Although Solomon wasn't really going to cut the child into two parts, that's exactly what the University of Texas regents did in splitting the 2015 UT-RGV into twin campuses, East and West, one in Brownsville, the other in Edinburg, after politicos from both ends of the valley argued vociferously for the new campuses to be located in their city. With the new medical school destined for Edinburg, it appears the regents gave a two-thirds, one-third split, with Brownsville getting the smaller share.
Here is a link to our November 5, 2013 Mean Mister Brownsville article demonstrating the time constraints of having one class at the West campus and another at the East in a single day, using the Metro Connect system: http://meanmisterbrownsville.blogspot.com/2013/11/logistics-for-2014-bisd-graduate.html
All of this becomes more time-consuming if the student also has to take a Brownsville Metro bus to the multi-modal and then back again to their home at night.
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| UT-RGV West Campus |
It seems that students with classes at both campuses will need a car, a dependable one. Parents who can afford that, might also simply choose to have their children educated elsewhere.
With the recently announced 7% tuition raise for the 2014 edition of UTB, students may be opting for Texas Southmost College, offering the same instruction and instructors the first two years for much less.
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The "baby" (UT-PA and UTB) hasn't been divided yet by UT System. Julieta didn't apply to by head of the new university and we hear that UT-PA leader Nelson will not get the job either. Apparently, the "new" UT is looking to bring someone in from the outside and can be expected to raise tuition and require higher SAT/AP scores for entering students. From the reporting in the Herald, we see that UTB faculty members are in limbo and, even tenured faculty have no promise of a job at the new UT. If all this "rumor" is true, then we can expect the seats in the new UT to be occupied by students from outside the RGV and the faculty may also be new and imported. Since Cameron County, especially Brownsville, has invested little in the new UT, we can expect that the present UTB campus will be relegated to the likes of a community college; feeding into the Hidalgo County campus. Again, it looks like we lose to McAllen and HIdalgo County and even Harlingen....because they are willing to invest in education and their future as a community. Here we sit on our thumbs and wait for the welfare check.
ReplyDeleteYour 2/3, 1/3 reference appears to be off by a magnitude of a least 2. It will more likely be 5/6 Hidalgo, 1/6 Cameron. UT-B is now is neither fish nor fowl. It will not be a stand alone university or a junior college. TSC is the latter and the former is a joke without a punch line. I think you hit the nail on the head with your photos of the strip mall "campus". That said it all. Maybe they (the powers that be) can convert it into one those for profit diploma mills. I smell an IPO any day now.
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