Go ahead and submit responses to our new strategic plan going forward. I told them athletics and getting into a major football conference was a top priority.
Athletics can help a little, but right now our main issue with graduation rates. I hate it because it basically encourages schools to push a student through even if they shouldn’t be just to protect their graduation rates. Either way, that has been a large focus and on campus housing was important for it to get students more into a college state of mind instead of just taking some classes at UH. Scholarships and affordability for low and middle class students are very important factors we should keep pushing.
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I’d encourage all here to give feedback and there is a link in what I sent to do so.
It’s interesting that the state knocked us down for considering a one-year requirement for on-campus housing, while Michigan State University has now moved to a two-year on campus housing requirement. Quite different perspectives here:
https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2020/reinstate-second-year-on-campus-living-requirement
My undergraduate, Southern Illinois, required freshmen and sophomores to live on campus in the mid-80s. No idea if that is still the case.
There were some exceptions for kids that lived with family within a certain mileage of the campus. There may have been some other exceptions (like students over a certain age, or who had so many years of military experience or the like).
I wasn’t happy about it when I decided to attend. Took me only a couple of days to appreciate it once I attended. I believe now it would have been a mistake to live off campus.
My kids will spend at least two years living on campus whether they want to or not. My wife feels the same.
And I’d add that there were several approved off-campus housing facilities for sophomores.
They were basically across the street from campus, and had to meet some other minimal criteria.
Relatedly, as a general rule, freshmen and sophomores were not allowed to have cars on campus (again, with some limited exceptions).
For those of us who drove down from Chicago (or other places far away), we could get a “green” parking sticker that permitted us to park in satellite lots about a mile off campus. This parking sticker would not allow you to park on any internal lots on campus.
Again, pissed me off at the time–makes perfect sense to me now.
Top25,
This a great link and I’d encourage others to explore this link and
Strategies it lays out (at a high level), if not already done so. I’m always
late to the party 