This is the definitive place to discuss everything that makes life on & off campus so unique in Central Virginia.

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke

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By Cider Jim
Registration Days Posts
#626295
Didn't the old multipurpose basketball courts have a rubberized surface that added an extra inch or two to your vertical jump?

No wonder SCAR was able to jump so high for that famous 1980s dunk against ETSU! :shock:

Purple Haize, Sly Fox, thepostman and 1 others liked this
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By badger74
Registration Days Posts
#626310
Seems to me LU has gone overboard on athletics construction and shortchanged the academic side. Engineering and nursing/allied health need better facilities to be taken seriously. And grow paying enrollment.
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By cruzan_flame13
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#626311
badger74 wrote: May 20th, 2021, 7:52 pm Seems to me LU has gone overboard on athletics construction and shortchanged the academic side. Engineering and nursing/allied health need better facilities to be taken seriously. And grow paying enrollment.
Amongst others as well.
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By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#626312
badger74 wrote: May 20th, 2021, 7:52 pm Seems to me LU has gone overboard on athletics construction and shortchanged the academic side. Engineering and nursing/allied health need better facilities to be taken seriously. And grow paying enrollment.
I’m not saying you are wrong but that’s always how it has been. Of course the Biz School and DeMoss are nice
LUOrange liked this
By ballcoach15
Registration Days Posts
#626314
How many other schools have had football go to a bowl game, basketball to NCAA tournament, baseball and softball to NCAA tournament, win 10 conference championships. Liberty's facilities are better than some Power 5 Programs.
We have athletes on campus that rejected offers from P5 schools to sign with Liberty. One can never spend too much money on athletics.
Liberty is a Power 5 school playing in the ASUN Conference.
By ballcoach15
Registration Days Posts
#626316
Some people need to do their research. Plans are in place for nursing and engineering schools.

I forgot to add in earlier post that we have a P5 Level AD, along with his staff, unlike earlier days, when we had trouble running a good concession stand.
By flamehunter
Registration Days Posts
#626317
ballcoach15 wrote: May 21st, 2021, 9:36 am Plans are in place for nursing and engineering schools.
And have been for a long time. The problem some people have is that athletics facilities get prioritized over academics again and again. You think that is a good thing. Others do not.
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By thepostman
Registration Days Posts
#626318
It is a balancing act for sure but at this point, I'd be fine with prioritizing some long promised academic facilities over athletics. That isn't to say I think we should stop building athletics facilitates forever but the more we put into academics, the more value my degree holds.
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By Sly Fox
Registration Days Posts
#626320
While I agree completely with the sentiment expressed by badger74 (especially engineering), I think we have to remember this is not happening in a vacuum. We are about to have a major opportunity to move up in conference in the next couple of years as the Grant-of-Rights for various conferences begin to expire. We are doing everything we can right now to position ourselves as a candidate to the AAC or whatever the landscape looks like when the musical chairs commence.

I think it should also be noted that we are somewhat rudderless on the academic side with a retired pastor with limited academic credentials caretaking until we can hire a real president. Meanwhile the athletic department is well positioned to leverage this moment.
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By Honest Abe
Posts
#626328
I think we all agree that the reality is that athletic facility spending has outpaced academic, but my first thoughts are the same place Sly went. Right now we know that athletics is trying to do everything it can to make itself an attractive addition to the right conference partner when the next major shift happens. And Ian has them outpacing the competition in this race! I am 100% all in on the need to heed the calls to push academics forward, but I don't have a problem with the current ratios in that area as long as academics get their day, too.
Plus, it's easy to forget how far academic facilities have come if you haven't been ABSENT FROM CAMPUS in a long time.
I was just on campus for about 4 days after having been gone since 2014 (son is transferring to campus this fall).
HOLY COW! My wife and I said it's like an entirely different place. That's 80% about the changed academic and residential housing facilities.
But on the athletics side, I was stoked to get at least 15 minutes inside the new Liberty Arena on our campus tour.
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By ATrain
Registration Days Posts
#626355
Sly Fox wrote: May 21st, 2021, 11:16 am While I agree completely with the sentiment expressed by badger74 (especially engineering), I think we have to remember this is not happening in a vacuum. We are about to have a major opportunity to move up in conference in the next couple of years as the Grant-of-Rights for various conferences begin to expire. We are doing everything we can right now to position ourselves as a candidate to the AAC or whatever the landscape looks like when the musical chairs commence.

I think it should also be noted that we are somewhat rudderless on the academic side with a retired pastor with limited academic credentials caretaking until we can hire a real president. Meanwhile the athletic department is well positioned to leverage this moment.
Just remember that its college presidents and boards of trustees who ultimately decide who they want to be associated with, not ADs or conference commissioners.
By ballah09
Registration Days Posts
#626358
ATrain wrote: May 22nd, 2021, 8:11 am
Sly Fox wrote: May 21st, 2021, 11:16 am While I agree completely with the sentiment expressed by badger74 (especially engineering), I think we have to remember this is not happening in a vacuum. We are about to have a major opportunity to move up in conference in the next couple of years as the Grant-of-Rights for various conferences begin to expire. We are doing everything we can right now to position ourselves as a candidate to the AAC or whatever the landscape looks like when the musical chairs commence.

I think it should also be noted that we are somewhat rudderless on the academic side with a retired pastor with limited academic credentials caretaking until we can hire a real president. Meanwhile the athletic department is well positioned to leverage this moment.
Just remember that its college presidents and boards of trustees who ultimately decide who they want to be associated with, not ADs or conference commissioners.

This. With our current leadership and with the trajectory it is going, we're not going anywhere.

Prevo and his buddies are going to be laughed at.
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By stokesjokes
Registration Days Posts
#626380
While Sly isn’t wrong here, there will always be some reason for athletic spending to have a sense of urgency to it. If we cared about the academic side, we could at least be building for both. Not a good look to put a hold on building the announced nursing building while having athletics have a perpetual green light.
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By Jonathan Carone
Posts
#626382
This isn’t just Athletics vs academics. It’s been said this building is for Athletics and club sports along with other recreational things. We’re showing yet again that we value sleep away church camp more than academics and truly training champions for Christ.
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By Ill flame
Posts
#626454
Outside of the eventual football stadium expansion how many more athletic facilities need to be built/renovated in the near future? It seems like it's time for the pendulum to swing back towards a heavier academic focus for awhile.

I'm still impressed by the amount of building this school has been able to do in such a short time.
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By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#626455
Ill flame wrote: May 23rd, 2021, 8:01 pm Outside of the eventual football stadium expansion how many more athletic facilities need to be built/renovated in the near future? It seems like it's time for the pendulum to swing back towards a heavier academic focus for awhile.

I'm still impressed by the amount of building this school has been able to do in such a short time.
There’s always more athletic construction to be done. There was talk about moving soccer elsewhere. Still have golf. Tennis. Etc. Remember the Football Ops center wasn’t that old before they gutted it and re did it.
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By Ill flame
Posts
#626456
Purple Haize wrote: May 23rd, 2021, 8:29 pm
Ill flame wrote: May 23rd, 2021, 8:01 pm Outside of the eventual football stadium expansion how many more athletic facilities need to be built/renovated in the near future? It seems like it's time for the pendulum to swing back towards a heavier academic focus for awhile.

I'm still impressed by the amount of building this school has been able to do in such a short time.
There’s always more athletic construction to be done. There was talk about moving soccer elsewhere. Still have golf. Tennis. Etc. Remember the Football Ops center wasn’t that old before they gutted it and re did it.
That was also during the transition to FBS. Unless the AAC comes calling which is unlikely there shouldn't be a big need to improve most of the facilities in the near future. That will hopefully allow the school to focus on the non athletic facilities for a little while.
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By Jonathan Carone
Posts
#626457
The school doesn’t care about academics. It cares about influence, money, and notoriety. The leadership uses the cover of academics to get those things.

Edit to clarify: the school leadership doesn’t care about academics. The faculty truly cares about educating students.
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By rogers3
Registration Days Posts
#626459
Jonathan Carone wrote: May 23rd, 2021, 10:44 pm The school doesn’t care about academics. It cares about influence, money, and notoriety. The leadership uses the cover of academics to get those things.
I really think Jerry considered the challenge of competing with ND and BYU in sports as a bellwether for the greater trajectory of LU. Sadly, sports and construction have become idols and are sought above all else. When I see people post about throwing money around because we have it, I see that as a hallmark of one who has bought into the "idol worship." Bread and Circuses... What many Liberty folks are happy with.
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By LUOrange
Posts
#626467
So what is the hold up on some of these announced buildings? Is it the lack of a permanent president? The sudden increased cost of construction? Something else? Or is it just the old Liberty way of making grand announcements with no follow through?

What's the statuses for the School of Engineering, Nursing (although I don't remember that announcement, may have missed it), the Graduate Campus additions? The new cafeteria?
What are they using the tech building in New London for?

I'm not defending LU's decision making/priorities but, It would also appear to me that the athletics multi-purpose building is comparatively much cheaper and quicker to build than an academic building. Also, did the new multipurpose center encompass the indoor softball practice facility they had previously announced?
#626474
Seems like y'all aren't willing to give due credit. Have we forgotten that Liberty has a DO program on the mountain? Literally an entire building dedicated to no just medical doctors, but Osteopathic Medicine. That's your typical, Jack of all trades, annual checkup doctor.

Did we forget the business school? Truly one of my favorite buildings to look at on campus?

What about finally bringing the school of divinity back to main campus? And the scriptorium to go with it?

The science hall? Music Hall? The Library? And ultimately, the most underrated is Montview. Montview was built in response to a notice insufficiency of study locations in the JFL during finals week.

Yes, we still have a lot to do with engineering and nursing. And that will happen sooner than later with the physical state of Demoss. But we really have a hard time praising what has been done academically.

Let's also not overlook accreditation for online programs as well. Namely the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program being certified CACREP was massive achievement. There are about 50 online CACREP programs and only a hand full at D1 universities.
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By cruzan_flame13
Posts
#626475
Jonathan Carone wrote: May 23rd, 2021, 10:44 pm The school doesn’t care about academics. It cares about influence, money, and notoriety. The leadership uses the cover of academics to get those things.

Edit to clarify: the school leadership doesn’t care about academics. The faculty truly cares about educating students.
Student: I can't believe it increased by 1500%

Professor: Enough about bitcoin! Nothing can uncrease by that much and be good investment!

Student: I was talking about the price of college tuition since 1980.

:D
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