<p>I was wondering what current and future UT students thought of Texas Proposition 4, what's your opinion on this issue?</p>
<p>Proposition 4 ~ According to Ballot Pedia, If passed, the amendment will create an independent research university fund that will allow research universities in the state of Texas to "achieve national prominence as major research universities." To achieve the prominence of a Tier One research institute, a school must meet five out of seven quality standards. Included in these standards are awarding 200 doctoral degrees a year and having a $400 million endowment. A school must reach these standards before receiving any money for research. Furthermore, this amendment will eliminate the Texas higher education fund, and any payments for that fund due by July 1, 2010 will go to the research university fund. Seven schools are listed by the amendment that would recieve the benefits of the research university fund. The seven schools are: </p>
<p>University of Texas at Arlington
University of Texas at Dallas
University of North Texas
Texas Tech University
University of Houston
University of Texas at El Paso
University of Texas at San Antonio </p>
<p>Personally, the only schools that should be considered "future" Tier One schools are Texas Tech and the University of Houston. As a former CAP Program student I can tell you from my expierences that UTSA is NO where near Tier One status.</p>
<p>IMO, I support the idea of having another Tier One institution to take the "load" off of Texas A&M and UT Austin and give kids another reason to attend a school like Texas Tech and U of H if they ever reach Tier One status.</p>
<p>However, I am a firm believer that researchers do not make good professors as Iv'e noticed the lack of attention given to teaching the material at the introductory level and the professors expectations for the classes taught by research professors.</p>
<p>Basically, professors who research suck and they don't know how to teach and sometimes expect too much out of students (e.g. Dr. Robinson's AST 301 class, Prof. Hamermesh's ECO 304K class)</p>
<p>I fully support this, Texas needs more Tier 1 schools. UT and A&M cant handle the whole state. From what i read on another college site professors that are into Research dont make good teachers as you said. Apparently they are never available and do video lectures.</p>
<p>btw i think UTD and UNT along with UH and Tech are solid candidates. Although UH and Tech are closer to reaching tier 1 status than the other schools.</p>
<p>I really support this, California has a lot of tier 1 schools, I think we can achieve that in texas as well (also we currently have 3 tier one schools in texas yall are forgetting about Rice).</p>
<p>AAli im curious about UTSA why is it that it is so far from being a tier one school?</p>
<p>I think it’s a great idea to bring more schools to Tier 1 status. I don’t know enough about the other schools to comment on which ones are likely candidates.</p>
<p>It’s too broad a generalization to say that all good research professors can’t teach well. I had several world-renowned engineering professors who were amazing teachers (Breen, Yura, Fowler). Some of them are in the National Academy of Engineers AND the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at UT, and deservedly so.</p>
<p>While Proposition 4, which was voted into law by the Texas electorate in November 2009, is a worthy goal, there will be no money to fund the matching portion. Current predictions are that when the Texas Legislature meets in January 2011, the state will have a budget deficit of at least $18 billion. The state will not have the funds to match the money raised by these seven institutions. </p>
<p>Another unfortunate result of the impending deficit is that many of the private endowments made to UTD, UofH and Texas Tech were dependent upon those matching dollars. Thus, those universities will not get a significant portion of these private funds because they were predicated on the state’s match. No match–no private money.</p>
<p>As an aside, this budget deficit will also hurt Texas college students because the state will cut even more funding to the universities’ annual budgets. Expect tuition to increase percentage-wise much as it has in California (~8-10% per year).</p>
<p>I would certainly like to see the UT System look more like the UC System. It would take enormous negative population pressure off of UT Austin and allow it to compete with the likes of UC Berkeley more efficiently. It would also benefit the state of Texas by brining in high quality intellectual capital to areas that could use more of it, such as El Paso and SA. Overall it would be good for some of the local economies of the state, because until now, these resources seem to be disproportianately restricted to a few major metropolitan areas.</p>
<p>I agree with BK, if the UT system could turn in the UC system, that would be amazing (Except for the bankruptcy). Whether or not it is the UT system or just other schools in Texas, the state needs more Tier 1 schools, there just aren’t enough for such a large state.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the state of Texas just does not have the money, nor will it in the forseeable future, to fund any additional “Tier One” universities. Take the $18 billion budget deficit that is already projected and add on the increased costs for those residents who will have access to Medicaid due to the new Health care law, and the state will have debt obligations of nearly $30 billion in 2011-2012. The budget problems that have plagued California, New York, and other states are going to surface here. Why this hasn’t been made more of an issue in the Texas Governor’s race is baffling, but I digress.</p>
<p>To play devil’s advocate, keep in mind that the term, “Tier One,” was created by the U.S. News and World Report magazine some years ago to further distinguish universities from one another in their rankings procedure. This term solely refers to the amount of research dollars spent and endowments received for said research. </p>
<p>While research is important in the science and math related fields, is it that important in say, business or communications? There have been posts regarding the lack of interest by those professors heavily involved in research, even in the non-sciences/math fields, as they are not as accessible to students. This is predominantly the case in lower division courses, but can rear its head even in upper division courses. Some have used UTSA and UTD on other threads as examples where professors were available and interested in their students’ progress. Although these universities are not “Tier One,” they do offer an education that is marketable and, from the anecdotes given on several threads, the posters were pleased with their experiences at these schools. </p>
<p>Why do students attend university? To gain knowledge and skills that can get one a job. Prestige is all well and good, but in the real world we all do need to make a living.</p>
<p>UTD is amazing. It’s admissions is now the most selective public in the state and their generous financial aid is attracting a lot of highly talented, intelligent IB students and TAMS students. Its science programs, psych programs are excellent as well as its linguistics. The quality of the students will be what makes UTD.</p>
<p>(I’m not going there, but a LOT of people I know are. One of the top ten people at my school is turning down UT and SMU for it, she’s getting PAID to go to UTD as her scholarships are that enormous.)</p>