Crowd Sourcing: Students indifferent towards Zimpher's departure

UC President Nancy Zimpher last week announced that she's leaving the university in order to take the chancellor position at the State University of New York system. The official UC announcement can be found here.

I wanted to find out what were UC students' reactions to this news. I asked UC journalism students the following questions:

1. What are your thoughts on the announcement that UC president Nancy Zimpher is leaving UC to go to the State University of New York?
2. How do you feel about her tenure here at UC?
3. What, if anything, do you think she accomplished at UC?
4. Are you a UC athletics fan? Does this factor into your thoughts about Zimpher?

For the most part, UC students didn't seem to mind Zimpher was leaving.

Here are some comments I got:

" Zimpher means nothing to me. I don't know her and she doesn't know me. She ruined the basketball program, yes, but I'm too busy to attend any games anyway so I won't pretend like I am upset about that. However, academically, some people may say she did wonders for the university, but I see it turning our world up-side-down and leaving. Switching to semesters, huh? And not staying to see it through? Good job. How about we make a Journalism department? Nancy is probably a nice lady to have tea with and apparently she is talented enough that SUNY likes her, a lot. So congratulations to her - but it means nothing to me. I'll be gone in a jiffy. But her leaving seems premature; she should stay longer to finish what she started." -Amanda W.


"I don't really think it's going to make that much of a difference that she's leaving. I'm not sure if she accomplished too much at UC. I'm somewhat ignorant on the subject, but apparently it's harder to get into UC now, so I guess that's a good thing (?). Also tuition went up 10% when she was here, although I don't know if that was necessarily completely her fault.
"Yes, I am a sports fan. I said "Nuck Fancy" just about as much as anyone after Huggins was fired, which I disagreed with. She did fire Huggins and pretty much ruined the previous two basketball seasons, but at the same time, she did hire our current athletic director, who hired Brian Kelly. So, while she temporarily paralyzed the basketball program, she did also help to bring the football team to national prominence." -Matthew K.

There were also students who think she did a lot for UC and hope the university can find a competent replacement.

"I know most don't really like her, but I've interviewed her in person several times and she's really super nice. She's done a great job in making the campus more friendly, and she's also done wonders with her various improvements to several programs and departments here at UC... In general she's been great in helping boost up UC's reputation too - we really needed her help in that regard. Hopefully our next president will continue making UC a better school. I think she deserves a lot of thanks for her work here." -Caroline T.