A Tales of Two Local Newspapers’ Coverage of Cincinnati’s Largest Employer (University of Cincinnati)
A week ago Sunday, Cincinnati Enquirer reporter and chief University of Cincinnati apologist Cliff Peale managed to write an over 600-word column about what might be involved in turning around UC’s dreadful financial situation (commented on previously here) without mentioning:
- The University’s so-far disastrous off-campus real estate ventures, featuring, among other things, an eminent-domain smackdown.
- University President Nancy Zimpher’s name.
What is it, Cliff — Does Nancy get a pass because math is hard?
If it has such a capacity, the Enquirer should be ashamed. It ran a pitiful puff piece by Peale after the eminent-domain rebuke that actually praised the development consortium as a “development powerhouse” — so powerful that UC’s endowment has been raided to the tune of $75 million to fund the consortium’s problems.
The town’s business weekly, the Cincinnati Business Courier, has run circles around the Enquirer on the UC financial-situation story (the articles involved are now mostly behind the publication’s subscription firewall). But even the Courier is too kind to Zimpher and UC’s board in a June 29 editorial:
UC President Nancy Zimpher would like to characterize much of our reporting as old news to anyone paying attention.
The UC board, lax in its oversight of UC’s operations before Zimpher’s (October) 2003 arrival, needs to be held accountable even as it holds Zimpher’s administration responsible for the march toward better financial footing.
Why isn’t Zimpher being held accountable for NOT “paying attention” for at least three years?
Talk about “lax oversight” — Why was Nancy’s 5-year contract extension whipped through in late March, when the University’s tenuous financial position had to be pretty obvious to insiders? Did the Board of Trustees do it to protect her in advance of the bad news? If so, aren’t they forgetting who they work for?
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UPDATE: An e-mailer reminds me that Enquirer Publisher Margaret Buchanan is on UC’s Board of Trustees, and that she was appointed by Bob Taft. That would make her paper’s operation and coverage subject to across-the-board conflict-of-interest concerns when reporting on UC — from finances and internal politics to its sports teams’ positioning in the Sports section relative to other, ahem, recently more successful programs.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Nancy has the number one thing it takes to keep her job; Photographs.
Comment by taxman — July 9, 2007 @ 7:40 am
Tom;
While there is no doubt much incompetence within the UC administration, one has to wonder what the Republican dominated General Assembly is doing hold state administrators feet to the fire that oversee the university system. It would seem to me that if Ohio wanted to have a superior university system state representatives would be examining the business practices and each university’s own metrics.
In my opinion, we should begin to cut the amount of money the state contributes and start requiring Ohio universities become self-sufficient. Maybe then they would be more careful and fiscally responsible.
On another note, it is a travesty in this day and age that UC is Cincinnati’s largest employer. Both the city and the county elected officials should be shamed and driven from the state for such a miserable situation.
Comment by Brian — July 9, 2007 @ 8:26 am
#1, I struggle for an alternative explanation.
#2, part of why UC is so large is University Hospital. That said, three points:
- OSU would be Columbus’s largest employer if it weren’t the capital.
- A lot of companies that aren’t the largest local employers (e.g., P&G, Kroger), employ a lot more people than UC nationally and worldwide.
- Neither of the first two points should obscure the fact that the city has done a terrible job of keeping companies inside the city. More are relocating outside the city, and sometimes outside Hamilton County, all the time.
Comment by TBlumer — July 9, 2007 @ 8:59 am
I haven’t researched this in depth, but I think that some out-of-the-box thinking for colleges that fully leverage their research (like this example at Texas Tech) would go a long ways towards creating additional revenue.
Comment by Porkopolis — July 9, 2007 @ 12:32 pm
#4, Good point. Given the antibusiness and intensely political nature of today’s universities, I have very mixed feelings about them holding onto IP.
Comment by TBlumer — July 9, 2007 @ 12:56 pm