Update (2/10): The marketing signage is going back up around the construction site. Hooray!
Sorry, but this one is just too juicy to miss. During the deconstruction of the parking deck east of Faner a fence set up to keep folks out of harm's way was decorated with new marketing materials. "Know No Bounds" and the like, with pictures of earnest but happy students eagerly engaged in research with inspiring professors. Or at least attractive people posing as such. I don't know about you, but I certainly found it inspirational.
Alas, the banners that covered the chain link fence do not seem to have been designed with wind in mind; they did not have those little vents built into them, as more sensible banners do. Hence, during the rough weather we've had the last couple of days they appeared, according to my informant, to be threatening to tear up the fence by acting as giant sails. Certainly the banners are now down, leaving a clear view through the chain link fence of the ruin that was the parking deck, an area cleared in order to make way for the new $34.5 million Student Services Building. According to my sources, the cost for the now discarded banners was a mere $40,000. Just a drop in the bucket.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
22 comments:
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On Monday afternoon, workers rolled the banners neatly onto the back of a truck. Maybe the banners are not discarded but could reappear after some time with a cutting tool.
ReplyDeleteThose banners were so tacky. Another colossal waste of money.
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to think Tony doesn't like ANYTHING. Poor guy.
ReplyDeleteHeart attach is in favor of those people who don't like anything. Your personal health is more important than anything else. Attitude will seriously affect one's health. However, it is difficult to teach an old dog new tricks.
ReplyDelete"According to my sources, the cost for the now discarded banners was a mere $40,000."
ReplyDeleteAre those the same sources who contend the logo cost $1 million?
Might be time to get new sources.
The official source didn't give a straight answer to the question.
DeleteAccording to the Daily Egyptian:
"While Cheng said she did not have the exact cost of the wrap, she said it was significant because the construction site has to be secured. The graphics displaying information about the university on the maroon and white banner, Cheng said, cost the university about $100 more than a wrap with stock photographs would."
It's true my sources are hearsay. Do you have better ones with a more accurate figure? It's also true that the banners may be reused. But it's clearly also true that whoever set them up didn't have the relevant expertise to design things to survive out in the wind, and didn't think of consulting anyone with that expertise. And here I was thinking we had an ad firm from the windy city.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, it's the symbolism that matters: banners promoting how undergraduates can work with top flight researchers are posted by folks who didn't know how to make a fence. The attention was given to appearances rather than reality. This is a relatively trivial example--the kind of mistake that even a good organization could make, but arguably endemic here. The shiny new library with unfinished floors, and far fewer books and librarians, and the agriculture building rehab (which I've been told emphasized hallway appearances rather than making classrooms more effective) are more substantive examples, if of course also more complex one that people, some of them even reasonable people, can disagree about.
Ok Dave. We get it. You're a guy who's main mission in life, it seems, is to find fault with all things SIU. My guess is that if they hadn't put up the banner, you'd be complaining about the unsightlyness of the construction project and it's effect on recruitment.
ReplyDeleteIn the future please let us know if the information you post is hearsay or solid fact. Your statement about the Ag Building needs some clarification. You and Glenn Beck seem to be cut from the same cloth in this regard.
BTW, the fence is fine.
Peevishness doesn't get us anywhere toward creating a better, more inclusive university. Right now, there are serious criticisms to be made of the top-down, little-to-no-consultation with faculty approach of the administration in making decisions, even about tiny little things like glossy banners hiding the demolition of the former Faner parking garage!
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Carl Schurz, Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of the Interior: "My SIUC, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; if wrong, to be set right." You would think that in the Land of Lincoln we could all use to embrace a bit more this wise saying from his Secretary of the Interior rather than getting peevish about criticism.
Just saying...
I think the issue here is that Dave and his cronies love to criticize the work of others here at the University and tear down SIU in general, but refuse to accept any crticisim of their own work. No, we can't even begin to scrutinize the FA...they have tenure rights, they claim academic freedom, they simply cannot be challenged. They went on strike in order to get a contract that gives them better job security that supreme court justices. So where do they get the expertise to tell us that everyone else is doing it wrong, that the rest of us don't know what we're doing....that only the faculty knows the right way? Rant off.
ReplyDelete"Went on strike in order to get a contract that gives them better job security than supreme court justices."
ReplyDeleteWoah! You clearly do not understand the professional norms of higher education when you make a statement such as this. No, several members of the FA went on strike last fall in order to secure AAUP guidelines for what Financial Exigency is and when and how it can be declared. There is nothing extreme in what is common practice throughout academia. What WAS extreme was the administration's attempt to erode these protections.
Dave's cronies . . . Hey, why didn't I think of that? I could really use some cronies. Anyone interested? Send me your name and contact information, plus $20 shipping & handling, and I'll tell you all about the secret handshake.
ReplyDeleteSome FA members don't want to think and don't want to reason, but just bark on everything. So, if the FA leaders become the top Admins, then will be everything getting better? If yes, please go ahead to apply the job!
ReplyDeleteFA won't get respected if their leaders continue to doing their business as usual.
Could you rephrase this in normal English? Thanks, it simply doesn't make any sense.
DeleteLosers complain, winners adapt.
ReplyDeleteWinners criticize to change things for the better; losers adapt by groveling at the feet of higher administrators and becoming little better than submissive bootlickers.
ReplyDeleteWell, Dave, a smart response. But you didn't really get to the question.
ReplyDeleteThey probably took the banners away in order to attach hooks to them, or whatever, so that they can be affixed more securely to the wire fence. So watch out for the forthcoming movie: THE RETURN OF THE BANNERS!!!
ReplyDeleteCalling all anti-union Anon. bloggers. The Archie Bunker Society is now seeking members. No fees involved, only the requirement of leaving your brains at the door and grovelling in submission at the feet of higher administrators.
ReplyDeleteI hope they bring the banners back after fixing them -- Like the other ones about, I liked them and believe that they were well done (I agree it would be a shame and waste of money if they're gone for good).
ReplyDeleteP.S. To Dave, yes, I believe all "students" pictured are/were SIUC students... At least, two of them were students of mine, I know a third, and recognized a fourth...
$40,000: More than my annual SIU salary. Rah Rah!
ReplyDeleteI haven't visited here much since the strike ramped up DV's site ranking. However, one day as I walked past the banner, I imagined to myself: "they are probably bitching about this on Deo Volente."
ReplyDeleteAnd so it is.