Interview With President Assanis

[Cluck U]

We have the largest employer in the state, and an institution that receives many tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, crying poor and demanding that everyone (fans, alumni, students, businesses and taxpayers (and more)) give even more money to feed the university’s self-serving ravenous appetite…and there isn’t one single in-depth article that would investigate the university’s spending habits? Why is that?

Curiosity dies in darkness.

So well stated. As you know, the university's cozy relationship with Delaware media via corporate interests goes back generations. At one point in the not-too-distant past, the university, like much of the state, was owned (or at least heavily invested) and operated (or at least heavily influenced) by members of the extended DuPont family...as was Wilmington's news media. It was the company line in Company State or no line at all. Not much has changed since Christiana Securities sold out to Gannett in 1978, and there are a lot of reasons for that. Look at the makeup of the Hullihens since 1978, and I think you'll have the answer as to why UD's business isn't subject to any serious scrutiny. Examine how Herman Holloway's original "sunshine bill" (FOIA) of 1977 was undermined by corporate interests that eventually inserted the provisions that allowed UD and DSU to skirt public examination.

Indeed. My great uncle was at the old, better version of the News Journal...and he wasn't a paper boy. Found an article about him from the 1940s. Played bridge regularly with the Carpenters. Fun stories. They'd all be rolling over in their graves right now at the state of that rag.

And yes, it is sad that the FOIA bill excludes UD and DSU. Sneaky...and typical. UD takes full advantage of their secrecy...and DSU is getting into the act as well. Mr. Allen learned all he needed to know at the feet of our other BoA BOT member. The dolts in our state chambers are fools that get played too often giving away gobs of money with few strings. Holy cow...the Bloom energy deal. Costing the Delaware rate payers well over a hundred million (with fake green energy - hey, the NJ actually reported on that) over the course of the contract and all the state boobs can say is, "ooops!" The data center (HA...HA-HA-HA-HA-HA...data center) deal was going to be another disaster until UD woke up and realized that those clowns had pulled the wool over their eyes. No one needs any conspiracy theories when our elected reps try to openly pawn such fallacies on us...right under our noses. Eternally grateful that UD woke up and stopped that crap...but they paid a lot to bury it.

Just another example of how UD regularly tosses money into the crapper...millions of dollars...because they fail to actually review the details of many of their pet projects. Uh-oh, someone will say that I wasn't specific enough.

[Hens79]

So now the state legislators are fools too? Maybe run to be one and take a shot at taking down our local ones including the “bike mafia” guy. The two kids that tried to unseat them the last election were jokes. It should easy to beat them in a primary.

Anyway, I wonder how UD survived, thrived and continues to grow all these years if they have been run and funded by fools? Sounds like they need a know it all expert

[Cluck U]

Well, just tell us Cluck what you consider “self serving” and “non-productive things, poor budgeting, frivolous expenses, and an inability to understand infrastructure costs”. You continue to talk in generalities but nothing even close to any specifics. But you do what you do. Almost sounds like the cranks and conspiracy theorists who get worked up over kids that supposedly identify as cats and require pee pads in school bathrooms because they read about it on Facebook but can never identify a single case where it actually happened.

Anyway, I wonder how come UD doesn’t use you as a consultant on … well …. literally everything. It seems like Carty, Assansis, Rawak, heck even down to the Department Heads and even the BOT could benefit from your expansive knowledge on …. Everything.

But hey, UD and Newark, while far from perfect are pretty great places. Glad I live here. To use Dan’s term, “the other politics” are in the minority and don’t cause much trouble or even speak up much, except of course on message boards and social medial.

My bottom line is, I don’t care how the sausage is made. But I am starting to worry about the football infrastructure upgrades and even competing in CUSA right away with this crying poor. If it is important enough for UD, they will make it happen.

Good grief. Do you really want me to explain the frivolousness of installing a $100,000 glass door set...just so it looks pretty?? All while crying poor?

Maybe they can cut back on the cup holders when the build the new 80...70...60...what can we now afford...athletic facilities?

Conspiracy theory. The university itself has claimed they are struggling with money and has mentioned specific issues (both in the near past, and very recently), including their issue with...wait for it...infrastructure costs. Closed dorms, broken sewer/water systems...you probably forgot. The freaking ISE building came in several tens of millions of dollars over budget (as will the new X building). Perhaps you want to sit this one out...you can't believe what is right in front of your eyes.

Unfortunately, UD's poor planning and interesting spending habits has left them in a bit of a spot. Bad timing (except it has been consistent). But yes, believe it is all about health plans and inflation (the temporary kind, we were told).

I mean, why would UD ever not be candid?

[Cluck U]

So now the state legislators are fools too? Maybe run to be one and take a shot at taking down our local ones including the “bike mafia” guy. The two kids that tried to unseat them the last election were jokes. It should easy to beat them in a primary.

Anyway, I wonder how UD survived, thrived and continues to grow all these years if they have been run and funded by fools? Sounds like they need a know it all expert

Yes, they are fools.

There is a common thread…UD also often does things without doing a real cost-benefit analysis…but the shiny expense might look good. Flush goes the money. Big money. But that’s OK, it is not their money.

October 10, 2018 article.

“The surcharge has cost Delmarva customers more than $200 million. It lasts for another 15 years. According to one estimate, it could cost Delmarva Power customers $700 million or more by 2033.

Initial estimates were that the surcharge would cost Delmarva ratepayers between $1 and $1.43 a month, although skeptics predicted it would be much higher. They were right. The surcharge is expected to top $5 next month.”

https://www.delawareonline.com/story/ne ... 588381002/

Well, over a year later, those lawmakers were thinking of changing that silliness (and Bloom had still not met its hiring goals).

https://www.wgmd.com/delmarva-power-cus ... le-energy/

Wonder where we are now?

Ship of fools.

Data Center. Fisher deal. Port of Wilmington (that is a long running millions of dollars debacle all by itself). Money disappearing everywhere…poof.

The good news is that we don’t have anyone saying that a crowded island can tip over or that the moon is round and made up of gases…stable enough that we can land there (and asking if the Mars Rover could take a picture of the flag that Neil Armstrong left there). Can’t make that stuff up. We leave that level of foolishness to the varsity squad from other states.

[Hens79]

https://bluehens.com/news/2023/11/3/del ... oom-energy

A little more recent about Bloom. Maybe if they asked you, UD would have cut ties by now? I guess the AD is a fool too?

The technology/science center/STAR campus is one of the greatest successes in UD history and Bloom was their first tenant.

And a whole $5 a month surcharge? Phew!!!

In spite of all their supposed ineptness, UD continues to grow. How’d that happen?

[Attila the Hen]

Hey Cluck,
You're so far ahead can we just apply the mercy rule and end this.
Thanks in advance.

[Hens79]

Hey Cluck,
You're so far ahead can we just apply the mercy rule and end this.
Thanks in advance.

Not so fast. UD surely effed up athletics for literally ever. But by most other metrics, e.g. enrollment, endowment, grants, the STAR center you gotta admit they are doing pretty good, right?

I hope they don’t eff up the move to FBS and the football infrastructure. It is either at the top of the priority list or it isn’t.

[Cluck U]

Hey Cluck,
You're so far ahead can we just apply the mercy rule and end this.
Thanks in advance.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/christophe ... lls-short/

Defending this boondoggle…classic from those spending other people’s money.

Wait until he hears what the cost is up to these days.

[77HEN]

Bloom Energy - Is that the outfit that got the state of Delaware to give it a sweetheart deal and. declare the natural gas it uses a renewable energy source? Is that the sole use where NG is categorized as renewable?

[Hens79]

This is Bloom Energy today. I guess some will add Shell to the growing list of fools?

https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/04/ ... -in-march/

Is anyone else going to post something recent about them?

I know gohens is a site about UD athletics, but does anyone have any idea how new technology development works?

[77HEN]

Yup, thought so. NG is a fossil fuel except for BE and DE. If only the Blue Hens FB team could play with special rules just for them, they could be Nat Champs.

Maybe Shell is trying to do a backdoor to get access to those special rules.

[Bluewyn Gold]

Fisker was a colossal bust; Bloom has not been. Their complete story has yet to be written, folks.

Any objective observer has to admit that the Bloom deal has pretty much been a mixed bag for Delaware. While the company hasn't once met its annual hiring goals or compensation benchmarks, it's also not been the complete bust that hard partisans like the Caesar Rodney Institute would have you believe.

Did Markell give away too much of the store in the $12M Bloom deal? I think so, but the biggest issue was placing too much equity in a single source. That said, Bloom has delivered about 700 jobs to a region starving for manufacturing and continues to add jobs at a steady rate. They also added an anchor to the STAR campus at a time when one was desperately needed. The hydrogen technology Bloom is actively involved in will hopefully result in millions of DOD bucks later in the year. Suggesting the Bloom deal hasn't worked out for Delaware is premature and, dare I say, disingenuous.

Here's hoping Bloom succeeds wildly and we'll one day be treated to the Bloom Energy FanZone in the north end zone at the refurbished Tubby Raymond Field at Wawa Stadium!

[Hens79]

Fisker was a colossal bust; Bloom has not been. Their complete story has yet to be written, folks.

Any objective observer has to admit that the Bloom deal has pretty much been a mixed bag for Delaware. While the company hasn't once met its annual hiring goals or compensation benchmarks, it's also not been the complete bust that hard partisans like the Caesar Rodney Institute would have you believe.

Did Markell give away too much of the store in the $12M Bloom deal? I think so, but the biggest issue was placing too much equity in a single source. That said, Bloom has delivered about 700 jobs to a region starving for manufacturing and continues to add jobs at a steady rate. They also added an anchor to the STAR campus at a time when one was desperately needed. The hydrogen technology Bloom is actively involved in will hopefully result in millions of DOD bucks later in the year. Suggesting the Bloom deal hasn't worked out for Delaware is premature and, dare I say, disingenuous.

Here's hoping Bloom succeeds wildly and we'll one day be treated to the Bloom Energy FanZone in the north end zone at the refurbished Tubby Raymond Field at Wawa Stadium!

Good post BG. Of course Bloom hasn’t been a total bust. Only extreme partisans believe that. Pushing back against folks who used words like boondoggle, total bust and calling those involved fools is hardly cheerleading for Bloom. That Bloom was a cornerstone organization of the transformational STAR campus, is still there more than a decade later, growing, doing additional partnering with UD and now Shell and potentially DoD should be enough to convince all but the blind partisans that it is at least a “mixed bag” and surely not a total bust and an example of UD ineptitude.

Also, I hope all the things in your last paragraph happen too! Doesn’t matter to me if it is Wawa, WSFS Bank, Chase, Incyte Stadium etc …. Just so UD finds some company to pony up some cash.

[Cluck U]

Fisker was a colossal bust; Bloom has not been. Their complete story has yet to be written, folks.

Any objective observer has to admit that the Bloom deal has pretty much been a mixed bag for Delaware. While the company hasn't once met its annual hiring goals or compensation benchmarks, it's also not been the complete bust that hard partisans like the Caesar Rodney Institute would have you believe.

Did Markell give away too much of the store in the $12M Bloom deal? I think so, but the biggest issue was placing too much equity in a single source. That said, Bloom has delivered about 700 jobs to a region starving for manufacturing and continues to add jobs at a steady rate. They also added an anchor to the STAR campus at a time when one was desperately needed. The hydrogen technology Bloom is actively involved in will hopefully result in millions of DOD bucks later in the year. Suggesting the Bloom deal hasn't worked out for Delaware is premature and, dare I say, disingenuous.

Here's hoping Bloom succeeds wildly and we'll one day be treated to the Bloom Energy FanZone in the north end zone at the refurbished Tubby Raymond Field at Wawa Stadium!

Good dealing with an informed person rather than an uniformed defender of anything put in front of him.

As of last year, the upper folks at UD were saying their Bloom deal was a bust. Bloom occupies a very large section of the STAR campus, with a very nice entrance. So far, the company has failed to provide the jobs they promised and have also failed to build out their presence on the lot...as promised. UD was counting on more income...ooops. Yes, Bloom was the first company to build on the campus, but that is not important...their presence was not linked to any other company (in other words, they weren't an anchor or a magnet for other companies to locate on the STAR campus).

But hey, they provide a couple thousand dollars in sponsorship. Take a few million, give back a few thousand...and have people declare you are a good guy, so everything is cool.

Also, the company has not paid all of their penalties for not achieving their goals. The state of Delaware is so desperate for jobs that they don't bother enforcing (in fact, they are afraid to enforce) any penalties on companies that don't meet their hiring or income requirements (see the Port of Wilmington fiasco)...yet those penalties and job promises are at the root of politicians promising economic benefits (or else!!!!) when they give oodles of money to lure these companies to town.

And, I believe the ratepayers of Delmarva Power have something to say about all of this. They have been been forced to pay several hundred millions of dollars in subsidies...and counting (yet some says it is OK, since it is only a small charge monthly) to support this company...a company that has outright lied about their product's performance to all of their investors for over a decade...and hidden losses with creative accounting deceptions. They are playing a Ponzi game...it will be interesting to see who is left holding the last loan.

All of this for a Green energy that isn't really green. But, hey, the defense department might get involved...and they spend billions on tanks we don't need, so there is always a chance that Bloom Energy Field will help our football team.

[Hens79]

He didn’t listen to you either BG.

And Shell and potentially DoD are investing in a Ponzi scheme of a company? You literally cannot make up this level of contrarian idiocy.

I wonder who these “UD higher ups” are?