Unless the UMass Alumni Association gets lucky enough to have a meme or YouTube video go viral, the total circulation of 3,000 specialty license plates by October 1st is looking about as likely as a winning football season.
Currently, after 20 months of sales efforts, only 1554 plates are on the road -- only 54 over the minimum number required by the Registry in order to have convicts crank out the plates.
Ah, if only somebody can get a picture of Aaron Hernandez working on one.
But the Registry also requires 3,000 be on the road by year two, a deadline fast approaching.
The Alumni Association had to put up a $100,000 bond guaranteeing the 3,000 sales within two years, or the Registry can discontinue the plate and keep the bond money.
These days the Alumni Association has trouble even giving them away. A recent offer to pay the $40 plate fee plus $20 swap fee resulted in less than 50 takers. The University makes $28/plate, but certainly not when they give them away.
So even if all 1,554 plates were legitimately paid for by exuberant alumni, that's only $43,512 into UMass coffers -- less than half the amount of the $100,000 bond they stand to lose.
With a target base of 120,000 graduates living in-state (almost all of them drivers) you would think selling 3,000 plate to 2.5% of them would be easier than selling all-you-can-drink Solo beer cups at a frat party.
Heck, I would have purchased one if "Amherst" appeared somewhere in the logo.
16 comments:
No much school spirit for UMASS so it seems. And frankly, the plates are an eyesore. Poor design and a good reason no one wants them.
This was a 1990s trend, back when college was both more valuable and less expensive. Older grads are beyond their school days and younger ones are still trying to get a burger flipping job. Plus keep it simple for cops. It's a criminal pre-identifaction tag in case you trip up or go rogue, nothing more.
One plate style per state is more than enough.
Look in the mirror and see the one individual who has hurt the UMass reputation more than anyone else with you barmy Blarney baloney.
For a guy who profits from having a university lift up his farm town, you sound bitter, petty and ungrateful. Please don't give reasons why you would have bought one. No one could believe that all it would take is Amherst included. Everyone knows UMASS is in Amherst. Constant trashing of UMass is tiring. Go live in Granby or Longmeadow if you want the diversity you desire.
Sounds like you may have paid extra for a low numbered plate.
lol Larry. I'd NEVER put that junk on my car though.
Even if it were free.
Maybe the umass alumni association could spend there money and time better by helping graduates find jobs to pay off there crushing debt? Seems like a better use of resources.
I don't think lack of school spirit is the whole story. I'm a UMass alum and never heard about the offer to pay the fee, so my guess is that the publicity program was lacking--no big surprise there. I doubt I would have gotten the plate--sounds like it would have been annoying to fill out the forms--but I'd have at least considered the offer if I'd known it would have been free.
UMass students are treated like shit while they struggle to earn degrees that aren't even worth the paper they are printed on and then people wonder why they don't want anything to do with UMass after they graduate.
I can't imagine why.
Dr. Ed....
It's uninformed people like you that hurt UMass. UMass students are respectable and sought after job candidates. The Isenberg School is ranked #11 overall and #6 for publics in recruiter satisfaction. That's on top of being the #36 business program overall, #14 for publics. Isenberg kids also play ball with kids from BC, BU, Northeastern you name it. And that goes for other programs at UMass as well.
Look, asshole, UMass SUCKS and the inability to even give away these license plates is clear evidence of that.
What never ceases to amaze me is how everyone who makes something of his/her/its self in spite of having attended UMass is cited as an example while the vast majority that don't, aren't. That's like being half pregnant -- a few people win a fortune at Foxwoods, where the odds are actually better than at UMass, and every bit as random.
If UMass was so good, it would be offering a money=back guarantee.
Your point is offset by the crude opening salvo.
It was even more crude before I started deleting adjectives.
I'm serious about Foxwoods though -- parents would do better simply sending their children down there to gamble as the odds of a return on investment are greater.
I will say one more thing: The only thing I would ever use a UM Alumni license plate for is a rifle target -- when hung so they can swing, old license plates make good targets for .22s -- anything bigger shreds them too quickly but they give a visible indication of being hit as well as a variety of specific "bulleye's" for one to aim at so a kid who is a good shot isn't putting his second round through the hole made by his first one.
But I don't want to be responsible for them even being able to give away one more plate. I so want to see them unable to make the 3K minimum and loose their deposit -- not for the money but for the humiliation.
Back before Enku Geylae and Jean Kim (when Jean Kim was only "acting VC/STUAF), there was a competent and qualified woman who somehow made it to the level of finalist and had her public interview on campus. I was there.
When asked (I think by me) what her thoughts were about the fact that UMass has over 5000 judicial cases per year, over 4000 them first offenses, and that the UMPD makes over 1000 arrests per year, her response was simple:
"It would seem to me that you are creating an awful lot of unhappy future alumni."
I was never even charged with ANY violation of the Code of Student Conduct (let alone "found responsible") yet I left there with such a "bitter taste in my mouth", were it not the case that UMass would benefit, I'd gladly purchase a half dozen of them just for the pleasure of shredding them with something much bigger than a .22 -- 200 grain rifle rounds that themselves cost a couple dollars apiece.
I'd enjoy spending the money if it made UMass look like the purgatorial cesspool I know it to be, and to those who will inevitably make an issue of my destroying property (that I have purchased and hence own) in this manner I have but one question:
"How, exactly, is it any different than putting a photograph through a paper shredder?"
TEDE,
I'd suggest you look at the facts before you declare UMass a bad school, its graduates undesirable and attendance a bad investment.
The school ranks #94 in the nation among publics for average mid career salary, and higher for starting salary. Consider the number of public universities in the nation (MA has 13, larger states like Texas with 37, CA with 34, NY with 35...) and the fact that for UMass those numbers are rising you can see it's not a bad investment when you're paying about $25,000 a year. And most kids end up paying less through grants and scholarships etc. If the place was so terrible, students wouldn't come in droves from states with their own respectable institutions for the cost of $42,000 a year.
Then you can talk about job placement...how many of those kids get jobs right after or soon after graduation. Those numbers are practically high for science (especially the biomed kids), engineering, the Isenberg School and even the nursing school which of all programs nursing and not in all schools in the nation is one of the best in terms of placement. And when I say the best we are talking top 5. Other majors are a lot tougher to get jobs for thee days (liberal arts) which is why UMass has invested so much in STEM fields, but UMass liberal arts programs are respectable on all levels. And make no mistake, UMass kids are playing ball with the big boys- Northeastern, BU, Michigan, UNC etc.- and they're winning out in the job market and they're doing it more and more.
UMass consistently impresses recruiters. US News ranks them high for business and engineering, #30 among all publics in the nation overall and #76 among all Universities. I can speak to the kind of companies that hire business students from UMass. The big four accounting firms, Fidelity, Bose, TJX, Piper Jaffray, Wall Street firms like Goldman all hire out of Isenberg and many more. 80+ companies actively recruit there. UMass students are so desirable, State Street operates a facility in Hadley for the purpose of employing UMass students as well. And the business school is no exception when it comes to high caliber companies and other employers who seek UMass students and pay them well.
Those are facts. Hope you read them, hope you have a better understanding of just how good of an institution UMass is, and know that it is getting stronger every year. I proudly am sending my two kids to UMass. These are just some of the facts I gathered as I worked to help them make that decision, which they have not regretted whatsoever. They love everything about their school and it's served them well so far, even before graduation.
Gee, Ed, you certainly win "Most Bitter Alum" once again this year. Good going. Congratulations on not being able to move on with your life.
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