D-SANFORD DR | 318 | 21 |
| S08B-ADERHOLD CLINIC | 315 | 22 |
| N09F-PSYCHOLOGY CLINIC | 300 | 23 |
| S13C-ACADEMIC ACHIEV CTR. | 294 | 24 |
| N10A-REED HALL | 292 | 25 |
| N07B-BALDWIN HALL | 284 | 26 |
| S01D-FIELD STREET | 258 | 27 |
| S04C-BARROW ANNEX | 253 | 28 |
| W10A-UPPER RUSSELL | 248 | 29 |
| W11A-BOGGS HALL | 237 | 30 |
| S05A-E. BOYD GRAD STUDIES | 235 | 31 |
| S09C-LOWER FORESTRY | 228 | 32 |
| S13B-RUTHERFORD ST | 226 | 33 |
| N04H-TRIANGLE LOT | 222 | 34 |
| W07E-LOWER CRESWELL | 203 | 35 |
| S06A-OLD PHYSICAL PLANT | 196 | 36 |
| W02A-MORRIS HALL | 192 | 37 |
| N12A-O'Malleys | 181 | 38 |
| N07A-MAIN LIBRARY | 179 | 39 |
| W07F-CRESWELL CIRCLE | 165 | 40 |
| S16C-MCWHORTER HALL R UPPER | 165 | 40 |
| E11C-NORTH PVAC C | 151 | 42 |
| N09C-HOOPER ST | 150 | 43 |
| S01A-SANFORD CIRCLE | 150 | 43 |
| W05C-HULL STREET DECK | 149 | 45 |
| E11B-NORTH PVAC B | 143 | 46 |
| W07D-UPPER CRESWELL | 140 | 47 |
| VMCA-Vet Med Campus | 129 | 48 |
| W08C-BRUMBY HALL-LOWER | 128 | 49 |
| E06B-OUTSIDE DECK | 118 | 50 |
| E01B-GENERAL PARKING AREA | 114 | 51 |
| E02A-ANIMAL SCIENCES SW | 109 | 52 |
| E01A-INTRAMURAL FIELDS | 104 | 53 |
| E05A-EAST VILLAGE DECK | 97 | 54 |
| W03A-LOWER HULL ST | 96 | 55 |
| E22A-GREEK PARK | 94 | 56 |
| N06A-NORTH CAMPUS DECK | 82 | 57 |
| W08B-BRUMBY HALL-MAIN | 80 | 58 |
| W09A-WEST CAMPUS DECK | 80 | 58 |
| W12B-AUXILIARY SVCS | 80 | 58 |
| S15A-CARLTON ST DECK | 80 | 58 |
| E02C-ANIMAL SCIENCES EAST | 80 | 58 |
| W08A-CHURCH ST LOTS | 79 | 63 |
| N07E-FINE ARTS MILITARY | 77 | 64 |
| S01B-PHYSICS | 77 | 64 |
| N03A-THOMAS - OCONEE ST | 77 | 64 |
| E04A-EAST DECK | 76 | 67 |
| HSCC-Visitor Parking | 76 | 67 |
| S17C-VETERINARY MEDICINE | 75 | 69 |
| W07A-BRUMBY CIRCLE | 72 | 70 |
| E13D-CCRC | 68 | 71 |
| S05F-SNELLING REAR | 65 | 72 |
| E10D-FOUR TOWERS | 62 | 73 |
| S05E-UPPER PHARMACY | 60 | 74 |
| N01A-CHICOPEE BROAD | 60 | 74 |
| W11B-OGLETHORPE HOUSE | 60 | 74 |
| E21A-IM Deck | 56 | 77 |
| E06C-EVH LOADING ZONE | 54 | 78 |
| N03B-THOMAS ST ART | 53 | 79 |
| S04D-FOOD PROCESSING | 51 | 80 |
| E13A-RIVERBEND RESEARCH LABS | 51 | 80 |
| S16D-MCWHORTER HALL R LOWER | 51 | 80 |
| S13H-Dooley Plaza | 47 | 83 |
| E06X-NO PARKING AREA | 47 | 83 |
| S23A-ROGERS RD (M,N) | 45 | 85 |
| N07F-Baldwin Hall Small | 45 | 85 |
| N02B-MIDDLE OCONEE ST | 44 | 87 |
| W12E-O'HOUSE DINING | 44 | 87 |
| S13X-NO PARKING AREA | 43 | 89 |
| N04A-BUSINESS SVCS ANNEX | 43 | 89 |
| S11A-SOUTH CAMPUS DECK | 43 | 89 |
| S10B-MCPHAUL PARENT | 42 | 92 |
| N01E-CHICOPEE FIRST ST | 41 | 93 |
| W06E-HILL HALL | 41 | 93 |
| S24A-ROGERS RD (P-S) | 41 | 93 |
| S16E-Coverdell | 40 | 96 |
| W16B - Drawing & Painting Studio | 39 | 97 |
| S08A-ADERHOLD HALL | 39 | 97 |
| N02C-LOWER OCONEE ST | 38 | 99 |
| S07C-LIFE SCIENCES C (LOWER) | 38 | 99 |
| HSCB-Student Worker Lot | 37 | 101 |
| N04F-THORNTON BROTHERS | 37 | 101 |
| S20A-UNIVERSITY VILLAGE (A,B) | 36 | 103 |
| E10E-VISITORS CENTER | 36 | 103 |
| W16A - Enviromental Design | 36 | 103 |
| N10C-REED PIT | 35 | 106 |
| S19C-UNIVERSITY VILLAGE (H) | 34 | 107 |
| W01C-WRAY-NICHOLSON | 33 | 108 |
| S19E-UNIVERSITY VILLAGE (D) | 32 | 109 |
| W12D-FANNING INSTITUTE | 32 | 109 |
| W15A-1324 S. LUMPKIN | 32 | 109 |
| S12B-COOPERATIVE EXTENSION | 32 | 109 |
| S17X-NO PARKING AREA | 31 | 113 |
| S16B-MCWHORTER HALL (FRONT) | 30 | 114 |
| S04E-FOOD SCIENCES | 30 | 114 |
| S20B-UNIVERSITY VILLAGE (E) | 29 | 116 |
| W07G-BOLTON HALL | 28 | 117 |
| N09E-JOURNALISM SV | 28 | 117 |
| N04B-SPRING ST | 28 | 117 |
| E10A-HEALTH CENTER | 28 | 117 |
| S22A-BRANDON OAKS | 27 | 121 |
| N07C-W. LIBRARY (RUSK HALL) | 27 | 121 |
| S05X-NO PARKING AREA | 26 | 123 |
| E14A-AG TECH/ HORTICULTURE | 25 | 124 |
| N05B-N. HERTY CANDLER | 25 | 124 |
| E12X-NO PARKING AREA | 25 | 124 |
| S05G-HOME MGMT. CIRCLE | 24 | 127 |
| S12A-HOKE SMITH ANNEX | 24 | 127 |
| W06F-CHURCH HALL | 23 | 129 |
| W14A-LUCY COBB INST. | 22 | 130 |
| E10C-HEALTH CENTER PATIENT | 22 | 130 |
| S09B-CREAMERY (ENVIP HEALTH) | 20 | 132 |
| S07A-TUCKER HALL | 20 | 132 |
| W13F-Newton Street Paved | 20 | 132 |
| N03C-HODSON OIL | 20 | 132 |
| E12B-DELTA CHI (N. END) | 19 | 136 |
| E15A-RIVER'S CROSSING | 19 | 136 |
| S20C-UNIVERSITY VILLAGE (G) | 19 | 136 |
| E05X-NO PARKING AREA | 18 | 139 |
| W11D-CLOVERHURST | 18 | 139 |
| S04A-CONNER HALL | 18 | 139 |
| E10B-HEALTH CENTER ANNEX | 17 | 142 |
| N04X-NO PARKING AREA | 17 | 142 |
| S01C-CHEMISTRY | 17 | 142 |
| E09X-NO PARKING AREA | 16 | 145 |
| S19D-UNIVERSITY VILLAGE (C) | 16 | 145 |
| W03B-LOWER HULL ST EAST | 15 | 147 |
| N05A-HUNTER - HOLMES | 14 | 148 |
| N05X-NO PARKING AREA | 13 | 149 |
| W11E-E. Cloverhurst & University | 13 | 149 |
| E01C-TENNIS COURT | 12 | 151 |
| E03X-NO PARKING AREA | 12 | 151 |
| W13B-NEWTON STREET PAVED | 12 | 151 |
| W13G-NEWTON STREET GRAVEL | 12 | 151 |
| E11X-NO PARKING AREA | 11 | 155 |
| E20A-PAC DECK | 11 | 155 |
| S03A-N. BOYD GRAD | 10 | 157 |
| N10X-NO PARKING AREA | 10 | 157 |
| E14B-Greenhouses | 10 | 157 |
| FML-Steam Plant | 9 | 160 |
| N01B-CHICOPEE UTILITIES | 8 | 161 |
| N07X-NO PARKING AREA | 8 | 161 |
| N01C-CHICOPEE HERMAN ST | 8 | 161 |
| E13E-CCRC Wooded Lot | 8 | 161 |
| S17D-VET SMALL ANIMAL CLINIC | 8 | 161 |
| N05E-Dean Rusk | 8 | 161 |
| N06X-NO PARKING AREA | 7 | 167 |
| E13C-CAMPUS MAIL/ ENV. SAFETY | 6 | 168 |
| S14X-NO PARKING AREA | 6 | 168 |
| S21A-FAMILY HOUSING OFFICE | 6 | 168 |
| S13A-BUTTS-MEHRE | 6 | 168 |
| E11K-Ceramics | 6 | 168 |
| S18C-UNIVERSITY VILLAGE (J) | 6 | 168 |
| S01E-CHEMISTRY STOCKROOM | 6 | 168 |
| E13B-CENTRAL FOOD STORAGE | 5 | 175 |
| W01B-PAINTING STUDIOS | 5 | 175 |
| E08X-NO PARKING AREA | 5 | 175 |
| S04X-NO PARKING AREA | 5 | 175 |
| S18E-UNIVERSITY VILLAGE (L) | 5 | 175 |
| N09X-NO PARKING AREA | 5 | 175 |
| S08X-NO PARKING AREA | 4 | 181 |
| N09A-PSYCHOLOGY | 4 | 181 |
| S03B-DAWSON HALL | 4 | 181 |
| S18D-UNIVERSITY VILLAGE (K) | 4 | 181 |
| S05C-OFFICE MACHINE MAINT. | 4 | 181 |
| N11B-TATE PAY LOT | 4 | 181 |
| E02X-NO PARKING AREA | 4 | 181 |
| W06A-MELL HALL | 4 | 181 |
| S01X-NO PARKING AREA | 4 | 181 |
| N09D-MEMORIAL HALL SV | 3 | 190 |
| S16X-NO PARKING AREA | 3 | 190 |
| E14C-Botany | 3 | 190 |
| S09X-NO PARKING AREA | 3 | 190 |
| N04C-HUMAN RESOURCES | 3 | 190 |
| E05B-OUTSIDE EAST VILLAGE | 3 | 190 |
| W15X-NO PARKING AREA | 3 | 190 |
| N11A-TATE CENTER LOT | 3 | 190 |
| E07X-NO PARKING AREA | 2 | 198 |
| S25A-Carlton Street | 2 | 198 |
| S03X-NO PARKING AREA | 2 | 198 |
| S05D-GRAD STUD SV/ LOAD DOCK | 2 | 198 |
| HSCD-MC/SC Parking | 2 | 198 |
| E10F-HEALTH CENTER LOADING | 2 | 198 |
| S09A-LOWER PHARMACY | 2 | 198 |
| W01A-INT. DESIGN STUDIOS | 2 | 198 |
| E04X-NO PARKING AREA | 2 | 198 |
| S07E-FORESTRY -REAR | 1 | 207 |
| N05D-LOWER BROOKS | 1 | 207 |
| S13F-BUTTS MEHERE VISITORS | 1 | 207 |
| S18X-NO PARKING AREA | 1 | 207 |
| W03X-NO PARKING AREA | 1 | 207 |
| W07B-RUSSELL HALL VISITOR | 1 | 207 |
| S07D-ECOLOGY | 1 | 207 |
| N03X-NO PARKING AREA | 1 | 207 |
| S13E-COLISEUM | 1 | 207 |
| S19X-NO PARKING AREA | 1 | 207 |
| S12X-NO PARKING AREA | 1 | 207 |
| N08B-E CAMPUS/ HOOPER ST | 1 | 207 |
| N04E-ADMIN BUILDING | 1 | 207 |
| S12C-SMITH ST SV | 1 | 207 |
| S09E-PLANT SCIENCES SV | 1 | 207 |
| W10X-NO PARKING AREA | 1 | 207 |
| S11B-GA CENTER - REAR | 1 | 207 |
| S11X-NO PARKING AREA | 1 | 207 |
| S04F-Chemistry MC | 1 | 207 |
| Grand Total | 23029 | #N/A |
Sunday, September 20, 2015
UGA Admins and Twitter
While playing around Saturday with who follows The Donald on Twitter, I got to wondering about various University of Georgia administrators (where I work) and their Twitter use. Let's take a brief look.
President Jere Morehead. The most likely Twitter account for the prez is this one below, @JereMorehead, but it's a protected account, which seems odd for the president of a public university. Really?
OK, how about the provost, Pamela Whitten, who comes originally from a communications college. She'll be a bit more of the modern social media world, right? There are a lot of folks by that name. I'm fairly certain she's not @Pamsmiles ("Share kindness, help someone find their smile"). Little about the provost makes folks at UGA smile. There is this one, again protected (really? and 1 whole tweet?).
I could go through all the other UGA vice presidents but let's face it, every year there are more and more of them. Some are actually active on Twitter. Good for them.Let's go back to President Morehead. A good guy, have kinda sorta known him for a long time here at UGA (coming up on my 25th year here). Is this really his account? I did find this tweet at his account.
President Jere Morehead. The most likely Twitter account for the prez is this one below, @JereMorehead, but it's a protected account, which seems odd for the president of a public university. Really?
OK, how about the provost, Pamela Whitten, who comes originally from a communications college. She'll be a bit more of the modern social media world, right? There are a lot of folks by that name. I'm fairly certain she's not @Pamsmiles ("Share kindness, help someone find their smile"). Little about the provost makes folks at UGA smile. There is this one, again protected (really? and 1 whole tweet?).
I could go through all the other UGA vice presidents but let's face it, every year there are more and more of them. Some are actually active on Twitter. Good for them.Let's go back to President Morehead. A good guy, have kinda sorta known him for a long time here at UGA (coming up on my 25th year here). Is this really his account? I did find this tweet at his account.
@JereMorehead "We're turning out alumni who are doctors, teachers.. ENGINEERS." Did you hear that @GaTechEngineers? @UGAEngineering #UGATL
— UGA Alumni Atlanta (@UGAAlumniATL) July 27, 2015
Would the UGA alumns in Atlanta know this is his account? Maybe, maybe not. Could simply be a guess. Three students (it seems) also tweeted at this account since 2014. My own guess is the admin creates these accounts and they lie dormant just so someone can't create a parody account. That's PR 101 -- protect the boss at all costs.Saturday, September 19, 2015
Trump & Twitter
Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump) uses Twitter more than most candidates. Just today he used it to defend his lack of a defense of Obama by the crazy guy at a rally who said Obama is Muslim and not American. For example:
Mostly, he follows himself.
Sixteen of those he follows begins with "Trump," as in Trump Golf Links or Trump Intl Reality. None of these have anywhere near the followers of The Donald. Who else does he follow? Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump and Melania Trump, as well as some folks who run some of his properties. Seeing a trend here? Incestuous Twitter following. Also he follows folks on, yes believe it or not given recent spats, Fox News. None of these are Megyn Kelly. Instead he follows Bill O'Reilly, Bret Baier, Geraldo Rivera (really?), Greta Van Susteren, Eric Bolling, and that God-awful morning show, Fox & Friends.
On MSNBC, he follows Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Best I can tell, he follows no actual working journalists (as opposed to TV talking heads). And he follows no one from CNN (or BBC, or NPR, etc.).
Weird Follows include Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Magic Johnson of basketball fame, and Vince McMahon, the pro (sic) wrestling guru.
If someone made a nasty or controversial statement about me to the president, do you really think he would come to my rescue? No chance!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2015
So Trump has 4.21 million followers. He follows -- 42. Who are these precious 42 folks that The Donald deigns to follow?Mostly, he follows himself.
Sixteen of those he follows begins with "Trump," as in Trump Golf Links or Trump Intl Reality. None of these have anywhere near the followers of The Donald. Who else does he follow? Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump and Melania Trump, as well as some folks who run some of his properties. Seeing a trend here? Incestuous Twitter following. Also he follows folks on, yes believe it or not given recent spats, Fox News. None of these are Megyn Kelly. Instead he follows Bill O'Reilly, Bret Baier, Geraldo Rivera (really?), Greta Van Susteren, Eric Bolling, and that God-awful morning show, Fox & Friends.
On MSNBC, he follows Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. Best I can tell, he follows no actual working journalists (as opposed to TV talking heads). And he follows no one from CNN (or BBC, or NPR, etc.).
Weird Follows include Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Magic Johnson of basketball fame, and Vince McMahon, the pro (sic) wrestling guru.
Friday, September 18, 2015
Who Won? More Info Out
There were some post-GOP-debate crap polls (one had Trump winning. Really?), and now we're sseeing a semi-crap poll emerge to tell us what we already know -- Carly Fiorina did damn well in the marathon CNN debate. The One America/Gravis poll results are below. Comment follows.
I think even the most casual of viewers agree Fiorina "won" the debate. She had the most to gain, after all, given her modest standing, and Trump had the most to lose given his lead in general and state-specific polls. Oddly, this is a robo-poll (they generally suck, stick only to landlines), and was weighted by gender but apparently nothing else. Again, odd to weight only on that.
So, does a debate matter? See the graphic below.
Yes, Fiorina ties Trump in the "who ya for?" question. Fascinating. Will it stick? I'm betting no, not when her time at Hewlett-Packard is truly exposed for what it was. But it makes for a fun time now, so let's go with it. Plus it's been my theory all along that she'll make a good VP candidate whose sole job is to bulldog Hillary Clinton throughout a general election campaign.
We're still waiting for a quality gold-standard poll (calls to landline AND cell phones, by humans and not SkyNet) to come out and clarify matters.
I think even the most casual of viewers agree Fiorina "won" the debate. She had the most to gain, after all, given her modest standing, and Trump had the most to lose given his lead in general and state-specific polls. Oddly, this is a robo-poll (they generally suck, stick only to landlines), and was weighted by gender but apparently nothing else. Again, odd to weight only on that.
So, does a debate matter? See the graphic below.
Yes, Fiorina ties Trump in the "who ya for?" question. Fascinating. Will it stick? I'm betting no, not when her time at Hewlett-Packard is truly exposed for what it was. But it makes for a fun time now, so let's go with it. Plus it's been my theory all along that she'll make a good VP candidate whose sole job is to bulldog Hillary Clinton throughout a general election campaign.
We're still waiting for a quality gold-standard poll (calls to landline AND cell phones, by humans and not SkyNet) to come out and clarify matters.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
SLOPs, R&B Style
A local bar raised its entry age to 25 (on certain nights), which rightly infuriates students who coincidentally happen to be under the age of 25. I get that. The Red & Black has reported this and had this column criticizing the move. I don't really care, but included in the column is a question asking "Do you agree with Our Take?"
In other words, an online poll. Or what we in the public opinion biz call a SLOP, a self-selected opinion poll -- which is OK, if labeled as non-scientific and not taken seriously. Here are the results.
So "I don't care" is ahead. I'm proud of the apathy demonstrated here. But what's missing? Can you guess? How many people participated. I voted twice and pushed the results from 37.8 to 39.1 percent for "I don't care." That means there are damn few respondents and a few votes can seriously swing the results.
In other words, an online poll. Or what we in the public opinion biz call a SLOP, a self-selected opinion poll -- which is OK, if labeled as non-scientific and not taken seriously. Here are the results.
So "I don't care" is ahead. I'm proud of the apathy demonstrated here. But what's missing? Can you guess? How many people participated. I voted twice and pushed the results from 37.8 to 39.1 percent for "I don't care." That means there are damn few respondents and a few votes can seriously swing the results.
UGA Parking Tickets
Every year I ask UGA for certain data to use as examples in my journalism classes or to let students manipulate in classes -- because it's much more interesting to learn data analysis on stuff you care about. Today we discuss my favorite -- parking tickets.
Today I received data on all the parking tickets written last academic year at UGA (Fall 2015-Spring 2016).
Backstory: I started asking for these data years ago when I noticed someone getting a parking ticket outside of journalism. They had a little box in which they were entering data, and when done out would spit the ticket for the windshield. Aha, I thought. If it's electronic, it's data. I can get that. So I asked.
Back to the present: I'm gonna toss at you a few basic results, some quick-and-dirty analyses. When I have more time I'll have to clean some data to make more useful. For example, UGA gives me the date and time of a ticket all in one cell. I have to break that up and get it into an AM vs PM designation. Takes a while for me to remember exactly how to do that.
There were 23,029 tickets written last academic year. Here are the Top 5 Lots, with number of tickets in parentheses.
1. E03A - Ramsey Center Lot (1,480)
2. HSCA - Health Sciences Campus (846)
3. E09A - Ramsey/Lower (761)
4. W06D - Legion Pool (710)
5. E06A - E. River Road Area (643)
A couple of comments on the list above. First, Ramsey always is #1 in terms of tickets written. No UGA student would be surprised by this. Second, the Health Sciences Campus is a new addition, both in it being new to our campus, but also so high in number of tickets written. Interesting.
The most popular ticket is for "no parking permit," nearly half of all tickets written. Slackers. The second most popular ticket is for "out of zone/region," meaning you're parking where you're not supposed to park (6,726 tickets). My favorite is "multiple vehicles parked (4 tix), which I assume means people squeezed more than one car into a slot.
Black cars get the most tickets (5,154), followed by white cars (3,881). What does that mean? Nothing at all, since it probably reflects the proportion of cars on campus that are those colors. But -- this is important -- pink cars got only two tickets. So clearly the drivers of pink cars (1) are color blind and (2) are safe parkers. The same is true if you look at make of the cars (Ford, etc.). It'll be in proportion of the kinds of cars on campus in the first place (by the way, Honda is #1 for tickets, Ford #2. Something called a Bashan got six tickets). I can also report that trailers got two tickets. Weird.
When I have more time, I'll do a more finely tuned analysis.
Update
Fixed one problem, can add some data. Turns out, most tickets are written in the mornings (59.6 percent) than afternoons. I actually expected it to be the other way, especially given evenings around Ramsey.
Today I received data on all the parking tickets written last academic year at UGA (Fall 2015-Spring 2016).
Backstory: I started asking for these data years ago when I noticed someone getting a parking ticket outside of journalism. They had a little box in which they were entering data, and when done out would spit the ticket for the windshield. Aha, I thought. If it's electronic, it's data. I can get that. So I asked.
Back to the present: I'm gonna toss at you a few basic results, some quick-and-dirty analyses. When I have more time I'll have to clean some data to make more useful. For example, UGA gives me the date and time of a ticket all in one cell. I have to break that up and get it into an AM vs PM designation. Takes a while for me to remember exactly how to do that.
There were 23,029 tickets written last academic year. Here are the Top 5 Lots, with number of tickets in parentheses.
1. E03A - Ramsey Center Lot (1,480)
2. HSCA - Health Sciences Campus (846)
3. E09A - Ramsey/Lower (761)
4. W06D - Legion Pool (710)
5. E06A - E. River Road Area (643)
A couple of comments on the list above. First, Ramsey always is #1 in terms of tickets written. No UGA student would be surprised by this. Second, the Health Sciences Campus is a new addition, both in it being new to our campus, but also so high in number of tickets written. Interesting.
The most popular ticket is for "no parking permit," nearly half of all tickets written. Slackers. The second most popular ticket is for "out of zone/region," meaning you're parking where you're not supposed to park (6,726 tickets). My favorite is "multiple vehicles parked (4 tix), which I assume means people squeezed more than one car into a slot.
Black cars get the most tickets (5,154), followed by white cars (3,881). What does that mean? Nothing at all, since it probably reflects the proportion of cars on campus that are those colors. But -- this is important -- pink cars got only two tickets. So clearly the drivers of pink cars (1) are color blind and (2) are safe parkers. The same is true if you look at make of the cars (Ford, etc.). It'll be in proportion of the kinds of cars on campus in the first place (by the way, Honda is #1 for tickets, Ford #2. Something called a Bashan got six tickets). I can also report that trailers got two tickets. Weird.
When I have more time, I'll do a more finely tuned analysis.
Update
Fixed one problem, can add some data. Turns out, most tickets are written in the mornings (59.6 percent) than afternoons. I actually expected it to be the other way, especially given evenings around Ramsey.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
UGA's University "Council"
I'm in the middle of a 3-year stint in hell, better known as the University Council. Now you might think this is a legislative body that acts as a check and balance on the administration. If so, you'd be wrong.
Think out it -- the Council is run by ... the UGA president. You want even fewer checks and balances? See below:
Who has the most representation? It makes sense, given the sizes of the colleges. The top ones are:
1. Franklin (42)
2. CAES (15)
3. Education (12)
4. Vet Med (10
5. Staff Council (8)
6. Biz School (8)
7. Office of public service (wtf?) 8
8. Office of academic affairs (wtf again), 6
9. Student reps of Franklin (6)
10. Family and Consumer Science (5)
Think out it -- the Council is run by ... the UGA president. You want even fewer checks and balances? See below:
For the 2014-2015 term, the Council currently is comprised of 214 members, 153 of which are faculty representing the various schools, colleges, and administrative units, 8 representing Staff Council, 19 who are student representatives, and 34 who are serving in an ex-officio capacity. Each meeting is run by the President of the University of Georgia, who acts as President of the University Council. Assisting the President during each meeting is the Chair of the University Council Executive Committee, the Registrar, who serves as Secretary to the Council, and the Parliamentarian, who provides guidance on the rules of order for meetings.So while 7-out-of-10 members are faculty, we have 34 administrative types on the council (I originally wrote lackeys and decided that was too harsh). And believe me, they always come, and they always vote as one. Faculty don't always come. They have work to do. I count seven members from the office of academic affairs and eight members from the office of public service and outreach. Really? Why? Of course deans and our many vice presidents are ex-officio members (yes, they can vote, too).
Who has the most representation? It makes sense, given the sizes of the colleges. The top ones are:
1. Franklin (42)
2. CAES (15)
3. Education (12)
4. Vet Med (10
5. Staff Council (8)
6. Biz School (8)
7. Office of public service (wtf?) 8
8. Office of academic affairs (wtf again), 6
9. Student reps of Franklin (6)
10. Family and Consumer Science (5)
Monday, September 14, 2015
Stats I Hate
There are some journalistic tendencies and imprecisions I despise. Here's one of my top pet peeves:
I understand it's an average of the number attempts in a year, down to the minute and second. But still I hate it. It's misleading. I suspect more suicides happen at certain times of the day as compared to others. Evenings, for example, as compared to mid-morning. In other words, there may be a whole hour of the day in which no one attempts to commit suicide. So it's not every 38 seconds.
End rant.
Every year, 864,950 people attempt suicide, which means 1 person attempts suicide every 38 seconds.This suggests someone is staring at a clock and waiting for the 38-second mark so they can attempt suicide. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and bet not.
I understand it's an average of the number attempts in a year, down to the minute and second. But still I hate it. It's misleading. I suspect more suicides happen at certain times of the day as compared to others. Evenings, for example, as compared to mid-morning. In other words, there may be a whole hour of the day in which no one attempts to commit suicide. So it's not every 38 seconds.
End rant.
SEC East vs West, via Obama
As you may know, the Obama Administration released it's scorecard of all colleges and universities. Me being me, I decided to once again put the SEC East vs West via the scorecard and see how they stack up. Below are Cost, Graduation Rate, and Salary of Graduates. I've ordered the list by Salary for each division. No surprise that Vandy leads the East, nor that A&M leads the West.
The average salary for East schools is $47,229. The average for the West is $44,343. This looks a lot like the academic comparison I did of East and West schools the other day, in which the Mississippi schools kill the West and Vandy props up the East. Take Vandy out of the East and the average salary of a graduate is basically the same, $44,950 in East, $44,343 in West.
If interested, you can deep dive the UGA stats here.
UPDATE
I looked up my alma mater, the University of North Alabama (sometimes known as TUNA, and yes we once tried to rename the school paper -- without success -- the TUNA wrapper) and I'm happy to report my salary beats the average. Go Lions.
Also, I computed "bang for the buck" numbers for the SEC data above. In other words, the cost as compared to the salary. The best is Texas A&M, followed by UF, then LSU and UGA.
| Cost | GradRate | Salary | |
| SEC EAST | |||
| Vandy | 17,340 | 92% | 60,900 |
| UF | 12,582 | 86% | 51,300 |
| UGA | 11,990 | 83% | 46,500 |
| Mizzouri | 16,940 | 70% | 46,000 |
| Tenn | 14,162 | 67% | 42,300 |
| USC | 16,523 | 73% | 42,100 |
| Kentucky | 14,333 | 60% | 41,500 |
| SEC WEST | |||
| Texas A&M | 10,912 | 79% | 52,900 |
| LSU | 11,610 | 68% | 45,900 |
| Auburn | 17,541 | 68% | 45,400 |
| Arkansas | 11,861 | 60% | 43,600 |
| Alabama | 20,916 | 67% | 42,400 |
| Ole Miss | 13,858 | 58% | 40,600 |
| Miss State | 15,983 | 60% | 39,600 |
The average salary for East schools is $47,229. The average for the West is $44,343. This looks a lot like the academic comparison I did of East and West schools the other day, in which the Mississippi schools kill the West and Vandy props up the East. Take Vandy out of the East and the average salary of a graduate is basically the same, $44,950 in East, $44,343 in West.
If interested, you can deep dive the UGA stats here.
UPDATE
I looked up my alma mater, the University of North Alabama (sometimes known as TUNA, and yes we once tried to rename the school paper -- without success -- the TUNA wrapper) and I'm happy to report my salary beats the average. Go Lions.
Also, I computed "bang for the buck" numbers for the SEC data above. In other words, the cost as compared to the salary. The best is Texas A&M, followed by UF, then LSU and UGA.
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