This is news to me. What exactly has happened?
Fish camp is optional. However like getting a freshman sports pass most parents think itâs essential.
Cutting costs to balance the budget. How was cub camp attendance? I assume it was a significant investment.
My orientation was a 2 hour tour with about 9 people. It was hot. It was the summer of 96. No one cared.
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The #1 most important factor is, and always has been, in order to establish a lifelong connection and support for the University is to create the bond when students are freshman.
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Whatâs cool is UH now offers an outdoors activity program. If it includes camping then thatâs awesome.
Yeah thatâs through the rec
Maybe under the Provost was the wrong place for it. Provosts are all about research, faculty and student education.
It probably does not fit into the Provost goals and priorities. Tough for the Provost to fund a group that doesnât align with the Provost objectives. Would probably have been better aligned under a different group.
Too bad it wasnât moved, rather than dropped.
This would my first impression in hearing the Provost dumped it.
Plus budgets are tight in all Texas Higher Ed universitiesâŠunless itâs UT or TAM.
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Yea I thought that used to be under dean of students
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Just thinking, have you tried to get a meeting with the provost to discuss your concerns?
If thereâs one glaring need for the University of Houston it is more alumni engagement and school pride. This is not good news. I support the Cub Camp and I hope we see it return bigger and better.
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I just now opened up UHAA web site and in the âstaff directory - teamâ there are only 4 individuals. Mike P is still there. I tried to call the Life Member coordinator that I have talked with in the past and received âyour call cannot be completed as dialed.â So apparently, she is gone and they have nixed the phones of those that are gone.
Does anyone know why the staff was gutted?
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Kirstyn left for a different position after she finished her Masters. That is typical of these type of positions though where someone is working and a grad student at the same time.
I donât think that has anything to do with changes in administration. I could be wrong.
Ha ha that is when I went. Heck we were probably at the same one!
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Some in academia, especially among the STEM profs, believe that chasing alum for donations is a waste of time and that scarce time and money would better spent building up research capabilities. This is the quintessential Big Ten model of higher education, which focuses almost entirely on research and less and less on teaching students.
This philosophy is great for former students who have already graduated, as it increases school rankings and thus the value of the degree, and for STEM profs, who get the vast majority of these research dollars. It is ab absolute bad for the actual students of the school and their parents, who are asked to pay more for tuition for an inferior product.
There was a paper on this very topic presented to the UH Regents about 10-11 years ago by one of my old Econ professors, Dr. Steven Craig, discussing this very issue. He said that there are two possible routes for a school to go:
- Teaching university
- Research university
He freely admitted that teaching universities are probably better for students, especially marginal ones, but that becoming a research university is better for a universityâs long term financial health and reputation. Presumably, this would also lead to a better class of student.
I will try to see if I can find this paper and post it on here.
All this is to say that I am not surprised that the UHAA has been gutted. Why waste time and money getting $20 and $30 donations from former students when you can focus efforts on getting R&D collaborations with Exxon, the DOE, the DOD, the CDC, Pfizer, TMC, or large donations from Tilman Fertitta and some other rich people?
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Are the efforts mutually exclusive? Is UHAA a better return than non-revenue sports?
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I would say no, but they have probably seen numbers which suggest that the ROI is not there.
A more engaged student body would lead to more donations and returns in the long run. It can be via donations, or encouragement to attend the UH.
Dr. Craig was my first Econ professor in college and the primary driving force to my degree. Iâm not surprised of this take, especially the Big10 view. When looking at schools, IU is the teaching school while Purdue is the research one.
Itâs hard in Texas, given the high quantity of systems vying for shares of money.
At A&M fish camp is integral to the school mentality, but not required. It has several weekend options during the summer with many being difficult to get into. If it were to be canceled, heads would roll.
Given how passionate this event is to you @strakerak, if you were up to the challenge, you could ask for a meeting with the Provost or their team to find out the details. Itâs weird that this is a big change, along with UHAA, but if itâs money: it makes sense. At A&M, alums donate to keep FC alive. If itâs a cultural change, thatâs different and one to inquire about regarding the vision of student outreach. Then what it would take to come back. Alums here could coach you on what to say/ask, but in my experience at UH: when I came back to catch up with a former contact in admin (student housing, I was an RA in the towers), it was an hour Iâll never get back. I didnât realize that as a student, I was a revenue source for her job and when I moved on, I was not worth her time. It left a sour taste in my mouth for almost a decade.
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Fish Camp was cancelled during the pandemic. No heads rolled
You last two sentences should be understood by every single student on campus. This is true no matter what school you go to, but it is especially true at large state universities. This is why public universities make it so hard to graduate in 4 years. Why let you leave in 4 years when they can get an additional $40K to $60K a year (tuition you pay plus the state money, which is usually funded on a per pupil basis).
BTW - the school admin should understand that when you have unhelpful and downright hostile people working in admin, we alumni remember.