(09-05-2019 08:37 PM)TodgeRodge Wrote:  UTA will meet the 4th NRUF requirement with "high quality faculty"

they are just at the $45 million in restricted research that must be met before any others matter and they meet 3 of the other criteria (4 out of 6 needed)

they had 3 National Academy members, but one passed away, but they have hired the needed 5 now

https://www.uta.edu/news/news-releases/2...mies-hires

so with that they meet 4 out of the 6 criteria and provided they continue to produce above $45 million in restricted research and meet those 4 criteria for the next two years they will qualify

as for Texas State being the lower admissions university in central Texas really that to me is a bit of a dated model.....I still personally believe in the model of "going away to college" and meeting new and strange people from different places, but that is less common these days so when you have those universities that meet that model they need to be above average quality to attract better students and have a better reputation

while the area from Austin to Midlothian lacks a really accessible state university (aggy central Texas aside) the areas along that route do have robust community college systems that can be used to provide some select 4 year degrees in conjunction with state universities (like Lone Star College) WITHOUT those state schools having their own campus and serving the needs of the area for those that need a sheet of paper to break a glass ceiling at their job or for select degrees needed in those metro areas

Texas State is not going to serve people that do not want to leave Austin, Waco, Temple or the like and with 39,000 students they are at the limit of what a university offering a low amount of PhDs and a fair amount of masters should be enrolling

in the wayback there were studies done by Minnesota (I believe and a couple of others) that UT Austin looked at where basically for a LARGE state school offering a full breath and depth of PhDs and professional programs about 45,000 to 48,000 students is optimum before you run into losing economies of scale and or you run into the issue of controlling the quality of degrees and consistency of individual departments if they grow too large

when you start to reduce the number of graduate degrees and professional programs and overall degree offerings that enrollment number should be reduced as well

Texas State is pushing that limit and they need to bump up their enrollment metrics and control their enrollment and their quality at this point otherwise they will suffer for it....the issue of course is a funding model that relies on enrollment first and foremost which makes controlling enrollment difficult......there needs to be some funding for "outcomes" as well and Texas State would actually do well in that regard compared to peer universities in Texas

there should be nothing stopping Texas State (or UTSA or aggy CT or Texas Tech or UTA or UTD) from working with central Texas community colleges in the larger metro areas to meet needs, but it should be done on the campus of those community colleges and without new infrastructure and with some cost sharing by those CC districts

then those main campuses should be free to raise admissions and correspondingly raise the graduation and retention rates as well along with realigning degree programs and degree offerings

there are plenty of other 6,000 to 12,000 student state schools in Texas for those that want to "go away" for a degree and we need to stop pretending that it is that much more costly for a student from Waco to go to Stephen F. Austin, Angelo State, Tarleton, TAMU Commerce or the like vs going to Texas State

same with students from San Antonio they can go to aggy SA if they want to stay home and can't get into a UTSA with higher enrollment requirements or they can go to Kingsville or Corpus to "get away" if they can afford to "get away" and can't get into Texas State with higher admissions requirements

and students in the DFW metromess that can't get into UTD or a UTA with raised admissions can go to one of the north Texas state catch all community college programs that need to be implemented as north Texas state shuts down unneeded campuses and law schools...or programs offered at those CCs by Commerce, Tarleton, TWU or the like

all the PUFers want to cry about winners and losers, but they fail to understand that when everyone gets a trophy you are all losers

there are winners and losers in pretty much every state higher ed model with the exception of perhaps Wyoming with one state school or Arizona and Iowa with 3 (where NAU and NIU are still not like ISU, IU, AU and ASU) or Nebraska with one winner and a metro school and then a couple of really small schools

universities need to understand that reality and understand that just because they are not like the ones they want to hate they can still be better off then being in an all get a trophy system like they are pushing for

if your university is not 24,000 to 28,000 students now in Texas then you should probably deal with offering 4 to 8 Doctoral programs max IF ANY and then those that are 28,000+ students can start building reputation instead of simply building enrollment along with a research profile in tightly controlled doctoral and masters offerings and funding with an "outcomes" based model included and with a private dollar incentive model included

similar to what the NRUF was intended to be

Actually, Todge, this was based on Governor Abbott's desire to have 4 flagship universities in the state of Texas just like what the state of California has, supposedly.

Both Texas & Texas A&M make more $$'s in athletics than either of my favorite schools, Georgia & Oregon. They also make more $$$'s than Florida or...(gasp!!!) Alabama!!!