If you had a wish list for AD JB what would it be?

HurricaneJacket

HurricaneJacket

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It's the off-season, so time to make a wishlist for J. Batt to pursue once he finishes the monumental task of setting up our NIL infrastructure.

For me, the wish list is as follows.

1. Build a small donor program that allows for small recurring donations (simillar to the Tech Way on the NIL side).

2. Develop a program to drive student (and eventually alumni) engagement for all sports (including women's sports other than volleyball)

3. Establish new programs. Based on it's current popularity within the city or on campus I would suggest soccer and lacrosse as good places to start.
 

SOWEGA Jacket

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#2 is not an option with the way admissions are going. The powers to be are not interested in building a future alumni or fan base. Decades of GT families are being cut off at the knees so we can admit the world. And we see the results in lack of alumni support right now. GT is reaping what they sowed thru stupid decisions. If GT were private it wouldn’t be an issue, but I can’t think of another state school that goes out of its way to alienate its taxpayers more than GT. We should just change our name to “Institute of Technology” at this point.
 
leatherneckjacket

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SOWEGA Jacket said:
#2 is not an option with the way admissions are going. The powers to be are not interested in building a future alumni or fan base. Decades of GT families are being cut off at the knees so we can admit the world. And we see the results in lack of alumni support right now. GT is reaping what they sowed thru stupid decisions. If GT were private it wouldn’t be an issue, but I can’t think of another state school that goes out of its way to alienate its taxpayers more than GT. We should just change our name to “Institute of Technology” at this point.
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My sister, who is GT grad and colonel in the Army, has a daughter who scored 1510 on the SAT, has a near perfect GPA, is taking five AP classes, and has multiple after school activities including being goalie for her high school soccer team, but still did not get into tech. She was accepted at every other school to which she applied. It is baffling to me how she did not get in.
 
AUFC

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SOWEGA Jacket said:
#2 is not an option with the way admissions are going. The powers to be are not interested in building a future alumni or fan base. Decades of GT families are being cut off at the knees so we can admit the world. And we see the results in lack of alumni support right now. GT is reaping what they sowed thru stupid decisions. If GT were private it wouldn’t be an issue, but I can’t think of another state school that goes out of its way to alienate its taxpayers more than GT. We should just change our name to “Institute of Technology” at this point.
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#2 can be fixed through incentives. Pastner packed those early tenure NIT games just by promising students a bunch of free Krispy Kreme donuts at the entrance. College students love free ****, it could be an item valued at $0.99 for all they care. Legacies have a 15% higher admit rate and 60% of students are GA residents. I don’t know who in the command chain you take that up with if you think that number should be higher.

I agree with OP that Batt needs to incentivize more student engagement. I feel like the first thing I always hear people comment on about their first ATLUTD game is the environment and chanting. I think the most engaged I’ve been at a college basketball game this season was for a home team I don’t even follow - it was just such an intoxicating energy you got lost in. You can sell a lot of tickets and build a loyal fanbase if the games are experiences like that.
 
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stinger 1957

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A clear and easy path to raising all the funds needed to build everything needed for gtfb(it funds everything else) as well as paying off all our debt and including what is needed to rebuild bds for the longterm future and needs for other existing sports. I have to disagree about adding any additional sports since fb finances everything else. I would think designing bds for adding soccer later would be a good idea.
 

g0lftime

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Offer out of town fans some sort of package that would include one or two nights at the GT hotel and tickets to a game, preferably football. At the same time schedule another on campus sports event, e.g. volleyball, MBB WBB , whatever occurs over the same weekend. Could all be inclusive .
Add some sort of chair back to FB seats. Duke has full seats. UNC has a back rail behind the bench seats. We should be able to do something.
Create a food/beer garden area or terrace with some standup tables . A lot of fans like to stand anyway.
 
BuzzStone

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g0lftime said:
Offer out of town fans some sort of package that would include one or two nights at the GT hotel and tickets to a game, preferably football. At the same time schedule another on campus sports event, e.g. volleyball, MBB WBB , whatever occurs over the same weekend. Could all be inclusive .
Add some sort of chair back to FB seats. Duke has full seats. UNC has a back rail behind the bench seats. We should be able to do something.
Create a food/beer garden area or terrace with some standup tables . A lot of fans like to stand anyway.
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As an out of town fan this is a very appealing idea.
 
MWT89

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leatherneckjacket said:
My sister, who is GT grad and colonel in the Army, has a daughter who scored 1510 on the SAT, has a near perfect GPA, is taking five AP classes, and has multiple after school activities including being goalie for her high school soccer team, but still did not get into tech. She was accepted at every other school to which she applied. It is baffling to me how she did not get in.
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I'm very familiar with the "high achieving child of an alum not getting accepted" problem - it's a very definite pattern.

Tech offers the Conditional Pathway Transfer option for alumni kids which guarantees admission for sophomore year provided they meet certain requirements regarding classes and grades. For these smart kids, it's as good as a lock as you can get.

I wonder if many alumni kids are rejected simply because Tech admissions knows they have an almost 100% guarantee of admission in the following year. Consequently, Tech can get the demographics they desire in the published freshman admissions class.
 

Jim Prather

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MWT89 said:
I'm very familiar with the "high achieving child of an alum not getting accepted" problem - it's a very definite pattern.

Tech offers the Conditional Pathway Transfer option for alumni kids which guarantees admission for sophomore year provided they meet certain requirements regarding classes and grades. For these smart kids, it's as good as a lock as you can get.

I wonder if many alumni kids are rejected simply because Tech admissions knows they have an almost 100% guarantee of admission in the following year. Consequently, Tech can get the demographics they desire in the published freshman admissions class.
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From what I learned when my nephew applied, your last sentence pretty much hits the nail on the head.
 

SOWEGA Jacket

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MWT89 said:
I'm very familiar with the "high achieving child of an alum not getting accepted" problem - it's a very definite pattern.

Tech offers the Conditional Pathway Transfer option for alumni kids which guarantees admission for sophomore year provided they meet certain requirements regarding classes and grades. For these smart kids, it's as good as a lock as you can get.

I wonder if many alumni kids are rejected simply because Tech admissions knows they have an almost 100% guarantee of admission in the following year. Consequently, Tech can get the demographics they desire in the published freshman admissions class.
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This is obviously true but GT just won’t say it. They should say it if that’s the practice and explain it so 18 year old students understand that they aren’t being rejected by the team they grew up cheering on but instead are being asked to redshirt. Right now, the message is - we will take your taxes, your grandparents and parents donations, your ticket and merchandise money, but we’d rather give a spot to a kid from New Jersey who has never spent a dime on GT over you (assuming SAT/GPA/other are equal). That‘s what the citizens of this state hear and not only do the kids become resentful but GT loses the donations from the previous generations. Can anyone give an example of another state/public school that does this to their taxpayers?

And I totally know the admission numbers as my son is at GT and I spent 2 years worrying about this subject. My family got lucky probably because we live in rural GA. But to see the number of GT families who have totally turned away from GT because their stud son/daughter didn’t get in is sickening when I sit in Bobby Dodd and see the empty seats and then hear about our fundraising woes. If GT actually went back to being the “Georgia” Institute of Technology you’d see us rise in this state because people are loyal to those who are loyal to them. But to just throw an alums kid into the transfer portal is financially biting GT in the wallet when the kid ends up elsewhere and the donations from that family cease. I love GT but if my kid wasn‘t accepted so a kid from another state with lower scores could be admitted I probably would never step on campus again simply out of solidarity.
 

ChiTownGT

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SOWEGA Jacket said:
Can anyone give an example of another state/public school that does this to their taxpayers?
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To be honest, I think this is a problem with any "elite" state/public school. Off the top of my head, schools like UC Berkely, UCLA, Michigan, UIUC fit this bill. In fact(anecdotally to this admissions year), I have heard schools like Purdue, UMass, and Rutgers have been rejecting quality in-state candidates. I don't think GT is necessarily biased against legacy applicants, I think they have fixed #s of seats for in-state and out-of-state kids. And as people start to figure out what it takes to get into college, the average applicant is more qualified, leaving many qualified candidates left out.
but if my kid wasn‘t accepted so a kid from another state with lower scores could be admitted
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I'm not sure if this is accurate. On a person-to-person basis, maybe, but the out-of-state acceptance rate is 13%, while the in-state rate is 35%, so there is some favoritism shown towards in-state candidates IMO. Source

With that being said, I do agree with point 2- when I was on campus, football interest with students was at an extreme low, although I guess 3 straight 3 win seasons will do that. While I do think increasing legacy students may provide some boost to attendance, I think getting students on campus interested in football would be the biggest step.
 
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