I thought you attended at roughly the same time I did? Because I was paying about $1,000/mo in CV1 in 2012-2013, when you factor in that dorms close four months out of the year. That was competitive with a 1BR apartment at the time.
My Cougar Place apartment was DIRT CHEAP compared to living where most law students livedâŠand âŠI didnât have to spend any money on utilities, gasoline or any of the other automotive expenses associated with commuting.
The only law students that did better than I did, as Iâve said before, were a handful that managed to get garage apartments in the Heights.
Those were literally the exceptions that prove the rule.
I was an undergrad +/- around 2000.
yeah, the University of Houston finally realized they could charge Traditional School rates without providing the amenities provided to similar size state public universities.
Iâm just the whistle blower pointing out you are NOT getting the value of a full college experience at the University of Houston which is why so many alums send their children to OTHER SCHOOLS
The Housing office?
The people in charge of selling on-campus housing?
They say that itâs cheaper to live on-campus? Iâm shocked.
But regardless of whether or not the specific costs of on-campus housing work out or not, thereâs still the fact that full-time attendance and campus involvement preclude full-time employment, which is likely the most costly part of being a âtraditionalâ student, especially in the short-term. If I have to take a job that earns $15k a year instead of $30k because I have to attend class during the day, thatâs effectively an additional $15k cost per year. Low-income students canât afford to pass on that.
A 2% Greek population: but itâs available. So thatâs not cheapening their experience.
No adjacent University themed development to keep students on/near campus after class: but you have the whole city as your playground. Not a podunk small town.
No Freshman Living mandate: Donât need it. ATM and UT donât either. per your envy postings
Majority students that fit into these categories A) Transfer students (to or from) B)Commuter Students (any race, any generation) C) Adult students (older than 25) How is this cheapening their experience. Theyâre the students! UH is a destination school for those students.Only for the dotes that wanted a UT or ATM experience but went to UH instead. Did you not make it to UT or ATM. Is that the reason you hate UH?
Regional reputation with little emphasis on out of state representation: only if you believe what UT and ATM says about UH. Plenty of successful grads proves them wrong.
Limited fan support, school pride for school its size or even smaller: Umm, have you seen the basketball program? No fan support?
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Full-time employment for someone right out of high school often means a waitressing, barrista, clerical job, or blue collar job, so your employment prospects arenât going to be that great, and your salary not super-great as a general ruleâŠ
But regardlessâŠeven if you did have some fancy job with just a HS diploma that youâd prioritize over higher education (and if you do, then more power to youâŠI sure as Hell didnât)âŠ
Consider thisâŠ
If you put more focus on your job than on school, and you make THAT your priority, then you are most likely going to be the kind of student that only comes on campus to take his courses and then leavesâŠwho is less likely to be loyal to the school (because the school was never âhomeâ to them), and as suchâŠis less likely to be involved in campus life, less likely to become a sports fan, a member of Greek Life, or a lifetime donor/supporterâŠyada, yada, yada.
And thenâŠ
We end up being stuck in the same deadly cycle of poor attendance, poor fan support, poor viewershipâŠand possible RELEGATION as a result.
I think that we can all agree that weâd like to prevent thatâŠso if we doâŠthen we need to stop perpetuating that cycle with such a non-traditional attitude.
And please note again, that âtraditionalââŠhas NOTHING to do with race, class, etc.
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I think youâre missing my point
UH isnât a university that is built around Greek life or even has a consistently flourishing Greek Life, probably since the SWC days. Therefore, using a chapter at UH to prove diversity isnât really supporting any argument.
The general discussion here is that UH Greek Life isnât that great in its current state. The only way it will improve is if the student body sees an uptick of students willing to invest in a more robust Greek life. The problem is that UH lacks the support and finances from its alumni to be part of this process.
The reason other schools are able to have traditional Greek life as most people know it is because theyâve largely maintained wealth, which by nature results in predominantly white organizations.
If a fraternity is 25% white, 25% black, 50% Hispanic, then chances are the fraternity never had a chance to keep accumulate generational student wealth to maintain a robust system. Itâs 2025, and UH still remains a public university with MANY first gen students.
If UH wants to build a robust Greek system that keeps its diverse identity compared to other public school Greek systems, then it will take the children of children of children of minority groups to change the system beginning with todayâs first gen students.
The other point im outlaying is that Greek life historically (SEC/B1G/Ivies/Lib Arts) was a way for wealthy people to remain in the same social circle, which systematically means wealthy white people.
If that system no longer exists, then Greek Life would naturally fall apart nationwide. If every Greek organization in the country was mandated to recruit 50% minorities, then the foundational wealth of the fraternity or sorority would decline over time, and the original purpose would no longer exist
I think that thatâs a bit of a stereotype, and likely a myth.
I think youâll find fraternities at HBCUs that are or are nearly 100% Black.
Somehow their Greek systems seem VERY robust.
A UH Greek system with the demographics you described can likewise be VERY robust.
Itâs just a matter of getting more students, regardless of demographics, on campus, and more involved in Greek Life.
I mean, FC is the smallest arena of any P5 public school, and is still often half-full, despite being home to a legitimate title contender. Thatâs pretty bad.
I personally donât care too much about that â I think there are broader demographic and economic forces at work â but our fan support is pretty bad.
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As I see it, more âtraditionalâ studentsâŠdefined in the way that I doâŠNOT the way that you do, is the key to changing that.
And having a more robust Greek Life.
SorryâŠbut I call it as I see it.
âŠ.so? I donât really care a ton about our sports teams. Theyâre a nice little extra add-on to a UH education, which has the power to be transformative in the life of the student you just described. If we get relegated back to the American, or C-USA, or the Lone Star Conference, such is life; Iâll still go to Coog games and have fun, just like I did before we got into the XII.
UH, in its current form, does magnificent things for the City of Houston and the State of Texas. It sincerely transforms lives, and gives a pathway to a better future to tens of thousands of students. Thatâs way bigger than any sporting event, and I wouldnât trade that for the world.
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Law, im not talking about black fraternities. Iâm talking about IFC fraternities.
The reason I initially mentioned black/Hispanic fraternities is because black and Hispanic people were not even allowed in white fraternities. HBCU and minority-based Greek organizations were essentially responses to white racism.
While this is no longer the case, there are still mechanisms in place where minorities can never be more than 10% of the entire demographic.
UH is an anomaly because it never had the traditional Greek culture as other schools for a long time.
Have you tried to buy season tickets? The whole place is sold out for the season.
Again, stop acting like we are still living in the 1920s - 1950s.
IFC fraternities at UH are all integrated and VERY diverse. Just check out the officers at the UH Sigma Nu chapter, which I provided to you, as a CASE STUDY on that point.
Thereâs NO reason at all why we canât make those fully integrated, very diverse fraternities BIGGER. Or have more of them. The first key is to get more people living on campus, that is to say âtraditionalâ students, regardless of background. The second is to get more support from the administration, perhaps a Greek row, and other things.
I know that the Sigma Nu chapter at UH dates back to the 1950s; our legendary Hall of Fame basketball coach Guy V. Lewis was a member of the chapterâs predecessor local group, the âCavalier Club,â and was ultimately initiated as a UH Sigma Nu (did you know that?) when it petitioned to join and ultimately became affiliated with Sigma Nu.
Thatâs right! The great Guy V. Lewis is a UH Sigma Nu!!!
As is true of every frat at UHâŠSigma Nu is well-integrated and very diverse today, regardless of how it may have been in the past.
Talk about the PRESENTâŠNOT the past, when discussing these issues please.
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This is correct. The football teams record has no bearing on our degrees. Or commuter status either. Are we the only P4 commuter school? Then we are unique! One of a kind.
That would be coolâŠEXCEPT for the fact that it costs us a lot in terms of fan support, attendance, viewership, gameday atmosphere, Greek Life, etc.
And thatâŠCOULD result in us again losing âpowerâ conference status, as we have in the past.
Becoming more traditional and shedding that label is a key to help preventing that from happening again.
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We are way of the rails in trying to develop a plan to increase Greek participation. The racial allegations are totally wrong. I think summer of â68 a guy named Pete from the national Omega office asked me if my house would sponsor them to join the IFC. I did. Two weeks later Don Henderson asked me to sponsor the KA Order. I didâŠ.sort of the ying and yang of things. I was a Phi Kappa Theta that at that time was all Catholic. You think we didnât have our share of Latinos and Hispanics.
Here is what I think needs to happen.
- Send this thread to all your UH friends. The discussion clearly shows that there is an interest.
- I spoke with a Student Life person yesterday calling attention this thread. She internally email some of the staff and asked for an email from me. If you have some contacts in Student Life I suggest you do the same.
- If you were a Greek contact your national and urge their support.
- The first focus should be those chapters that were once on campus. Recolonization is a lot easier. They have alumni and financial support. We first generation guys arenât broke.
- The school needs to invite those houses to an on campus meeting. The houses should be told to bring a recolonization plan for this coming fall. It isnât that hard quit throwing rocks at the effort.
- The AD should send out an email to all students organizations that they can sign up for block seating for this fallâŠfrats, chess club, the rodeo guysâŠyou do still have a rodeo?
- The alumni groups of the targeted National need to get quickly plugged in in order to organize their support effort.
Now that should be a start. No one says everyone must be a Greek. But why deny folks the opportunity? It smacks of pure petty meanness. The benefits have been discussed. 1000 Greeks is a systemic failure. I am very critical of the rush effort. Try being a rush chairman that has to find only Catholics to rush. 40,000 students is like fishing in a barrel.
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WowâŠyou really are celebrating mediocrity due to lack of planning, vision, and culture.
Just pathetic.
This should be UHâs new motto:
Come to the University of Houston, where we will charge you Traditional School Prices yet only offer a fraction of the amenities provided at ârealâ Traditional Universities. But donât worry, we will maintain our Commuter School reputation, we even celebrate it, as it helps us churn out borderline college graduates. Hey, the world always needs âWorker Beesâ. We will leave the ârealâ leaders to those schools that actually provide ALL dimensions of a college experience but we arenât worriedâŠwe are CHARGING you the same price, regardless!
Phi Kappa Theta was a solid chapter at my undergrad college. A couple of guys from my dorm that were cool went Phi Kap.
Though historically CatholicâŠit is now general and at my college, only had a minority of Catholic members.
Alpha Delta Gamma is really the only IFC fraternity that still has a Catholic focus, and it is VERY small; only has a handful of chapters, mostly at Jesuit liberal arts colleges.
Ever wonder why people accuse you of hating UH?
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