<p>VL … I would agree because, as was so aptly stated yesterday, Students that enter UA outside the HC based on GPA have EVERY opportunity to strive for entry into the HC is they can work to get their grades up. That work falling solely on their desire and determination to make that happen.</p>
<p>[UA</a> approves new construction plans | TuscaloosaNews.com](<a href=“http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20110916/NEWS/110919801/1007?Title=UA-approves-new-construction-plans]UA”>http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20110916/NEWS/110919801/1007?Title=UA-approves-new-construction-plans)</p>
<p>Feeno, </p>
<p>I sympathize with students at UA experiencing the growing pains there. However, the admin is taking steps to make the situation better, such as those mentioned in the above link. </p>
<p>What I think some students fail to understand is that UA is only able to provide a better learning experience, in these times of budget cuts, through growth! I wish UA could just become even more selective, and stabilize the enrollment, but if we want to improve the Grad School and truly make UA a top notch research university, the increase in out of state enrollment is currently the best way to do it. The state of Alabama is simply not wealthy enough and the economy is too weak to allow for signficant increases in funding for higher ed by the state. </p>
<p>But visit Auburn, Florida State, etc, and you will see worse problems. Much less student housing, less parking, less new faculty hires, or even staff and faculty reductions!</p>
<p>M2CKs, those who whine about the inequities of honors vs non-honors most likely whine about rich vs poor, pretty vs not as pretty, fat vs thin, and so on. They don’t seem to understand that working hard and doing the right thing can be rewarding. </p>
<p>My daughter chose not to apply to the honors college because she didn’t want to do the few extra things that were required of honors students. She’s still getting a stellar education and has many honors kids in her labs and classes. She doesn’t feel like she is treated like a lower class student by her profs or TAs, or by her peers. I guess some people are score keepers and their self worth is only satisfied if they feel that they are the same as everyone else. </p>
<p>My son won’t be in the honors program at UA, but he will graduate with an education that is just as worthy as the honors kids, as long as he puts in the work. My hope is that he’ll find a few friends who are in the honors program and learn from them about putting in the extra effort to succeed in college. </p>
<p>As a student I would feel honored to be at a school with so many accomplished young scholars. It’s wasted energy to look at them as a threat.</p>
<p>Some are by invitation only, based on an unpublished set of criteria</p>
<p>Yeah, my NMF son did not get an Honors invite at UNC Chapel Hill. Guess it was those homeschool cooties.</p>
<p>Chardo—I don’t think there are overfilled dorm rooms at UA. I can’t speak to graduation rates. </p>
<p>My son says he thinks the worst dorm at UA is Rose Towers. I understand it’s scheduled for demolition next year; it will be replaced with spanking-new housing.</p>
<p>A lot of kids seem to want to live in Rose,though. I take it it’s a very, er, social dorm. :)</p>
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<p>It’s not his job in this column to recap every single instance of a problem over the past ten years. Unlike a blog, he cannot put links into his column, but as the CW has published a paper four times a week for at least the past 10 years, you will find plenty of evidence there.</p>
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<p>These are things have been asked of the SGA to look into over the years. They have had some successes working on their mission of being the student advocacy group on campus. But then things get derailed by things like block seating and elections controversy. The effectiveness of the SGA is a whole other thread, in other words.</p>
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<p>One man’s “whining” is another man’s “airing of grievances”.</p>
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<p>I disagree, if you are going to publish accusations, you need to support them. Otherwise, it is unfounded opinion…or whining, or sour grapes…or a number of other terms that have been used. Additionally, it is important to offer opinions on solutions as well.</p>
<p>*Lack of parking and lines for meals are minor nuisances (that exist everywhere, btw). Overfilled dorm rooms and 5 year graduations due to lack of classes are major problems. Do these exist at UA? *</p>
<p>I have never heard of over-filled dorms at Bama…and I’ve never heard of anyone taking longer to gradate because they couldn’t get the classes they needed.</p>
<p>At Bama…the kids who might take longer to graduate usually cause the problem themselves because…</p>
<p>1) They change majors drastically, which can cause a whole new set of req’ts.</p>
<p>2) They drop classes, won’t take a class at 8am or something, and/or are not taking the 15/16 credits needed per semester to graduate on time…by choice…</p>
<p>3) They’re going to school part-time and working…which is true for some of the Tuscaloosa locals who commute.</p>
<p>BTW…Bama would never do what my son’s grad school tried to do …at the last minute, they tried to move him to more expensive housing and expected him to pay more (than his contracted amount!!). If Bama had to place a student in a more expensive dorm (because of space issues), Bama would eat the cost. My son was placed in a more expensive dorm one year ( a 2 bedroom), and we were not charged more by Bama. (After a firm letter to son’s grad school, they changed their tune…lol).</p>
<p>It’s not his job in this column to recap every single instance of a problem over the past ten years.</p>
<p>That’s a non-response. No one is expecting someone to recap “every single instance” of a problem or problems over the past 10 years. And, it would be silly to do so, since some past issues no longer exist. However, it is reasonable for someone to include evidence with accusations. </p>
<p>I know that it’s sometimes hard for some students to see the “big picture” and they’ll sometimes get bogged down complaining about minutiae or business decisions that they don’t understand. Running a univ is like running a business. The decision to recruit high stats students was a good one, even if some students don’t understand it or agree with it. My own son didn’t like people knowing that he had the NMF scholarship, because he knew a few students who didn’t like that scholarship. </p>
<p>Getting high stats kids on campus has a positive domino effect on a school…the middle quartiles rise, the rankings rise, it’s easier to hire better profs, donations come, grants come, research opps come, etc, etc.</p>
<p>Well, anybody that’s followed UA news for the past five years has heard the issues ad nauseum. If you’re not keeping up, that’s no one’s fault but your own.</p>
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<p>Wait, you’re not changing the argument again, as you accuse Vaughn of doing, are you, m2ck? 
His argument is not exactly that it’s bad to actively recruit high-stat adults. I would say he contends that it’s unwise to increase enrollment, including those covet Chosen Ones, the NMFs, at UA without the requisite capacity, which is something completely in UAs control. That’s something that seems to get missed in all this. UA is not required to admit anybody - there’s no guaranteed admissions program for Alabama high school graduates to the state universities - so the size of the entering class is precisely the size that UA wants it to be.</p>
<p>No school is going to build first then expand. You need the money from the expanded enrollment to foot the bill of the expansion.</p>
<p>Wait, you’re not changing the argument again, as you accuse Vaughn of doing, are you, m2ck?</p>
<p>Did I accuse Vaughn of “changing the argument”? Where did I do so? You do realize that the posters with other names are not me?</p>
<p>*anybody that’s followed UA news for the past five years has heard the issues ad nauseum. If you’re not keeping up, that’s no one’s fault but your own.
*</p>
<p>excuse me, but a student newspaper should never expect that its readers have been reading/keeping up for the last 5 years. Most of the current students were in high school 5 years ago…and many were in other states…and heck, some were in midde school 5 years ago. </p>
<p>When someone writes in a school newspaper, especially in SEPT, he/she needs to assume that 5000+ students are brand new to Bama and wouldn’t know about any other past whines from any previous students.</p>
<p>That said, as someone who has had one or two kids at Bama for the past 5 years, I can say, Yes, I’ve heard the above-mentioned complaints before. I’ve seen the school respond to valid concerns by building more and more dorms, more dining venues, more academic buildings and labs, institute a tram service, reroute traffic to make the campus safer, hire more profs (while other schools are pink-slipping), etc, etc. </p>
<p>There are kids who accept that any school (large or small) is going to have some things that they won’t like…a rule, regulation, a prof, etc…and there are kids who are going to whine anytime something isn’t exactly the way that they want it to be. </p>
<p>As someone who was on a school board I can tell you that many complaints are just silly, or naive, or concern things that either can’t be changed (without causing a whole 'nother group of complainers), or just isn’t cost-effective to change.</p>
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<p>That’s not indicative of smart planning to me.</p>
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<p>I was just being flippant. Sorry I offended you.</p>
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<p>And as somebody that has been in charge of a number of organizations (and I’m not talking about the Stamp Collecting society here), I can tell you that any complaint has a basis in some real deficiency. All leaders have to deal with complaints. The sign of the character of the leader is how he or she deals with it.</p>
<p>* I can tell you that any complaint has a basis in some real deficiency.*</p>
<p>Oh really? So, when a student complains that Prof X is too hard, then there is always a basis of deficiency? Are you saying that it’s not possible that the other kids in the class are fine with a prof (because those students study and do the homework), while the complainer doesn’t?</p>
<p>Or how about when a complaint is based on a total lie? Such as the complaints that the school grew its enrollment without increasing buildings, infrastructure, and the like.</p>
<p>And, while some complaints have a basis is some deficiency or whatever, that doesn’t mean that anyone can do much or should do much about it. A student can complain that on one day his dining hall ran out of X food item, but really unless the place runs out of X on a daily basis, it’s ridiculous, childish, and immature to complain. We don’t live in a perfect world. </p>
<p>If my kids complained when our kitchen was torn up while it was being remodeled (so it would be better), I’d slap them upside the head (figuratively) for being impatient and ungrateful brats. </p>
<p>People who expect never to be inconvenienced or expect things to always go “their way” are in for a heap of disappointment in life…at their future real job, in their marriages, with their kids, and with their community. Makes me wonder if their mommies and daddies made things too easy for them so they always expect smooth sailing.</p>
<p>Yes, there are always ways to root out the deficiency. In your first example, assuming your characterization of the all actors in the situation are true, the deficiency is that the student is not effectively communicating with the professor and finding out why the class is hard for him/her. It seems by your standard the student should sit down and accept that some will do better in the class than others, and further he or she should rather be glad the teacher speaks the same language.</p>
<p>I won’t address your second hypothetical because you know that is the very basis of what is being argued here. It would turn this thread into something resembling the dreams within the dreams in Inception. :)</p>
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<p>Well, it’s like I said above. “All leaders have to deal with complaints. The sign of the character of the leader is how he or she deals with it.”</p>
<p>The sign of the character of the complainer is how silly the complaint is.</p>
<p>Anyway…since you’re not a parent, you have no idea how many silly complaints parents face during the 18 years of child-rearing. If you think that each complaint should be faced with some kind of, “oh please, let me hear the minute details of your complaint du jour,” then you’re going to be very bogged down as a parent. </p>
<p>*In your first example, assuming your characterization of the all actors in the situation are true, the deficiency is that the student is not effectively communicating with the professor and finding out why the class is hard for him/her. It seems by your standard the student should sit down and accept that some will do better in the class than others, and further he or she should rather be glad the teacher speaks the same language.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>You didn’t address my response. I was showing an example that disproves that there’s ALWAYS some basis of deficiency (which justifies the complaint) by using the example of the student who doesn’t study and then complains about a prof.</p>
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<p>You’re right about that. The rest, we may just have to chalk up to a philosophical difference.</p>
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<p>I showed that even your counter-example is an example of my argument.</p>