You may be right about Russell, but in the larger view, the proverbial "fanny pack" is a part of the program's image based on the image of the school itself. It'd be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to try to remove it. It may be more productive to make the "fanny pack" cool or at least acceptable.
I respectfully disagree, but then again, I'm a self-identifying nerd. I'm also more future oriented with GT's image. I think we can play a more central role within Atlanta without losing our institutional prestige. In fact, I think it will strengthen it.
Basically, I view Tech as the nexus between federal government, local government, private industry, midtown neighborhood, local community, researchers, and students. These connections give us the problem & resource constraints. We optimize the solution. Kind of like Google's relationship with content providers. Ya'll do your thing - we'll build you the infrastructure. A prime example is the Atlanta Beltline. I think there's also a strong case that Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta b/c of GT. Everyone I know in Atlanta loves the Beltline & has a Fiber t-shirt. So, Tech seems to be building an unimpeachable role within Atlanta - all we do provide people in this city with better tools to do what they do. You don't blame Google for the Internet's poor content. And it's hard to recreate a Google (see Bing).
My vision for GT's future, based largely on conjecture, is GT's research partnerships and HPC in Tech Square being an engine for cutting edge, bubble-forming industries. The biggest prize is healthcare. Regardless of your politics, there's an undeniable low hanging fruit in healthcare costs - improving IT record & payment efficiencies. I think GT is one of a handful of schools / cities that are the front runner in the race to capture the epicenter of this future industry. Actually, I think we're in the lead. I attended an Emory Presidential search faculty town hall the other week. Georgia Tech was mentioned maybe 5 or 6 times in 45 minutes. Always positive. I was pleasantly surprised. Basically, top researchers were saying Emory has all this research funding & world-class talent but we have no process or infrastructure to efficiently manage it. We're wasting so much time and money. Why aren't we doing more to fix this? We're in Atlanta. GT is right down the road.
So let's assume that this plays out and GT-Emory become the global center of the healthcare industry. I think we'll see increased marketization of research. GT will spit out start-up companies. A middle market will grow of b2b suppliers. Capital will pour in & require a presence to scout / monitor investments. And I think all of this development will want to be close to GT b/c of the physical infrastructure & human capital that can't be replicated in the suburbs (HPC, CDC, airport, college students). Also, GT has basically or will basically capture the entire Westside. Is there a better development opportunity in all of the United States than Westside Atlanta? You can basically erase the entire thing & build the infrastructure from scratch (multi-modal transportation, Fiber pipelines, green space). You'll have the Beltline setting the border to the far west. You'll have the incoming healthcare industry occupying office space & new residence developments that will be built in westside. You'll have a neighborhood of higher income & younger / more hip residence, so you'll see more venues, better restaurants, etc. And you don't have to kick out the poor. We could build up neighborhoods like Mechanicsville. We can use Emory's School of Public Health, GT's efficiency, and investment in Atlanta's infrastructure to improve the condition of people's lives. Give people the bootstrap to pull themselves up.
Once the westside is built, hopefully infrastructure funding in the U.S. improves & Atlanta moves forward with Marta expansion or the street cars. You could have a street car going up / down 10th street from west side to piedmont park. Piedmont Park to Bobby Dodd to new Westside parks. You'll also have better connectivity to the new Falcons stadium, CFHOF, and the other downtown attractions.
My dream is a dream & you're welcome to criticize it. But just assume for this argument that it can be achieved & ask yourself, how could we change GT's image to capture this? It doesn't matter where people went to undergrad. See UGA's fanbase. It just needs to be a part of the community. GT will be a world leading academic institution & closer to Stanford in it's connection to a start-up industry that offers potential of vast new wealth. It's in the center of a major city that will be closer in reputation to Austin / SF / Seattle. We can capture the young kids - middle schoolers and high schoolers - as GT fans. I think kids like cities more than they do Athens. Kids are probably more susceptible to a college major that could make you a billion than a liberal arts degree. Kids are increasingly connected to technology & social media. Regarding the latter, Athens bars lose their appeal to Atlanta when communication changes from stories about the weekend to pictures on instagrams. Piedmont Park sunset or a college bar - which gets more likes on Instgram? If we can capture the youth of Atlanta, we can capture the best recruits in the nation. For example, our 2008 recruiting class could have been Cam Newton, Eric Berry, and Brandon Boykin as QB-AB-AB. All played within 30 miles of Tech. I know we recruit against the best, but we're getting close. we're moving the needle. See Demetrius, Campbell. Carter, Tuitt, Thomlinson (SP?), etc.
The problem with the russell image is that it's equivalent to tweeting a picture of a Howey Physics lecture hall when we could be tweeting pictures of our awesome skyline / tree line / beautiful city. Why would we do that? Why would any GT alumni want a suboptimal brand? GT is what it is because we focus on the
future. History & tradition gives a respect and connection for one and other. They are important & I'm not advocating at all for them to be diluted. But it would be selfish for us to stop its progression. We must be willing to be replaced, to be improved upon. That's what technology is all about.
