Jindal to ask to merge SUNO, UNO (1 Viewer)

[You]

It's historically black, not all black. Of course you may not see the difference, but that's for another thread.

And here you've made my point! It was all black at some point and then they integrated. Well now lets further that integration with a merger of the two schools.

 

[DoubleDee]

uno has recently upgraded their web site etc. and new cosmetic construction is all over the campus.

if i were a student there i would question cosmetic changes when the budget is as it is.

You bring up a good point. But from what I've been told, money for campus improvements are from a separate budget. And many times building improvement dollars come from donations whereas money for running the school comes from the state.

 

[RazorOye]

And here you've made my point! It was all black at some point and then they integrated. Well now lets further that integration with a merger of the two schools.

that was your point?

 

[Saint Sarah]

And here you've made my point! It was all black at some point and then they integrated. Well now lets further that integration with a merger of the two schools.

I guess we should go ahead an merge Tulane and Loyola. I mean there is no reason for schools to be that close together.

 

[krushing]

SUNO has a 5% graduation rate. That is one of the lowest in the country! Can't argue that fact. How can you continue to support that kind of failure with tax dollars?

 

[Saint Sarah]

Well, at Northwestern State band people get heavily recruited and their out of state fees get waived.

I don't know what I've missed, but this doesn't seem to really apply to what we are talking about.

Too much funds are allocated towards arts and theater for every major university in the state.

Arts and theater, while not my thing, are really important to having a balanced education.



Fundamentally, education in the United States is looked at all wrong, particularly in the South. Education is looked at as a social issue, not an economic issue. In times of trouble, such as now, social issues get swept under the rug and/or cut to the bone.

What people need to realize is that education, from pre-k through to graduate school is an economic issue. Until we figure this out, we're going to be in big big trouble.

 

[mb504]

I guess we should go ahead an merge Tulane and Loyola. I mean there is no reason for schools to be that close together.

While I see what you did there, those are both private institutions run by private boards with the majority of their operating costs passed on to their students in the form of obscene tuition rates. "We" can't merge them.

 

[BigRonJon]

SUNO has a 5% graduation rate. That is one of the lowest in the country! Can't argue that fact. How can you continue to support that kind of failure with tax dollars?

Im curious why people would even go to college if they dont plan to graduate? 5% is terrible (if its true).

Why would you pay to go to school and have all that debt in student loans if you dont plan to graduate? Oh wait...

 

[You]

I guess we should go ahead an merge Tulane and Loyola. I mean there is no reason for schools to be that close together.

They're privately funded institutions. Maybe someday if they both get into financial trouble, I'd expect a discussion to take place.

 

[Saint Sarah]

SUNO has a 5% graduation rate. That is one of the lowest in the country! Can't argue that fact. How can you continue to support that kind of failure with tax dollars?

All evidence I've seen shows a double digit graduation rate. Still not spectacular, but better than 5%.

Other studies have shown that on average Div I basketball players graduate at a clip of 20% less than full-tim male students. I guess it is time to cut basketball.

Many football programs at big schools also feature a huge disparity between their graduation rates and the student body graduation rates. Time to axe football too.

 

[slimm_17th]

I never went to UNO nor did I take a class at SUNO. But I did go to Morehouse College for a few years and took several classes at Clark Atlanta, Morris Brown and Spellman before ultimately getting my degree as well as most of my education at Georgia State University.

To the students at Suno, this will be a good thing in the long run if you really want to get the best education possible. From my experience the HBCU thing is overrated. Extremely fun, but overrated....and over priced.

 

[RazorOye]

I don't know what I've missed, but this doesn't seem to really apply to what we are talking about.

Arts and theater, while not my thing, are really important to having a balanced education.

not to mention that you can also get an out of state Fee Waiver from Northwestern by living in a border state, having a good GPA as an incoming freshman or college transfer, decent standardized test scores, or current academic performance.

not to mention that he doesn't:
a. establish what departments he's subsuming under the "arts" umbrella
b. a reference to what these departments' actual budgets are
c. elucidation of what an appropriate budgetary figure is in his opinion
d. any information on the impact these departments have had to absorb hits relative to other departments on campus in terms of budget, faculty, staff, resources, etc

not to mention that he doesn't demonstrate any knowledge of the tenure process or make reference to what the salary burden of these tenured positions are costing the university as a figure relative to total income with a comparison to non-educational industries or other (more predatory) for-profit postsecondary institutions and follow that up by making a case explaining to what extent the current edufiscal crisis is indebted to these undocumented amounts

not to mention there's no wider cultural considerations for the arts and theatrical scenes to both education and to larger society, generally

not to mention that there's a lazy, cliched, closing reference to those involved in education as somehow existing, living, toiling in world that is somehow not real or less real than his own. Not to mention that there's no establishment of what constitutes "reality" and how the life I've lived and my mother before me have existed in not-reality

 

[krushing]

Im curious why people would even go to college if they dont plan to graduate? 5% is terrible (if its true).

Why would you pay to go to school and have all that debt in student loans if you dont plan to graduate? Oh wait...

Bob D. read the statistics on 870 this morning. UNO is down to 26%. Students called in and blamed part of it on the shortage of required classes offered after Katrina causing it to take 6 or 7 yearrs to graduate.

The percentage at all colleges is probably much lower then we would first think. Many students attend for a semester or two, and drop out, but 5% is crazy bad!!

 

[Danchrism]

What's your point? The why is irrelevant. If the numbers have dropped, its not nonsensical to reduce the state funding or ask for a merger. It would be much more of a travesty if these budget cuts/merger were coming at a time when the school was experiencing a peak in enrollment.

UNO's entrance standards changed that school year. They didn't relax those standards to re-populate at a time when the school urgently needed warm bodies sitting in classrooms. It's not like the student-teacher ratio has greatly improved; they've cut programs and the ratio is almost the same as it was pre-Katrina... before the higher entrance standards took effect. They lost students without the most tangible effect of losing students, and in the process managed to lose means by which they could gain more students.

I also don't see the logistics in attempting to merge schools across university systems. It's slightly more feasible between LSU/UL but there's no UL system school in New Orleans (in fact they've mostly stayed out of each other's way other than the Shreveport/Ruston/Grambling logjam).

 

[BBSaint]

All evidence I've seen shows a double digit graduation rate. Still not spectacular, but better than 5%.

Other studies have shown that on average Div I basketball players graduate at a clip of 20% less than full-tim male students. I guess it is time to cut basketball.

Many football programs at big schools also feature a huge disparity between their graduation rates and the student body graduation rates. Time to axe football too.

So we should abolish all collegiate athletic programs with a poor graduation rate? That's a ridiculous premise. First off, the NCAA monitors and governs academic performance of its student athletes. You have a bad APR, you get penalties and can eventually be banned. If sports programs have sub-20% grad rate or athletes arent completing courses, they are not active for a long time. There are far more stringent rules on student athletes completing coursework than there are for non athletes.

Athletics are a extremely small fraction of an entire university. When you are talking about the entire school being sub-20%, then "not spectacular" is kind of glossing over the issue. You are arguing that athletics from all schools or most schools should close ahead of the worst performing school in the state. Some athletics should get cut, but not because they have poor graduation rates. The role of athletics in a university gets a bit diminished at times. Some schools cannot support them, but this state cannot support every extremely poor performing school either.

And honestly, your point about Tulane and Loyola is a little ridiculous. Tax payers dont bear the burden of keeping those establishments afloat, so they are out of the question. This isnt solely about closing schools that are close to each other, but rather trimming the ridiculous number of universities that this state clearly cannot support. Low performers are always the first to get the boot. At least it would be a merge and not an outright closure. Not sure how much different that would be though.