TX State has distanced itself from its peers of Sam Houston and SFA. UNT is a step above TX State. All were teachers colleges. SFA has fared the worst and had to join the UT system. Basically like Tarleton.
I didnât know SFA joined the UT system
âI liked their punterâŠâ So did Peter Griffin. 
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Beat me to it, LOL.
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Doubt that happens, and not sure I would support that if it did.
There has to be a top level university available to the working class people of this country. Otherwise, those working class people will increasingly refuse to support these schools through their taxes.
If UH becomes just another UCLA then my money will stop flowing in; I will just send it somewhere else.
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We have plenty of universities in this state to fit everyoneâs needs.
And THIS is exactly why we will never mature and grow
Texas A& M was an All white male school for those with ties to the militaryâŠthank God someone challenged their mission statement and wanted to evolve
Florida State was an all female teaching schoolâŠthank God someone challenged their mission starement and wanted to evolve.
Even the University of Houston has built MULTIPLE satellite campuses around the Houston region to serve studentâs needs but we are doing no good accepting students that are in direct opposition of the campus OUR leaders are trying to build.
If you wanted us to remain a community collegeâŠyou never should have supported our efforts to be be a Power # School.
Look around at the class of Universities we are now assiciated withâŠit is so much more than just athletics
We would be LUCKY to mature into another UCLAâŠthat should be our goal!
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Again taking words out of my mouth. Your assumption is that âworking classâ automatically means âlow qualityâ. Nope. What I mean is, we can and should have a world class university that has high standards yet is affordable. University of Illinois-Chicago is an example of one. Iowa and Iowa state are two others. So is George Mason University.
The idea that forcing people to spend additional money to live on campus when they live in town is stupid, plain and simple. Now if people want to do that, then I am all for it. However, why should a family be forced to spend an additional $30K to live on campus for no good reason? It will do nothing for academics; keeping good faculty on staff, increasing our research, getting more investments from the private sector. Those are what increase rankings. The number of people living on campus is irrelevant.
Again, too many people on this board equate great academics with sports attendance. Could not be further from the truth. In fact, often it is the opposite.
Also, your examples are not good ones. FSU and TAMU are both land grant colleges that were in rural areas (Tallahassee is no longer rural, but it was when it was founded). UH sits in the middle of the energy capital of the world, in the nations 5th largest metro area. That is an apples and oranges comparison.
Now, UCLA and UH probably is a better comparison, however, the reason UCLA is such a great school is because UCLA has received billions in state aid from the state of CA for over 80 plus years; UH was a private university until 1962 and has received very little in the way of state aid until very recently. UCLA also benefitted from segregation; when Southern schools refused to admit Blacks, schools like UCLA took advantage of this and built great sports programs that attracted even more applicants. Not only that, but UCLA also benefitted from being in Los Angeles. Simply put, a young man or woman choosing between UCLA and say, UH, is probably going to choose Westwood over Third Ward. That is just a fact. Now you are talking to someone who chose UH over âbetter optionsâ; I chose UH because I wanted to be a part of building something.
Lets be real; the biggest problem UH has is not its students, but its treatment by the âpowers that beâ. When the state ignores you, when local businesses ignore you, and when the people who work at the school ignore you, it is not a surprise that the typical UH student has little pride in the school. Why should they when it is treated like a red-headed step child? Again, living on campus will not change that. Performance of alumni, alumni giving, taking pride in being a UH grad, winning championships on the field and on the court, having more UH profs and grads in top level positions in government, those things will help us more than mandatory on campus living.
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yeahâŠit cost me $300 a MONTH to live in the dorms while I attended UH
Extra $30kâŠget out of here Excuse MakerâŠ
If kids are living at home with parents in the area, sure, thatâs usually less expensive. Those students arenât a part of the proposed housing mandate
But if theyâre going to live in apartments in the Galleria area, med center area, etc., thatâs generally MORE expensive than living on campus. I think youâll find that a big chunk of our âcommutersâ fall into that category.
That was certainly true in the mid-90s at the law school. Iâm guessing that it isnât too different for undergrads.
Of course, kids that live at home with Mommy and Daddy are exempt form any housing mandate.
But on average, itâs cheaper to live on campus for people not living with Mommy and Daddy, and thatâs a big chunk of our undergrad âcommuters.â
And thatâs why arguments against a freshman housing mandate on an expense basis always fail.
Freshmen should be on campus and a part of campus life if they arenât staying with parents. On average, theyâll save money; somewhat in the cost of room and board, and definitely in other commuting costs (gasoline, wear and tear on vehicles, oil changes, etc).
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I went to UH as an undergrad in the 1990âs, and I did not know a single person who lived in the Galleria area as an undergrad. They either lived on Campus, or they lived at home and drove in. Even in the 1990âs, an apartment around the Galleria was expensive. I did know a few people who lived with roomies in Montrose, when it was still cheap, but that was rare.
I lived in West Houston, and in the 1990âs, I could get to UH from my house in less than 40 minutes, including finding a parking spot. This was before the days of parking garages and such. So for me, living on campus made no sense; I worked near my home, and I would stay on campus to study and such. If I was going to have to get a place on campus and take on additional expenses, I probably would have decided against UH because then it would have made no financial sense.
When did you attend UH? Was it in this century?
Here is the cost of housing at UH, per semester:
| 2023 - 2024 Fall/Spring Rate per term/person | 2024 Summer Rate per term/person | |
|---|---|---|
| Cougar Place - 2 Bed/1 Bath* | $4,677 | N/A |
| Cougar Place - 1 Bed/1 Bath* | $4,808 | N/A |
| The Quad - 4 Bed/1 Bath* | $4,509 | $2,818 |
| The Quad - 1 Bed/1Bath* | $5,050 | $3,156 |
Now, I am not a mathematician like you, but that is about $9,600 a year at minimum and multiply it by 4 years and you are looking at about $39K. So you are right, $30K was wrong; it was too low. Also, we can assume that these numbers will go up every year, because they always do.
Your move guy.
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LSU is actually Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College. A little tidbit, when it was founded itâs first president was William Tecumseh Sherman who later torched Georgia on during the Civil War.
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Yes you are 100 percent correct! Lot of people are shocked to hear that.
In fact, much of the public university system in the South was founded during/due to Reconstruction. I always like to remind my colleagues of this whenever one of them makes a snide remark about Yankees and the BIG.
See when I was in law school at UH (1994-1997) I lived on campus and saved a ton of money.
Most of those other law students lived in apartments in the Galleria Area, Med Center area, downtown, or in the Astrodome area.
They all ended up much deeper in student loan debt.
There were a small number that got garage apartments in the Heights; they were about the only ones that saved money over living on campus.
Now of course law students donât have a housing mandate.
But freshmen not living locally with their parents should.
Thatâs how it is at most top universities. And no, it will not be more expensive on average. In fact, on average, itâll cost less.
The only people that for sure would save money are those living at home with their parents, and those people would be exempt from the housing mandate anyway.
Thatâs why âcostâ arguments against he mandate almost invariably fail.
Even Whitmire didnât make that the cornerstone of his opposition. Instead, he used ignorant Hispanic stereotypes (âHispanic families donât want their daughters on campusâ or something that to effect; BOGUS, my Hispanic aunt sent her daughter and son both off to college), and gay non-issues (married students are exempt, but what if youâre gay and canât marry, or something to that effect; that was bullcrap; gays could always live together as roommates in the dorms; happened at my undergrad college all the time under a housing mandate). Now, of course, gays can marry so thatâs no longer an available argument.
So what does that tell you? It tells you this: if those are the best arguments that can be made against a freshmen housing mandate (and they WERE), and said arguments SUCK (which they obviously do for the reasons I mentioned), then opposition to the mandate in generalâŠSUCKS and should be rejected.
Get kids on campus where stats show they are much more likely to graduate/graduate on time. Those are AAU and USNEWS metrics, and this move will improve our standing in both.
Why would anyone be OPPOSED to doing something (such as this mandate) that would likely raise our standing in both?
Thatâs dumb.
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The mandate was for the Freshman year onlyâŠ(1 year)âŠnot the full 4 years.
It is typical at many Power 4 Universities
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I couldnât have said this any better
LSU was founded in 1860 in Pineville Louisiana as Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy, thatâs when Sherman was superintendent. The Civil War didnât start until April of 1861 and then colonel Sherman resigned and fought for the north. On October 15, 1869, the collegeâs building was lost in a fire. On November 1, 1869, classes were resumed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In March 1870 the schoolâs name was changed to Louisiana State University (lâUniversiteâ de lâEtat de la Louisiane) The current campus in Baton Rouge was dedicated in 1926.
Here is a list of the reasons found why people donât graduate from college; you will notice many if not most of them are financial.
According to insidehighered.com, the top reasons students consider dropping out of college are financial challenges (30%), motivation or life changes (24%), and mental health challenges (18%). Other reasons include:
- School-work-life balance
Students may not be able to find a healthy balance between school and other responsibilities.
- Social life
Some students may drop out due to the social dynamics of college.
- Lack of support
College is a big commitment that requires self-dedication and self-determination.
- Rising costs
The cost of college, including tuition, fees, room, and board, has been increasing. Students may question the return on investment, especially if they have student loan debt.
- Emotional stress
Issues like anxiety and depression can make it difficult for students to focus on their studies and continue their education.
Here is another article showing that the main reasons for kids dropping out of college are financial ones:
So I ask again: if people are dropping out of college due to financial issues, and the plan is to add to these burdens, what do you think will happen? Either one of two things will happen: fewer people will choose UH as an option or UH will have to offer more financial aid/grants to keep up its numbers, in order to attract the same numbers of students.
Remember, these are kids who have already been accepted to college, and are choosing to drop out.
Now, granted, a report on the reasons for UH students dropping out would be a more accurate analysis, but I would imagine that the reasons are similar.
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