Tech Topics - Spring 2008 - (Page 7)

MailCall Caring Community Last fall, my son Keller was two months into his freshman year at Georgia Tech when he was struck by a car while navigating a crosswalk just off campus. His injuries included significant head trauma that kept him in ICU at Grady Hospital for a number of days. After spending a week with him, I reluctantly decided that it was in our best interest for him to withdraw from school and go home. During my week in Atlanta, I actually spent several nights in my son’s room in Smith dorm and dined at Brittain Hall. The experience was surreal. I started out at Tech in Smith in 1973. Tech students haven’t changed much over the decades but I am absolutely perplexed by the concept of air conditioning in the freshman dorms and really decent food at Brittain. Back in my day … I would like to thank the Tech community as a whole for the assistance and understanding extended to my family. Specifically, I wish to recognize the efforts of Dean of Students John Stein; Pradeep Agrawal, chemical and biomolecular engineering associate academic chair; Amy Lancaster, Alumni Association Parents Program manager; and Joe Irwin, Alumni Association president. I have always felt that the Tech community is best characterized as a family that takes care of its own. My opinion has only been reinforced. Keller rejoined Tech in January with a limited schedule as part of his recovery program. I can think of no better place for him to be. LINDSEY SMITH, CERE 77, MS CERE 78 Orchard Park, N.Y. STANLEY LEARY Count Me In T The women’s tennis team celebrates after clinching the national title last year. Which Team Was First? In the Winter 2007 TECH TOPICS, you appear to have conflicting statements. On page 45, you say the women’s “tennis team won 21 straight matches in the NCAA tournament last spring to clinch the national title, Tech’s first in any sport.” On page 46 of the same publication, there is this statement: “Football coach Bobby Ross, who directed the 1990 Yellow Jackets to a national championship ” Which is it, the women’s tennis team or the football team? WILLIAM R. KELLY, IE 53 Friendswood, Texas The 2007 women’s tennis team is the first Georgia Tech team to win an NCAA national championship in the school’s history. The NCAA does not have a national champion in football. Four Tech football teams have been selected as national champions based on polls. Champions before 1936 were determined by retro polls, ratings and research. The Associated Press poll originated in 1936 and the United Press International poll in 1950. Tech’s John Heisman-coached 1917 team, with a 9-0-0 record and no bowl appearance, is the only football national champion that year. In 1928, coach W.A. Alexander’s Yellow Jackets went 10-0-0, including a Rose Bowl victory, but shared the title with Southern California, 9-0-1 and no bowl appearance. The Bobby Dodd-coached 1952 team, 12-0-0, with a Sugar Bowl win, shared the title with Michigan State, 9-0-0, which made no bowl appearance. The 1990 team coached by Bobby Ross went 11-0-1 and won the Citrus Bowl to share the title with Colorado’s 11-1-1 team, which won the Orange Bowl. The UPI coaches’ poll ranked Tech’s 1990 team No. 1, while the AP poll gave the nod to Colorado. For Laughing Out Loud My wife and I were watching “The O’Reilly Factor” and Bill O’Reilly showed a comment from George Burdell in Atlanta. No texted LOLs here. We rewound the TiVo and hooted at the television. Whoever it was, thanks for keeping the dream alive. BRYAN MORRIS, PHYS 84 Albuquerque, N.M. Back to Basics I read the article “Marrying Technology and Management” in the Winter TECH TOPICS with much interest and I am perplexed. From my per- sonal experience, my industrial management degree qualified me to interface with engineers and utilize design disciplines on a regular basis. My earliest experience with this was as an electronic warfare officer in the Marine Corps from 1968 to 1971. I have been an independent businessman in the fabrication business for more than 35 years. We build storage tanks and pressure vessels requiring design to industry codes. My chemistry, physics and mathematics courses required for an industrial management degree at Tech prepared me to utilize these standards and meet the required design codes. Additional technical requirements in the management course prepared me to utilize advanced management techniques required to interface with customers and engineers to achieve a final design successfully. When additional engineering above the “cookbook” level is required, those same courses prepared me to work with engineers and direct them to complete the required design calculations. I realize there has been a quantum increase in engineering and management complexity since I left the “Flats.” Perhaps that increase has created such a vast distance between disciplines that this new approach to training engineers and managers is required. From my perspective, that interface training was available 40 years ago. I am glad to see the Institute is getting back to basics. My degree has served me well. I hope the same can be said for current graduates. KEN BEST, IM 67 Baton Rouge, La. he economics of higher education are getting a lot of ink these days — notably large foundation endowments at private and some public universities. There’s a bit of consternation from some members of Congress who think universities are not spending their endowments as quickly as they should. They also believe the gap between the richest universities and the rest is too large. Some congressional leaders believe that because donations are tax deductible, they should have some influence over the behavior of university foundation spending policy. I disagree. The College Board as quoted in The New York Times showed the average endowment per student at public four-year colleges and universities touching $40,000. Tech by this measure is about $80,000 per student. The same average for private colleges and universities was $450,000. It’s not a fair comparison. Public universities usually receive substantial state funding. By and large, private universities do not. If the state of Georgia’s annual support of Tech was being funded by an endowment, it would total roughly $5 billion at a 5 percent spend rate. That rate is said to be a rational payout to ensure the preservation of capital over the long term. Paying out more is potentially “eating your seed corn.” If you combined the two, the average endowment per Tech student would be about $358,000. Count me in the group that says alumni support their institutions if they believe their universities are doing good things, such as helping to build the economy, solving issues of importance to society and educating students to be thoughtful and productive citizens. They believe the university needs the funding to continue to grow and enhance its reputation. A university’s reputation reflects on its alumni. That’s one of the premier reasons Tech alumni support this institution. Tax deductibility is lower on the list. JOSEPH P. IRWIN President Georgia Tech Alumni Association TECHTOPICS | SPRING 2008 7

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Tech Topics - Spring 2008

Tech Topics - Spring 2008 Contents Mail Call Gold & White Honors Alumni House Sweet Spring Centennial Buzz Supreme Court Victory The Hill ‘Treasure Trove’ of Stories Living History Forget-me-not Fashion Student Life Investing in Graduates Giving Back Training the Next Generation Burdell & Friends Ingredients for Success Yellow Jackets Hockey Club Ices Georgia Tech Job Hunters Fare Well Real World

Tech Topics - Spring 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.