They are also considering development of a school of dentistry.

http://www.toledoblade.com/Education/201...dings.html

Wow, lots of good changes to come. Glad they are finally getting rid of the quad. Those dorms were old and disgusting.

(03-12-2013 12:58 PM)FtLauderdaleRocket Wrote:  Wow, lots of good changes to come. Glad they are finally getting rid of the quad. Those dorms were old and disgusting.

They were closed for those same characteristics when I went to school in 1971. Actually, they just didn't need them as I recall, but they had to be renovated before they started using them again. No big loss.

Nice to see them torn down, they werent being used anyhow. UT has really nice residence halls. I also like the idea of the print shop being housed in the student union so it is easy to get too. UT is such a buetiful campus. We probably dont have many ugly buildings left after this?

(03-12-2013 01:13 PM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote:  

(03-12-2013 12:58 PM)FtLauderdaleRocket Wrote:  Wow, lots of good changes to come. Glad they are finally getting rid of the quad. Those dorms were old and disgusting.

They were closed for those same characteristics when I went to school in 1971. Actually, they just didn't need them as I recall, but they had to be renovated before they started using them again. No big loss.

UT put millions into those dorms not that long ago and they were full. Jacobs said enrollment would increase, but it has declined. Another bad move by a bad president.

(03-12-2013 01:51 PM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  

(03-12-2013 01:13 PM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote:  

(03-12-2013 12:58 PM)FtLauderdaleRocket Wrote:  Wow, lots of good changes to come. Glad they are finally getting rid of the quad. Those dorms were old and disgusting.

They were closed for those same characteristics when I went to school in 1971. Actually, they just didn't need them as I recall, but they had to be renovated before they started using them again. No big loss.

UT put millions into those dorms not that long ago and they were full. Jacobs said enrollment would increase, but it has declined. Another bad move by a bad president.

I totally disagree with you on Jacobs. He has probably been the most visionary President UT has ever had with the merger of the medical campus. The other moves on campus buildings have been great. His support of athletics is excellent compared to Johnson! We all make decisions based on current trends and future expectations. When things change you need to change course along with it. Have you ever made a decision in your own personal life or work that didnt work out over the long term? I have a feeling you have. I have been blessed throughout my life by doing hard work and now I own my own company. But I can assure you that I have made some financial decisions in the past that I would not have made now knowing what I know. Looking back in the mirror is easy.

UT renovated Dowd-White-Nash Halls before the '07-'08 year. One article I found said it cost around $1.2 million. McKinnon Hall was renovated before the '08-'09 year for $3.25 million, which was about $23,250 per student in McKinnon.

(03-12-2013 02:36 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  UT renovated Dowd-White-Nash Halls before the '07-'08 year. One article I found said it cost around $1.2 million. McKinnon Hall was renovated before the '08-'09 year for $3.25 million, which was about $23,250 per student in McKinnon.

They were built in 1952. Sounds like the renovation was badly needed until the other brand new dorms came on line. Probably a stop gap measure because when did the other really nice dorms behind Rocket Hall open up?

ST. Pete, I completely agree with you. With Jacobs at the helm the university has taken a much more business like approach. I don't mind the shifting of colleges and creation of new programs if they position UT graduates getting jobs. Who cares if the college of arts and sciences was split up if it better positions students for emerging fields and technology. It may cost a million to tear down, but I bet it takes half that to heat, cool and maintain empty buildings, plus why have empty, unused buildings on campus. I say make way for future development. In downtown Kent, I think they are doing a ton of public/private partnership renovations that are tied to campus. Student housing, retail, etc. It will be an awesome addition to that general campus area. I could see a new building on the Quad site that has retail on first floor and student housing above. I would probably prefer the campus to develop the site vs. selling it off. Real-estate is hard to come by near campus.

I will shed a tear about the quad. Yes it was a dump, but I spent three great years living there and it was a blast. Small enough to make lots of friends but not huge like Parks tower where you have no idea who is living on the 16th floor. Everyone kept their doors open, music would be playing, we had good intramural teams, late night volleyball out front, It was easy to sneak beer through the back door, etc. At the time most of the classes were off the mall, so you were a 5 minute walk from class. Grocery was close by and we used to sneak into the old field house to play basketball. The new dorms have modern conveniences, but the quad fit me like a glove and was truly a home away from home. Hope it turns into something cool.

I'd also like to add that yes there is an overall decline in enrollment, but I think some of that was by choice. We are not admitting as many borderline students. We could increase enrollment in a heartbeat by admitting everyone with a pulse, but I think UT has shifted towards trying to retain students who want to be in school vs. taking tuition from students for a couple of semesters who shouldn't be in school in the first place. You can still try to retain those students and offer tons of services, but if they just can't hang academically it doesn't do anyone any good.

Notice the local advertising shift and emphasis on our Honors college and investigating the addition of a dental school, kudos.

(03-12-2013 02:36 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  UT renovated Dowd-White-Nash Halls before the '07-'08 year. One article I found said it cost around $1.2 million. McKinnon Hall was renovated before the '08-'09 year for $3.25 million, which was about $23,250 per student in McKinnon.

There are a few oddities in this. If I'm reading between the lines of the article correctly, I'm thinking private developers approached them first, then they suddenly realized they didn't need these halls. However it occurred, the number of rooms is going to reduce. My suspicious side would be looking to see if they have been any recent buy-ups of property around campus.

Also like to know, who green lighted that massive re-do on the road to Engineering that parallels Westwood. They went down to Earth's mantel on that one, a road that supports almost no load and has no through traffic.

The Gateway has had influence. This seems a good thing. The concern I have about privatizing residency halls, is what happens when they cannot fill the hall? Become section 8, right on campus?

My university had married student housing. Does UT have something similar? That might be a reasonable investment since they have made the decision to go after the "older student" crowd.

(03-12-2013 03:34 PM)Stpetebeachrocketfan Wrote:  

(03-12-2013 02:36 PM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  UT renovated Dowd-White-Nash Halls before the '07-'08 year. One article I found said it cost around $1.2 million. McKinnon Hall was renovated before the '08-'09 year for $3.25 million, which was about $23,250 per student in McKinnon.

They were built in 1952. Sounds like the renovation was badly needed until the other brand new dorms came on line. Probably a stop gap measure because when did the other really nice dorms behind Rocket Hall open up?

The other dorms (Crossings, Ottawa House, A-House, I-House) had all been opened when they did the renovations to the Quad. I think Crossings opened around 05, Ottawa 04, and A-House and I-House in the 90s. There also used to be dining halls in Crossings, Ottawa, and I-House (along with Parks and the Union), but I'm pretty sure they closed the dining halls in Crossings and I-House, which is unfortunate. Once Crossings closed, Ottawa was always packed, and there were times they would run out of silverware and plates because they were so busy.

(03-12-2013 03:47 PM)emanoh Wrote:  I'd also like to add that yes there is an overall decline in enrollment, but I think some of that was by choice. We are not admitting as many borderline students. We could increase enrollment in a heartbeat by admitting everyone with a pulse, but I think UT has shifted towards trying to retain students who want to be in school vs. taking tuition from students for a couple of semesters who shouldn't be in school in the first place. You can still try to retain those students and offer tons of services, but if they just can't hang academically it doesn't do anyone any good.

Notice the local advertising shift and emphasis on our Honors college and investigating the addition of a dental school, kudos.

Most Northern universities are not enrolling as many students of any type right now and the state is phasing out funding for courses considered remedial, so I'm not sure this was any universities' choice. These courses were money makers but they killed the university on retention.


The article on the latest consultant hiring stated a goal to enroll more non-traditional students and I think the university still has a commitment to fill regarding promises of free tuition to several of the urban areas in state or has that changed? I don't see either helping retention.

The Dental school (or adding med schools) and the move to privatize parts of campus are a model being tried at several schools. It's not original thought but I think UT's urban setting gives it more promise. I'd like to see UT go aggressively after sports medicine. Advances developed to serve war vets and longer life spans mean this type of medicine will be mainstream. If you've not had a joint replacement, you're not part of the in crowd.

BG would seem to have a tougher road but I think there are some promising research firms opening up there. Wood County is where the money rolls so that may be their saving grace.

(03-12-2013 03:41 PM)emanoh Wrote:  ST. Pete, I completely agree with you. With Jacobs at the helm the university has taken a much more business like approach. I don't mind the shifting of colleges and creation of new programs if they position UT graduates getting jobs. Who cares if the college of arts and sciences was split up if it better positions students for emerging fields and technology. It may cost a million to tear down, but I bet it takes half that to heat, cool and maintain empty buildings, plus why have empty, unused buildings on campus. I say make way for future development. In downtown Kent, I think they are doing a ton of public/private partnership renovations that are tied to campus. Student housing, retail, etc. It will be an awesome addition to that general campus area. I could see a new building on the Quad site that has retail on first floor and student housing above. I would probably prefer the campus to develop the site vs. selling it off. Real-estate is hard to come by near campus.

I will shed a tear about the quad. Yes it was a dump, but I spent three great years living there and it was a blast. Small enough to make lots of friends but not huge like Parks tower where you have no idea who is living on the 16th floor. Everyone kept their doors open, music would be playing, we had good intramural teams, late night volleyball out front, It was easy to sneak beer through the back door, etc. At the time most of the classes were off the mall, so you were a 5 minute walk from class. Grocery was close by and we used to sneak into the old field house to play basketball. The new dorms have modern conveniences, but the quad fit me like a glove and was truly a home away from home. Hope it turns into something cool.

Jacobs took apart the College of Arts and Sciences because the faculty there didn't want to go along with his changes. So he blew it up. He has placed his cronies from the Health Sciences campus onto the Main Campus where they have no experience, and keep coming up with one new program after another, none of which work.

They are running the University into the ground. One recent example is how they reconfigured the Honors College which had a very good reputation. Now instead of asking students to have extremely high GPA's and test scores to enter the college they ask for "High school GPA and ACT test score indicative of a well-prepared student". What does that mean?

Jacobs "entered" into an agreement with Promedica to build a $36 million building on the HS campus. Promedica backed out and now UT is on the hook for the entire amount. Now the University has a $30 million shortfall for next year.

Jacobs said he was going to raise admission standards, and for that reason, the number of students may decline. The numbers declined, but UT never released any numbers on the incoming freshmen class.

The man is a bully who has no experience with undergraduate students and thinks he's still in the operating room ordering his underlings around.

There are dozens of other "mistakes" under Jacobs, and for someone like me who has two degrees from UT, it is very sad.

(03-12-2013 05:53 PM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  

(03-12-2013 03:41 PM)emanoh Wrote:  ST. Pete, I completely agree with you. With Jacobs at the helm the university has taken a much more business like approach. I don't mind the shifting of colleges and creation of new programs if they position UT graduates getting jobs. Who cares if the college of arts and sciences was split up if it better positions students for emerging fields and technology. It may cost a million to tear down, but I bet it takes half that to heat, cool and maintain empty buildings, plus why have empty, unused buildings on campus. I say make way for future development. In downtown Kent, I think they are doing a ton of public/private partnership renovations that are tied to campus. Student housing, retail, etc. It will be an awesome addition to that general campus area. I could see a new building on the Quad site that has retail on first floor and student housing above. I would probably prefer the campus to develop the site vs. selling it off. Real-estate is hard to come by near campus.

I will shed a tear about the quad. Yes it was a dump, but I spent three great years living there and it was a blast. Small enough to make lots of friends but not huge like Parks tower where you have no idea who is living on the 16th floor. Everyone kept their doors open, music would be playing, we had good intramural teams, late night volleyball out front, It was easy to sneak beer through the back door, etc. At the time most of the classes were off the mall, so you were a 5 minute walk from class. Grocery was close by and we used to sneak into the old field house to play basketball. The new dorms have modern conveniences, but the quad fit me like a glove and was truly a home away from home. Hope it turns into something cool.

Jacobs took apart the College of Arts and Sciences because the faculty there didn't want to go along with his changes. So he blew it up. He has placed his cronies from the Health Sciences campus onto the Main Campus where they have no experience, and keep coming up with one new program after another, none of which work.

They are running the University into the ground. One recent example is how they reconfigured the Honors College which had a very good reputation. Now instead of asking students to have extremely high GPA's and test scores to enter the college they ask for "High school GPA and ACT test score indicative of a well-prepared student". What does that mean?

Jacobs "entered" into an agreement with Promedica to build a $36 million building on the HS campus. Promedica backed out and now UT is on the hook for the entire amount. Now the University has a $30 million shortfall for next year.

Jacobs said he was going to raise admission standards, and for that reason, the number of students may decline. The numbers declined, but UT never released any numbers on the incoming freshmen class.

The man is a bully who has no experience with undergraduate students and thinks he's still in the operating room ordering his underlings around.

There are dozens of other "mistakes" under Jacobs, and for someone like me who has two degrees from UT, it is very sad.

Amen, Detroit, I agree completely. The administration right now has their head stuck someplace where they can't see daylight. How about combining Education with Health Science and Human Service then reversing the entire process two years later. And don't get me started on the new Provost who has no experience running a university and treats it like it's a widget factory. But if you disagree with Jacobs, he says you want to stay in the dark ages. They confuse activity with progress. That said, it's a great university that will survive these clowns until they're gone. The sooner the better