Poly has Flown the Coup! Now What?

 

By now it should be clear that it was a huge mistake by our local leaders to latch onto the high tech "shiny object" and combine what was becoming a pretty solid local institution focused on Utica/Mohawk Valley's higher-education needs, SUNY Institute of Technology, with Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering to create a 2 campus "SUNY Poly." 

Simply, you cannot serve two masters. 

Since Albany is the seat of government with the political clout that comes with it, it was inevitable that the Utica campus, at some point, would get short shrift. 

There needs to be a complete split between these two campuses -- faculties, councils, foundations, etc. -- to recreate the separate institutions that they were before the merger. 

Until there is a complete split, there will always be those running the Utica campus who would want to close it entirely and send all its resources to Albany. That would waste literally DECADES of local efforts to expand higher education opportunities locally. 

Only After a complete split is done should the Utica institution plot its new direction. 

My opinion: Utica/Mohawk Valley needs high tech programs more than ever to support and retain Danfoss and Wolfspeed as developing businesses here  -- otherwise decades of local efforts and taxpayer investments would be threatened. An Independent Poly Utica should develop these programs on its own -- even to the point of competing with Albany if necessary -- which is why a complete split with SUNY Albany is essential.

Follow the Science?

Follow the science?  "Peer review" apparently can't be relied upon to protect the public from junk. 

From Retraction Watch:

Hindawi and Wiley to retract over 500 papers linked to peer review rings

Rise in Deaths of Adolescent Males in the UK . . . and another "Fact-Check"

 From HARTgroup  https://www.hartgroup.org/recent-deaths-in-young-people-in-england-and-wales/

 "Mortality has risen in younger age groups since 1st May 2021. The increase in the 15-19 year old age group is particularly noticeable, especially as deaths in this age group are uncommon. The excess deaths have a marked male predominance. An increase in ambulance call outs for patients who have had a cardiac arrest or are unconscious showed a coincidental noticeable rise from May 2021. The period also coincides with the rollout of vaccination. Finally, ONS have reported on a striking rise in age adjusted mortality rates in those with only one dose that accelerated in May 2021 to levels far exceeding those in the unvaccinated.

"Although there may be a number of explanations for these findings, further investigation of the cause of these deaths is warranted. "  

 An article similar to the above was "Fact-Checked" by AP under the headline "Articles misrepresent data on teen deaths in the UK" 

The "Fact-Check" (insofar as it might apply to the Article posted above) falsely claims that "Articles misrepresent data on teen deaths in the UK." However, the Fact-Check admits that

" ... it’s true that there were more teen deaths in summer 2021 than summer 2020 in the U.K. ..."

 so there was no misrepresentation of data.

The "Fact-Check" also falsely claims there is "no evidence" to support a claim that vaccines caused the teenagers to die. However, the temporal relationship IS evidence even though it is not enough evidence to prove causation. (Correlation does not prove causation.)

Insofar as the "Fact-Check" might apply to the The HARTgroup article above, the "Fact-Check" also misrepresents the article as claiming the vaccines caused the deaths. It did not.  The HARTgroup article makes no claim of causation, but concludes that further investigation is warranted.

INDEED!