307-Acres Near NRG Stadium (Formerly UT Research Campus Proposal)

[CREguy13]

Another nice tidbit from McRaven:

 

The purchase alarmed University of Houston supporters and others who see a UT presence in the state’s largest city as an unwanted development. McRaven, however, said Thursday that he believes Houston will be for 21st century America what New York City was in the 20th century, and that the state’s premier university system should have a presence there.

[KinkaidAlum]

1) New York City is nearly 4 times bigger than Houston

2) There's no public university in NYC that's anything close to UH

3) UT has a HUGE presence in Houston; UT MD Anderson, UT Health Science Center, UT Nursing, UT Dental, UT Public Health, UT MBA satellite

 

So, is he saying he wants a bigger presence or is he saying he wants to open another state/public university? If it's the latter, then he's mistaken if he thinks New York City has examples of two large, very high research universities in close proximity. 

 

UT has a presence here. It's a huge one. However, opening up another 4 year public university with graduate/research level capabilities would be a complete waste of taxpayer money. Within 100 miles of Houston we have UH, UHCL, UH Downtown, Texas Southern, Sam Houston State, Texas A&M, Prairie View A&M, Texas Women's University, and UT and A&M Galveston branches. We should be working to make all of those schools BETTER not opening a new campus. 

 

[H-Town Man]

1 hour ago, KinkaidAlum said:

1) New York City is nearly 4 times bigger than Houston

2) There's no public university in NYC that's anything close to UH

3) UT has a HUGE presence in Houston; UT MD Anderson, UT Health Science Center, UT Nursing, UT Dental, UT Public Health, UT MBA satellite

 

So, is he saying he wants a bigger presence or is he saying he wants to open another state/public university? If it's the latter, then he's mistaken if he thinks New York City has examples of two large, very high research universities in close proximity. 

 

UT has a presence here. It's a huge one. However, opening up another 4 year public university with graduate/research level capabilities would be a complete waste of taxpayer money. Within 100 miles of Houston we have UH, UHCL, UH Downtown, Texas Southern, Sam Houston State, Texas A&M, Prairie View A&M, Texas Women's University, and UT and A&M Galveston branches. We should be working to make all of those schools BETTER not opening a new campus. 

 

 

You don't consider City College/CUNY anything close to UH?

 

I don't think this will be a 4 year public university. More of a research center.

[monarch]

^^^ HOOK'EM!

[KinkaidAlum]

8 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

You don't consider City College/CUNY anything close to UH?

 

I don't think this will be a 4 year public university. More of a research center.

 

No. 

 

UH is much larger. UH's endowment is nearly three times larger. UH kids score higher on the SAT and GRE exams (which is amazing considering the regional difference in test scores that favors the Northeast). UH spends three times as much on research per year. UH offers 61 more majors. UH has higher 4, 6, and 8 year graduation rates. UH ranks higher in the Academic Ranking of World Universities. In the stupid Forbes and US News and World Report rankings, UH is considered a "national doctoral university" whereas City is seen as a "regional" one. UH has ten different academic accreditations. City has just two. UH has separate colleges for the College of Arts, Business, Hotel + Restaurant Management, Law, Natural Sciences + Math, Nursing, Optometry, Pharmacy, Public Affairs, Social Work, and Technology that City lacks.

 

City is great at what it does, but UH is on another level. If UH gets a med school, which it is fighting for, the gap will widen further. 

[H-Town Man]

7 hours ago, KinkaidAlum said:

 

No. 

 

UH is much larger. UH's endowment is nearly three times larger. UH kids score higher on the SAT and GRE exams (which is amazing considering the regional difference in test scores that favors the Northeast). UH spends three times as much on research per year. UH offers 61 more majors. UH has higher 4, 6, and 8 year graduation rates. UH ranks higher in the Academic Ranking of World Universities. In the stupid Forbes and US News and World Report rankings, UH is considered a "national doctoral university" whereas City is seen as a "regional" one. UH has ten different academic accreditations. City has just two. UH has separate colleges for the College of Arts, Business, Hotel + Restaurant Management, Law, Natural Sciences + Math, Nursing, Optometry, Pharmacy, Public Affairs, Social Work, and Technology that City lacks.

 

City is great at what it does, but UH is on another level. If UH gets a med school, which it is fighting for, the gap will widen further. 

 

The comparison in rankings is difficult because the stronger graduate programs are separated off into CUNY-Graduate Center, as opposed to CCNY (or CUNY-City College). The medical and law schools are separated as well. That's probably why City College (by itself) is only considered a regional college. I wrote "City College/CUNY" because the two really must be considered together.

 

In terms of size, CUNY is the largest urban university in the country, with a budget that is twice what UH's is. I don't really have the time to sift through rankings for CUNY's 24 campuses and separate graduate center, and try to distill them down to a straight-line comparison with UH, but I don't think it's a battle that UH will win.

Edited January 28, 2017 by H-Town Man

[KinkaidAlum]

Wait, so now you want to compare all 24 separate campuses with just UH?

 

Moving the goal posts just a little, huh?

 

Seems as if you're going to do that then you'd need to compare CUNY with the entire UH system and since CUNY includes several junior/community colleges, then we should thrown in all Houston area JCs as well to UH's side. 

[shasta]

The Texas Senate hearings did not go well for the University of Texas..

 

$450 million of Texas tax payer's money for 300 acres of an Environmentally Unsound piece of land for a secret project with no plans or direction.

 

Watch it here:

 

[AREJAY]

http://m.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/UT-cancels-plans-to-build-in-Houston-10969505.php

 

Quote

The University of Texas System is abandoning plans to expand in Houston.

Chancellor William McRaven said Wednesday he will no longer pursue a project on 300-plus acres in Houston. 

 

[BigFootsSocks]

He said this immediately after releasing the letter in response to Whitmire's scathing review? Sooooo that's $200 million for nothing or were they still in the due dillegence period?

[arbpro]

OK the UT people who attacked me for saying the campus would never happen can apologize now. 

[KinkaidAlum]

The whole thing was sketchy. Despite what some UT folks think, you don't run Texas. Texas runs you. The fact that hundreds of millions were spent to buy a booster's land without state approval or even preliminary plans for what UT was going to do with it should outrage everyone. That's not how things should work.

 

I am all for UT increasing their presence in Houston. They're already here in so many different forms. UT should just follow the proper channels for growth. The retreat makes me think this thing might stink even more than I thought when it first failed my smell test. 

[Nole23]

We can move this thread to "Going Nowhere"

[HNathoo]

There is no way they can sell this land for anything close to what they paid. Maybe this project comes back around in 10 years after they've written this down/off.

[tigereye]

This could be a nice spot for a theme park. 

[ADCS]

So glad to see that typical Texan parochialism and territoriality won the day here /s

[samagon]

8 hours ago, HNathoo said:

There is no way they can sell this land for anything close to what they paid. Maybe this project comes back around in 10 years after they've written this down/off.

 

then we have to hope that someone writes some legislation saying that UT has to sell the land at whatever losses they might end up taking. then we have to hope that they open an official inquiry into misappropriation of funds (or whatever lawyery term is appropriate).

 

while my tax dollars didn't go directly to the purchase of this land, my tax dollars did go to the overall UT system, so it's pretty obvious this needs to be thoroughly investigated.

[Timoric]

-

Edited July 11, 2019 by Timoric

[Nole23]

1 hour ago, tigereye said:

This could be a nice spot for a theme park. 

 

I agree. They should name it Astroworld or something like that.

[kbates2]

Whole deal was extremely sketchy.  Overpaying for a booster's brownfield.  Circumventing the whole appropriations process.  Doing it all with PUF money that could be much better utilized if spread amongst the other state universities.

[ADCS]

2 hours ago, kbates2 said:

Doing it all with PUF money that could be much better utilized if spread amongst the other state universities.

 

And there it is. UH will keep obstructing until they get ahold of that sweet oil cash, good of the city and region be damned. Especially since they couldn't make it into the Big 12.

 

Disgusting, really.

[kbates2]

1 hour ago, ADCS said:

 

And there it is. UH will keep obstructing until they get ahold of that sweet oil cash, good of the city and region be damned. Especially since they couldn't make it into the Big 12.

 

Disgusting, really.

 

And there it is.  UT will keep spending money grossly overpaying on polluted brownfield locations to misappropriate assets into their booster's pockets without state approval.  They will continue to use funds that could be better spent raising the value of all of our state schools, and Texas residents as a result, on sketchy deals that go nowhere, good of the state be damned.  Especially while they ruin a conference from within that was once respected.

 

Disgusting, really.

[urbanize713]

The hate is strong in this thread

 

 

[ADCS]

15 minutes ago, kbates2 said:

 

And there it is.  UT will keep spending money grossly overpaying on polluted brownfield locations to misappropriate assets into their booster's pockets without state approval.  They will continue to use funds that could be better spent raising the value of all of our state schools, and Texas residents as a result, on sketchy deals that go nowhere, good of the state be damned.  Especially while they ruin a conference from within that was once respected.

 

Disgusting, really.

 

Yup, football and avarice. Face it - UH didn't care about the acquisition process one bit. Fertitta thinks the university that's an extension of his ego doesn't get the state funds that it deserves, simply because he's associated with it. So he's going to engineer a block until he either gets the football he wants, or the money he wants.

 

The truth is we do not need more state systems. California demonstrates that a two-system public model, with different missions, that all state schools are a part of, is the best functioning model. We will never have this in Texas, though, because there are too many entrenched bureaucrats in the smaller systems, and too many alumni for whom a reorganization would be a shot to their pride. Again, primarily because of football.

[kbates2]

How anybody can read a story about UT wasting taxpayer money and claim that it is avarice on the part of UH is beyond me.  

[jmitch94]

This thread sucks. 

[KinkaidAlum]

3 hours ago, kbates2 said:

How anybody can read a story about UT wasting taxpayer money and claim that it is avarice on the part of UH is beyond me.  

 

Because, Forty Acres! 

 

[shasta]

23 hours ago, ADCS said:

 

Yup, football and avarice. Face it - UH didn't care about the acquisition process one bit. Fertitta thinks the university that's an extension of his ego doesn't get the state funds that it deserves, simply because he's associated with it. So he's going to engineer a block until he either gets the football he wants, or the money he wants.

 

The truth is we do not need more state systems. California demonstrates that a two-system public model, with different missions, that all state schools are a part of, is the best functioning model. We will never have this in Texas, though, because there are too many entrenched bureaucrats in the smaller systems, and too many alumni for whom a reorganization would be a shot to their pride. Again, primarily because of football.

 

You sure about that? UH has already blocked a potential partnership with South Texas College of Law and Texas A&M. Texas A&M responded with blocking a northwest expansion plan by UH stating that it was too close to THEIR turf.

 

This kind of thing happens all the time. The University of Houston sits in a county that has a larger population than 25 states and it does view itself as a potential UCLA caliber school of the Houston region. So, you bet they are going to fight to protect their vision because that's what ALL Texas schools already do.

 

Texas A&M is NOT proposing to build a new campus 2 miles from UT-Austin just because the population growth of the the city of Austin warrants it.

 

Some of your logic in this thread is  troublesome.

 

 

[iah77]

You do realize UCLA has to share it's turf with over 10 large public campuses right?:

Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, Cal State San Bernardino, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Dominguez hills, Call State Long Beach, Cal State La, ect not including 10 + private universities. 

 

UH needs to stop being a crooked institution. Renu Khantor is the HIGHEST paid public university president at 1.3 million USD and literally chairs over UHD which is labeled by the department of education as a DROPOUT factory... like seriously?  https://www.texastribune.org/2016/07/17/three-top-four-highest-paid-university-executives-/ 

 

UH is not preparing the graduates we need neither in quality or quantity. 

Is this what Houston deserves? Absolutely not

 

 

[arbpro]

Renu Khator is worth every cent she is paid. Need evidence? Well, she played smash mouth with UT and won! Just like I said she would.