(09-05-2019 11:19 AM)bullet Wrote: (09-05-2019 10:59 AM)TodgeRodge Wrote: (09-05-2019 10:18 AM)CougarRed Wrote: (09-05-2019 10:14 AM)Attackcoog Wrote: (09-05-2019 08:10 AM)CougarRed Wrote: Isn't it currently 2/3 to UT-Austin and 1/3 to A&M?
If so, UT-Austin is not going to give up 1/3 to Tech and Houston with A&M staying the same.
Further, UT-Dallas deserves to share in it as well.
So 50% UT, 25% A&M (to preserve the current 2:1 ratio) and 8.3% to Tech, UT-Dallas and Houston.
Isnt UT-Dallas part of the UT system?
Only campus in the UT-System that can use PUF funds is Austin.
this is incorrect
the only UT System school that gets "excellence" funds from the PUF is UT Austin
in the aggy system College Station and PVAMU get "excellence" funds
the remaining UT and aggy system members that are PUF participants (most of the UT System only a few of the aggy system) get their formula infrastructure funding paid for by the PUF instead of it being paid for by general state revenues, but they do not get any "excellence" funds or any funding over and above formula funding based on the same formulas as all state universities.....it is a simple difference in where the money to cover that particular formula funding comes from
this is one of the main reasons that if the PUF is busted up it will not result in much if any additional revenues to other universities and may even eventually lead to reduced revenues for other universities
because there is a high likelihood once those UT and aggy system schools start getting their formula infrastructure funding paid for by general state revenues that the state will not allocate any additional dollars from general revenues to cover that they will instead allocate the same dollar amount and reduce the dollar funding per formula unit thus everyone will take a hit in the end and the additional PUF dollars they are sharing will not make up for that formula funding decrease
all the more so when idiotic politicians use the busting open of the PUF to start spending into the corpus of the investments like they tried to do with the Permanent School Fund a few years back (and thankfully that was voted down)
What I do think makes sense is reducing the number of "systems" in Texas from 6 to 3 and eliminating the 5 or 6 independents (TSU, Stephen F. Austin, TWU and 2 or 3 others) by moving them into the Texas State University system (currently includes Texas St., Sam Houston St., Sul Ross, Lamar, and 3 Lamar branches in the Golden Triangle).
The Texas St. University system would focus on bachelor's and master's and not Phd.s and research much like the Cal State system. The University of North Texas system would be dissolved with their Dallas campus made simply a learning center and UNT moved into the Texas St. University system as well.
The Texas A&M system probably should be trimmed with some going to the Texas State University system, but if not, simply add Texas Tech, which has a lot of ag programs. Its med school would be merged into TTU and the Texas Tech system dissolved.
UH system would be dissolved with UH-Victoria and UH-Downtown College moved to the Texas St. University system. UH-Clear Lake would be merged into the main campus as a separate location. Houston would become part of the University of Texas system. The UT Health Science Center in Houston could be merged in so UH quits trying to add another unnecessary medical school in Houston.
UT-Dallas has thrived in the UT system and is probably the #3 public school in the state. Houston and Texas Tech would have more access to the PUF than now and that would help them.
I will address the PUF first since that is what started the topic
"access to the PUF" means nothing unless it is getting ADDITIONAL DOLLARS over and above state formula funding and there is little chance of any non-UT system school getting that simply because they were added to the system especially when no UT system school gets that now as a PUF participant
It is much smarter to actually go after additional state funding, but that is not really he goal of the PUFers the goal is to take something from UT and maybe from aggy as well
that has about zero chance of having success if the PUFers cared they would simply go after the state to properly fund the NRUF endowment and to go ahead and create the 3rd endowment that was proposed for schools that will never be emerging research universities and never meet NRUF qualifications
but instead of going after the state during times when there is a budget surplus to add hard dollars to the NRUF endowment (like $200 to $250 million per year for the two year budget cycle) the PUFer idiots waste their time filing bills that are dead on arrival to try and get a share of the PUF
there are 4 independent universities in Texas....TSU, Midwestern, Stephen F. Austin and TWU
in the past TWU tried to be a system, but found it was a waste and went back to being a single university with 3 campuses main campus on Denton and then the health components in dallas and Houston
I think the easiest thing to do would be merge Midwestern and Sul Ross into Texas Tech's System
merge Lamar and SHSU into the UH System and let Texas State be independent
from there merge (the massively FAILED) north Texas state dallas back under the Denton campus or better yet shut it down and sell the building to DCCCD (really shutting that massive failure down is the best option)
put a 100% STOP on all system centers and start shutting many of them down and or forcing them to give up their real estate and merge in with a local community college
rewrite the formula funding for health science centers so that there is not a net loss of funding for a medical school/HSC being under the administration of a 4 year school (the issue with merging Tech and their Lubbock HSC) and then start merging some of those
tell north Texas state they are no longer a system and stop their Frisco campus as well before it buys any property
with that you would have eliminated the Texas State System and left Texas State as a stand alone university.....it will be all but impossible to stop them from trying to offer more PhDs as they are now an emerging research university and going after NRUF funding (and ahead of north Texas state in that quest and probably about tied with UTSA (UTA will be the next to qualify).....also SHSU and Lamar are not going to stop offering the PhDs they offer especially if Texas State is allowed to and all the more so in a "weak system" model with no flagship school
plus the reality is the California plan was a good plan in the past, but now it us severely holding back SDSU, Cal Poly, Fresno, Long Beach, and probably Northridge
it is a better plan to give some strength to the THECB to put a stop to the legislature and universities (and failed system plans) to go around offering duplicate programs and opening up garbage system centers all over the place
from there is you really want to make a difference it will be much harder to do
if I could just wave a wand TSU would be gone, some of the land and buildings offered to UH and then the remaining land and buildings not needed sold off and then UH Downtown would be renamed Houston Metropolitan (as it should have been a few years ago before their idiot faculty got involved) and the successful programs and professional programs from TSU would be merged into Houston Metro and the UH downtown campus would be their campus
the UH System would get a chancellor that is not the president of the main campus with the addition of Lamar and SHSU and the TSU/UHD merger
so from there would have eliminated the Texas State System......two independent universities (Midwestern to Tech and TSU closed) and created one new independent university Texas State......with a FIRM ROUND ROCK WILL NOT BE A NEW CAMPUS JUST health components
also no more north Texas state system just north Texas state Denton and their programs littering the dallas metro area in conjunction AND ON community college campuses no more free standing schools and system centers
I would merge UTD and UTSW and I would take TCOM from the north Texas state system and merge it with UTA and make TCOM a PUF participant (which is again pretty meaningless overall in terms of funding)
so from there two systems gone (Texas State and north Texas state), one independent university gone TSU and one merged into a system (Midwestern into Tech) and 3 medical schools merged into 4 year schools.....Tech HSC Lubbock/Tech, UTSW/UTD and TCOM/UTD
merges UT-HSC-SA into UTSA....leave UTHSC Tyler alone for the time being
also merge Texas A&I and aggy Corpus under one campus like UTRGV (proposed, but not-so sharp really screwed that up because he is a massive idiot)
close the aggy McAllen campus, shut down all REVIS plans in College Station......make sure that aggy Central Texas stays upper division only
from there one could go ahead and decide if they wanted Stephen F. Austin, TWU, Texas State, and north Texas state to remain independent of fire back up the Texas State System and merge them all into it along with UH, Houston Metro, Lamar, SHSU, and UHV and move the headquarters into the Texas State System building they just bought from the UT System
if that was done there would be no independent universities and 4 systems and a number fewer of independent medical schools and more medical schools aligned with 4 year universities
oh PS one other thing that would actually be done first before anything else.....shut down the massively failed north Texas state law school and allow all current students to transfer to aggy law in Fort Worth