quote:
Like most post , ignorance runs rampant on here
This is a school that allows those who work go to school
This is a school that helps those coming out of our failed public education system
This is where some go in order to transfer to what you arrogant jackwagons call a real school
There is definitely a place/need for school like UH-D in higher ed. Not everyone can get into TAMU or UT. Not everyone can relocate for four years to go to school. Heck, not everyone can commit to even attending school full-time. I applaud those who take advantage of schools like UH-D to advance their education and (hopefully) enter into more lucrative careers.
The bigger issue, though, is it's unbelievably expensive to run a four year university. We all know that states don't have unlimited resources, and without pulling the numbers, I'd be willing to bet that a school like UH-D still gets a significant portion of its funding from the state (unlike flagship schools, which typically get single-percentages of their operating budgets directly from the state). There simply aren't unlimited resources to keep schools with this kind of overhead properly funded and staffed. TX is probably in better shape than most states, but I came from AL, where there are 14 public 4-year universities and 27 2-year junior colleges...to serve a TOTAL population of less than 5 million people! The state simply can't afford to support that many schools, so the flagships support themselves (through donations, research funding overhead, generating revenue on things like housing and meal plans, etc) while the remaining schools flounder because of a lack of resources. It's a chicken and egg problem...the schools are under-funded for what they are trying to offer, but they can't get additional funding because they can't attract good faculty (to bring in research funding and the associated overhead) or good students (to increase enrollment).
There is definitely a caste system (for lack of a better term) in higher ed, and while I don't expect a lot of universities to fold anytime soon, there will probably have to be a major shift in how these "lower-tier" schools are operated. What may come off as elitism is the realization that these schools that are a step above a junior college but are not top-tier require a disproportionate amount of resources. Giving everyone at least an opportunity to pursue a college education is something I'm all for, but it's not nor should it be a charity operation. Unfortunately, the lack of accountability and the "too big to fail" mentality is all to prevalent in public higher ed.