My fat governor hates climbing!

This is really beyond phillyvoice.com/christie-sa…

Douche! Plain and simple.

Because when it comes to fitness, Chris Christie is an expert. I'm still waiting for a video of him hanging with some homeboys and smoking crack.

He's promoting outdoor climbing. Good for him.

Finally, a genuinely solid reason to vote against somebody.

Yeah because an indoor climbing wall is what's making your daughters college so expensive......dumbass

Stop freaking out guys. Christie is a giant piece of shit, but this is getting blown out of proportion. As I understand it, he's saying colleges spend too much on perks that aren't education, he just happened to cite climbing walls as an example of friviolous spending. Still a dubious point, but climbers freaking out about Christie being "anti-climbing" probably haven't read past the headline.

Nick - ain't that the truth ... climbing wall cost exactly football coach's wage for a day ...

This has nothing to do with Christie liking climbing or not liking climbing or understanding the first thing about climbing.

I am nowhere near a Christie supporter, but he has a point. In the competition for students, colleges increasingly have to invest in things that will attract students and parents, and those things often have nothing to do with education, knowledge, curriculum, or anything recognizable as vocational or intellectual competence.

Much as we may like 'em, climbing walls (financed either directly by tuition or indirectly by mandatory student activity fees) would be an example. And the fact that the wall by itself may not be a big chunk of the budget is beside the point. The idea that the colleges have to invest in a big array of shiny attractions is the issue, with something like a climbing wall one of the many symptoms.

He's also said Colorado's pot party's going to end. So make that 2 reasons I won't be voting for him (although I can't partake anyways.....)!

rgold wrote:Much as we may like 'em, climbing walls (financed either directly by tuition or indirectly by mandatory student activity fees) would be an example. And the fact that the wall by itself may not be a big chunk of the budget is beside the point. The idea that the colleges have to invest in a big array of shiny attractions is the issue, with something like a climbing wall one of the many symptoms.

YES

The fact that everyone's takeaway from this is "OMG Chris Christie hates climbing" is what's wrong with this country. Read past the fucking headline people, and maybe ponder why our universities spend more money on administrator salaries, landscaping, luxury dorms and climbing walls than actual fucking EDUCATION.

ETA: Christie is still a douchebag.

I'm sure an endorsement from healyje is in the near future, especially if Christie will also address the critical issue of thousands of climbers being dropped by grigris 24/7.

JL

Chris Christie. Homing in on the really tough issues gripping our country today.

Cocoapuffs 1000 wrote: YES The fact that everyone's takeaway from this is "OMG Chris Christie hates climbing" is what's wrong with this country. Read past the fucking headline people, and maybe ponder why our universities spend more money on administrator salaries, landscaping, luxury dorms and climbing walls than actual fucking EDUCATION. ETA: Christie is still a douchebag.

Christie hates spending money on the public, but he's more than happy to let the public spend money on his personal life. He took a state police helicopter to his son's little league game! nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/…

Im not saying colleges are perfectly run machines, but I also dont think a simple climbing wall is bankrupting a school. And you make it sound as though theres no educational value in climbing, which I think is utterly false.

rgold wrote:This has nothing to do with Christie liking climbing or not liking climbing or understanding the first thing about climbing. I am nowhere near a Christie supporter, but he has a point. In the competition for students, colleges increasingly have to invest in things that will attract students and parents, and those things often have nothing to do with education, knowledge, curriculum, or anything recognizable as vocational or intellectual competence. Much as we may like 'em, climbing walls (financed either directly by tuition or indirectly by mandatory student activity fees) would be an example. And the fact that the wall by itself may not be a big chunk of the budget is beside the point. The idea that the colleges have to invest in a big array of shiny attractions is the issue, with something like a climbing wall one of the many symptoms.

I'm sorry, but opposing University climbing walls is pretty much just letting the terrorists win.

rgold wrote:This has nothing to do with Christie liking climbing or not liking climbing or understanding the first thing about climbing. I am nowhere near a Christie supporter, but he has a point. In the competition for students, colleges increasingly have to invest in things that will attract students and parents, and those things often have nothing to do with education, knowledge, curriculum, or anything recognizable as vocational or intellectual competence. Much as we may like 'em, climbing walls (financed either directly by tuition or indirectly by mandatory student activity fees) would be an example. And the fact that the wall by itself may not be a big chunk of the budget is beside the point. The idea that the colleges have to invest in a big array of shiny attractions is the issue, with something like a climbing wall one of the many symptoms.

I agree with Old Man Gunkie here. When I was in school (quite recently), I was pretty annoyed by having to pay many hundreds of dollars each semester in all sorts of mandatory fees (which were separate from tuition). Most of these fees went toward elaborate facilities that I had no interest in or use for, but I had to pay for all of it anyway.

As much as I dislike Chris Christie, he is correct in this case. The "resortification" of college campuses is a contributing factor to the affordability crisis in higher education. Kids are going ever deeper into student debt paying for resort-like amenities that they don't really need and really can't afford. I think that something like the German model is vastly better. School there is inexpensive (or free), but really just offers classroom education, and none of the other aspects of the "American college experience." On that note, I don't even think that college sports teams should exist, but you'll never hear any politician mentioning that. The $50k climbing wall is a lot safer (politically) to pick on than the $50M football stadium.

Returning to the topic of college climbing walls, who needs them anyway? Most of the ones I've been to, even the nice ones, are pretty much useless to an experienced climber. Trying to train power on the typical college wall (a 40' vertical toproping wall is miserable). An then there is the route-setting. I would much rather just pay for an actual climbing gym, or climb on a tiny basement woody, or hangboard in my bedroom, than go to a college wall. All college walls are good for is creating armies of annoying college kid gumby climbers that clog up the RRG and Red Rocks every year at spring break.

The reason why you normally don't hear people complain about sports teams is generally sports teams for alot of schools generate money that more than pays for them self.

At the same time if the school wants to put up a rock climbing wall and let the public pay to use it so it could pay for itself as well (maybe even provide jobs for kids attending the school).

I can think of alot of other things schools are wasting money on, last thing we want to do is take away something that could help keep our fat nation from getting fatter.

I wish I had a gym close to me, I have to drive an hour to just get to a gym and have really stopped going recently. Although I don't like climbing at a gym I can tell my endurance is suffering from not going twice a week. I used to have a friend halfway between me and the gym so I only had to drive 30mins to get there but it sux driving an hour for plastic. From a technical standpoint I don't see much improvement from gyms only endurance, real rock at least where I normally climb is completely different than most of what you are going to get in a gym.

ViperScale wrote:The reason why you normally don't hear people complain about sports teams is generally sports teams for alot of schools generate money that more than pays for them self.

This is generally a misconception. While athletic programs at a small handful of Big Ten (and similar schools) are cash flow positive, at the other 99% of schools the athletic program is a drain on the budget.

Recreation facilities for the sake of fatness prevention is a noble goal, but it is questionable what the value is for spending so much money (and going into student loan debt) for fancy facilities that a limited number of people have access to for such a short period of thier lives (4 years). These are public funds, to a large degree, lets remember. Wouldn't it be better for funds to go toward expanding public facilities like parks and bike paths, which would be accessible to everyone, all the time?

ViperScale, I was until very recently the climbing wall manager at my universities gym.

While the wall did provide student jobs(!) it sucked in 100x more $$$ than it ever made. The staff was full of non-climbers so the quality suffered and generally nobody outside the student body came to use it. In addition, it would be crowded fall semester then a grave yard spring semester because it was generally regarded as 'something you just had to do once before you graduate.'

University climbing gyms are always sub-par anyways (in comparison to the local gym) I did the whole USA climbing CCS thing for a year so I have actually seen a few university rock walls.

Anyways christie is a chode but he has a good point, maybe tuition should be spent on more worthwhile programs. I think he chose the climbing wall example because it's an easy target.

JCM wrote: This is generally a misconception. While athletic programs at a small handful of Big Ten (and similar schools) are cash flow positive, at the other 99% of schools the athletic program is a drain on the budget. Recreation facilities for the sake of fatness prevention is a noble goal, but it is questionable what the value is for spending so much money (and going into student loan debt) for fancy facilities that a limited number of people have access to for such a short period of thier lives (4 years). These are public funds, to a large degree, lets remember. Wouldn't it be better for funds to go toward expanding public facilities like parks and bike paths, which would be accessible to everyone, all the time?

I think they provide more marketing for the school than you would think which turns into money. The amount of money wasted on sports compared to what they waste on other things probably doesn't even compare. I know some of the stuff they had in the labs at my school and they probably waste more on that stuff that 99% of the school doesn't even know exist than they spend on the sports team that at least people know exist.

I do agree that they are probably pointless from my point of view, but than I know tons of marketing stuff that end in lots of money being generated that make no sense to me.

Well obviously that wall at your school and probably most schools wasn't marketed like a normal gym for the public. IMO schools would be better off having stuff like that run like a real business to help give real world experience as if they were working in the real world.

I personally hate and think school is pointless I learned stuff from maybe 4 classes I took the entire time I was in college. I am probably not normal but I do think our entire education system is stupid and could be completely overhauled. Find a way to teach more from a hands on real world experience with minimal classroom book work (yes i do know some of it is needed).

Take what I did computer science, taking students and finding real world work for them to do and teach them that way. You could even earn money selling the service to small businesses that need some cheap IT work.

I love the picture at the top. It just really says "I'm a fucking douche bag". Priceless.