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N Judah

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Everything posted by N Judah

  1. N Judah
    And hopefully it's your last ad hominem attack as well The school has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into lifestyle amenities and quite a bit less into improving educational quality. The only academic investment they have made that could possibly attract prospective students was into the library renovation, which actually cost less than the new freshman dorm and was at least partially paid for by fundraising. So if there is a middle ground, the school seems to be going out of its way to avoid it. Well, usually better schools manage to attract better students, but that doesn't mean attracting better students will result in a better school.
  2. N Judah
    Well, we'll have to agree to disagree, since for my part I think the money should be spent to create a larger pool of well-qualified graduates (*not* applicants). If it were as easy as going into debt to finance lifestyle "amenities" and sports programs I think they (as well as every other school) would have done it years ago. Moreover, many of these lifestyle "amenities", as I have mentioned, seem specifically designed to target specific income/demographic groups to the exclusion of others (who still have to pay for the construction of such amenities with their tuition). Not sure UT is the model to follow...the "flagship university", in a very populous state, that can barely crack the Top 50? Surely there are better examples elsewhere.
  3. N Judah
    Well the reality is that either U of H stays as it is, or they spend money. So should the money spent be directed towards educational directives that pay off in the form of a student body that companies will beat down the door to recruit, or should the money be spent on "amenities" designed to entice a new economic class at the expense of existing students? Keep in mind U of H is spending into the hundreds of millions of dollars here against a ~$500 million systemwide endowment. I would be truly interested in hearing about any idea that raised acceptance standards without reducing the class size and therefore revenue. Usually good schools manage to avoid bad students, but that doesn't mean avoiding bad students will result in a good school.
  4. N Judah
    Well that definition of 'innovation' doesn't really help your cause, now does it? You could have as many domed stadium marvels as you want and the city could still be a "large mediocre rural/suburban/semi-urban city" without any of the aspects of city life that you have observed Atlanta to have which Houston doesn't. I think that a marvel-of-engineering heavy rail (in the sense that it has more capacity than LRT) plus more setback, variance, etc. control given to TIRZs would give you more vibrant city life than you could handle, but in a good way However, I would then consider that the first truly innovative thing done in a city that, to me, has always seemed relentlessly un-innovative.
  5. N Judah
    Well, it would result in fewer students and less revenue. I guess that would achieve the end of forcing tuitions up, if that's solely what you're going for. The best route for U of H to take is to improve the quality of its education first, in turn enticing better students to apply and taking the best ones. This is the model that has worked for many of the schools on that list, which (as you may have noticed) subsequently ended up with higher SAT averages of entering students.
  6. N Judah
    Windmills, giant windmills. You're in wind power country now, son!
  7. N Judah
    Well it's been several replies since I posted that, but you're the first to admit non-understanding. I'm not sure what to say. Anyway, my advice would be to actually read the article, which can help you to not be so "amazed" (as you admitted below) by students expressing concern about the direction their institution is heading. According to who, you? And in comparison to what? Well, at least you can rest assured that the administration probably agrees with you and has decided to pin its hopes on admitting more of your kind, building the things you (and only you) like and spreading the burden across the rest of us.
  8. N Judah
    This is just zoning in action. I think Houston could have something as nice by changing its setback, parking, variance, etc. requirements without delving into the whole zoning mess. I am interested to see where you got the idea that Houston ever really had an edge in innovation. It's just a boomtown...the "home of easy credit" nothing more.
  9. N Judah
    Maybe get the feds to pay for all of the two remaining lines? They're the most viable candidates, as they will both have good projected ridership numbers. The economy's worse than ever, so maybe there's another stimulus package on the way. Or just siphon < 1% of the $10 trillion they've already used to bail out the banks and we could have more LRT lines than we have freeways!
  10. N Judah
    I think that particular demographic is only essential to UH becoming a school with more of that particular demographic. Some interesting links: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/poor-students-at-rich-colleges/ http://rankings.usnews.com/best-colleges/national-economic-diversity I'm guessing somebody at UH noticed a correlation between income and academic achievement or something like that and messed up on correlation v. causation. I think top notch schools can tend to attract wealthy students, but that doesn't mean attracting wealthy students will result in a top notch school. For example, there are wealthy schools that are academically crap, and (as the second link I posted should make clear) there are lots of schools that are significantly better than UH which already have more poor students than UH does now.
  11. N Judah
    Maybe "every" year was a bit of an exaggeration, but I want to make clear I wasn't just talking about this year. When I was there in 2006 (my first year at U of H, when the economy was doing pretty well) there was also a large increase, if I recall correctly. Well that may be true and I think that any segregating done should be on the basis of academic ability first and foremost. If the more qualified students just happen to have more money, then I say so be it. But I think it's cynical to specifically attract students with more money with expensive amenities and put the squeeze on poorer students (who pay for some of these amenities with their tuition increase, but cannot afford to actually live in them) in the meantime.
  12. N Judah
    I was mulling over UH's "Tier 1" infatuation, its $100+ million new loft dorm, and its new $55+ million new regular dorm and I remembered an article I read somewhere about another school... (from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2010081573_seattleu17m.html) So the new amenities at U of H are geared towards attracting richer students and in the meantime they raise tuition every year? Hmmmm....I think I see what this is all about...
  13. N Judah
    Well I'm most interested in seeing what "very, very rapidly" (referring to construction of the 3 lines Parker thinks are feasible) means.
  14. N Judah
    I hate to say it but I think Houston's downtown surface lots are pretty cheap compared to other cities I've parked in, which makes it seem like there isn't as much demand. I'm beginning to think the decision to put surface lots in to the exclusion of any other possible use might have something to do with the way property taxes are calculated, but I don't really have any idea.
  15. N Judah
    So there's literally nothing there they can put in the meantime that pulls in more money than a surface lot?
  16. N Judah
    Wrong again.
  17. N Judah
    Actually that's exactly what it referenced. Anyway, I think there would be fewer surface lots if we didn't have so many freeways pulling demand away.
  18. N Judah
    Seconded! It makes the city look so...ambient
  19. N Judah
    Wrong, the statement "the situation depicted in this picture is a travesty" is an opinion.
  20. N Judah
    I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing...and instead of outright zoning I'd be interested in ways of pulling these guys out of their comfort zone and inciting them to build instead of sit...and wait...and wait...
  21. N Judah
    Does anybody remember the plan to build a series of flood canals throughout Houston? This was to be in addition to existing bayous. The idea was that they would be constructed such that they would increase property values/development nearby and also help alleviate flood concerns. There was a Chronicle article about this that I like to post every year or two but I can't find it anymore.
  22. N Judah
    Lots of speculators, I guess? There's nothing in Houston codes to prevent huge surface parking lots or big towers.
  23. N Judah
    Now this is interesting: http://www.switched.com/2010/03/06/microsoft-courier-details-leaked-ipad-looks-on-in-envy/ (click the link, there's a video) I do not agree that tablets are competitors to netbooks. Looking at that video I cannot imagine a netbook doing any of that. Tablets seem to be geared towards people who don't want/need to get under the hood. In particular I think there are segments of the education market that could really benefit from tablets.
  24. N Judah
    Agreed, it's the epicentre of generic and let's just leave it at that.
  25. N Judah
    http://www.sitemason.com/files/foZeWA/bailouttallymar2010.pdf
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