PODCAST: Jamie Pollard on the last 14 days

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Aclone

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Must listen - this is eye-opening. Thank you for sharing!

This segment says it all...Ames wants a University, but doesn't want students. They want football but they don't want fans. They want conventions but voted down a convention center. They want a place for kids to swim, but don't want a swimming pool...
I lived in Ames for twenty years. There is a determined core of people in Ames who want it to be their own little Camelot, to be exactly as they envision it, and never to change.

Oh, you want to bring in a new mall that will bring in money and jobs to Ames? Hey, that’d change the town! Well, we’ll shove that off into the distance to strangle, then kill it.

You want to stick more businesses in a flood plain? Way over there? Sure, go ahead and landfill—that’ll never affect us here!

That they want to siphon off the best of Iowa State University and control what they don’t like is no surprise.
 

Mr Janny

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I grew up in Ames.....great for a HS kid with opportunities but once I left ISU, I decided Ankeny/DSM would be a better fit. More open to change.
Agreed. There's a lot I love about this city, but adversity to change isn't one of those things. The Healthy life center vote was one of them. New mall, etc. Sometimes the city can't get out of its own way
 

RealisticCy

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JP makes good points, but he's wrong when he says "none of the faculty on this campus have taken a pay cut...not a dime."
 
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jdcyclone19

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45 million rainy fund, 25 for SPC and 20 million available to help the shortfall. Interesting.
 

Clonefan32

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Also, nice work by Chris and Co. getting JP on a podcast-- good stuff! Helps to hear directly from him rather than trying to pull apart the few written statements he's put out.
 
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mj4cy

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I've mentioned this before, but compare this to what Iowa did in cutting those programs. Barta called them into a room, told them their programs had been cut and left. Jamie is trying to get out in front of the issue and is putting everything out in the open. If the public perception is going to be a relevant factor in decision making, make sure they have all the information that's available. Make sure they realize that actions do have consequences on both sides of the argument.

I know people have been critical of Jamie but by my view he's just trying to be open and transparent. And if there's a little pettiness thrown in there too it's hard to blame him. The guy's working as hard as he can to create a solution in a situation where there are no right/wrong solutions and the peanut gallery is more than willing to lob insults and criticisms, but seem low on solutions.

Don't forget he told students for 2 minutes about the cuts then left and made others answer their questions.
 

Aclone

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"The faculty, they want people to work at Fareway and HyVee so that they can get their food, they want people to be doctors and nurses so they can be served, but they don't want to be in a classroom."

Hot damn.
Years ago I repeatedly listened to one of my favorite (tenured) profs—otherwise an intelligent guy—rant on about how “privileged” the athletic department was.

Then one day he was complaining about how the athletic department was asking him to track football players’ attendance (there were two in my class), and that was so much work, so much of a burden, and it wasn’t fair.

I looked at him and asked, “Don’t you already do that for students on the GI Bill?”

That shut him up.
 

mj4cy

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I lived in Ames for twenty years. There is a determined core of people in Ames who want it to be their own little Camelot, to be exactly as they envision it, and never to change.

Oh, you want to bring in a new mall that will bring in money and jobs to Ames? Hey, that’d change the town! Well, we’ll shove that off into the distance to strangle, then kill it.

You want to stick more businesses in a flood plain? Way over there? Sure, go ahead and landfill—that’ll never affect us here!

That they want to siphon off the best of Iowa State University and control what they don’t like is no surprise.

MILLIONS of dollars have gone to Ankeny/DSM for shopping over the last couple decades because of people who want a little small slice of heaven town.
 

ArgentCy

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Malls are the wave of the future!

Well, maybe they just got lucky on that one.

Although this is far bigger than even just about ISU and Ames. This is the 4th Turning, many things have been built that are not sustainable and will be failing.

Winter Is Coming
 

cycloneman003

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He's definitely venting, I have said from the get go there should be no fans to start and then they decide on 25000 when we're in a hot spot. He makes the big bucks to be in his position so deal with the backlash and dont blame the community because you caved from some of the faculties pressure.
He definitely isn't the one who caved... he had no choice but to fall in line with Pres Wintersteen. If it was up to Jamie alone, I'm pretty confident based on his tone that he would have told the community/faculty to pound sand and would push on with his original plan.
 

KnappShack

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You say that like it can just happen. Sure, it's true, but that's like saying "Without Earth, the moon would just be a rock floating through space"
Iowa State isn't leaving Ames because of COVID-19. It's not shutting down. And if it did, the conditions that bring it about would be affecting a whole lot more than the city of Ames.

I seem to remember an instructor telling us the college could've been located in Nevada, but the town decided they wanted to be the county seat.

Not sure why you're thinking of moving ISU.

Ames is ISU. Without the college Ames is just another ****** Iowa town
 

Aclone

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Pollard makes some very good points. He's in a damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario, and I wouldn't want to be in his position at all. That said, he kept saying that "the community decided they didn't want fans" and "the community decided they didn't want to cut the arts."

The community doesn't get to decide those things. Iowa State does. The community is allowed to have an opinion on it, and it can be a very loud opinion, but it's Iowa State's call. It's Iowa State's tolerance for the expected reaction to a decision that is tested. If Pollard and the university president wanted to have fans in the stands on Saturday, they could have. Nobody could have stopped them. But as much as the city needs ISU, ISU is a part of the community as well. It's not like the school can pick up and move to Boone. Public opinion matters, even if it's ill informed and misguided. That's not unique to Ames. That's just the way the world works. I really liked a lot of that interview, and I have always been a big Pollard fan and supporter, but some of that feels like he's pissing into the wind and getting upset that his shoes are getting wet.
I think that er has you’re misunderstanding what Jamie said.

That said, he kept saying that "the community decided they didn't want fans" and "the community decided they didn't want to cut the arts”.

He’s not saying that they made the decision, he’s saying that “the community” decided to apply pressure.

And having lived in Ames for twenty years myself, I can tell you that that community can find some insidious ways to put pressure. And they’ve had had a long time and a lot of practice at getting people stirred up.

They do it through the local and national media, through social media, they do it through local agencies (like the Story County Board of Health) and they do it through local and state elected officials. I’d hardly be surprised to find out that they reached out to members of the Board of Regents.

It amounts to a harassment campaign, and I can’t blame Jamie for getting stirred up.
 

Aclone

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I seem to remember an instructor telling us the college could've been located in Nevada, but the town decided they wanted to be the county seat.

Not sure why you're thinking of moving ISU.

Ames is ISU. Without the college Ames is just another ****** Iowa town
The way I heard it, Boone had a choice between the railroad and ISU. They chose the railroad.
 
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cyatheart

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As many others have said. It is really too bad Ames has never gotten on board with the University. If you look at Austin, Columbus, Madison etc....twenty years ago Ames was not in a totally different potion. Those places all used their respective universities to grow and grew with the university. All the growth in Des Moines and Ankeny could have just as easily been around Ames. Instead, no growth, no development, nothing....city just leeches off the university.
 

Mr Janny

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I think that er has you’re misunderstanding what Jamie said.



He’s not saying that they made the decision, he’s saying that “the community” decided to apply pressure.

And having lived in Ames for twenty years myself, I can tell you that that community can find some insidious ways to put pressure. And they’ve had had a long time and a lot of practice at getting people stirred up.

They do it through the local and national media, through social media, they do it through local agencies (like the Story County Board of Health) and they do it through local and state elected officials. I’d hardly be surprised to find out that they reached out to members of the Board of Regents.

It amounts to a harassment campaign, and I can’t blame Jamie for getting stirred up.
I don't blame him either, but the decision belonged to him/ISU. Community opinion is just one of many market forces that any leader needs to consider when making any decision. That's not unique to Ames.
But there's no way around the fact that it was a bad PR move for them to announce the 25,000 fans right when Ames was being recognized as one of the number 1 hotspots in the country for COVID. That was a bad look, no matter how you slice it.