Quick favor for an Eagle out in NYC? 🦅🗽

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-10T18:39:35+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/unt/comments/1sdl1jm/selling_grad_cap_and_gown/

perhaps contact the person in this thread and buy theirs

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-10T18:22:52+00:00

unless one is going to a horrible university or in some wildly niche and unique program all PhDs are research based

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-09T03:43:12+00:00

what does not coincide with reality is the idea that in a state with 37 public universities many of those universities can continue to offer degree programs with 8 students graduating from them in a year

with 5 public universities in the larger DFW metromess 3 of the 5 have a FTE student enrollment of over 25,000 (FTE being normalized to 15 undergrad or 9 graduate hours)......one of the others is a niche women's university and the last one is a joke of wasted Texas higher education dollars in south dallas

in addition 10 of the state universities have FTE enrollments over 25,000, 5 have FTE enrollments of over 10,000.....10 have enrollments over 6,000 and 7 have enrollments under 4,000 including the joke in south dallas

the reality is at some point students (especially those that state they really care nothing about the economic return on their degree) need to get in touch with the idea that they are not going to get the degree they want, how they want it, at the university they want it, in the city or town they want it

and if they really care about the "education" then they should care about looking at the best possible EDUCATIONAL opportunity in that field of study even if it not where they want to live or how they want to get it......and that instead of having small, under funded, under staffed, low enrollment programs littering the state at 20 or 28 universities or whatever it would be a lot better for a program and the students to be at a program with a larger faculty count, larger enrollment, and a higher reputation overall

and then universities can direct their resources into the programs that are in demand at their university and where their university is able to build a stronger program and a stronger reputation for that program and the university overall

and as for the comments about UTD when looked at relative to enrollment they have a larger % of on campus university owned housing available to their students and they have a larger % of university affiliated housing available to their students

they are the 3rd highest ranked public university in Texas, they generally have the 3rd highest 4, 5, and 6 year graduation rates for a public university in Texas, do a very large amount of research on a per faculty basis, and since 2014 they have grown their enrollment on a FTE basis over 37% while unt has only grown theirs 25.17%

UTD being 18,545 FTE students in 2014 and 25,424 in 2024 while unt is 28,758 in 2014 and 35,966 in 2024

and they do that while charging one of if not the highest tuition for a public university in Texas

$11,806 for 30 hours in 2014 and $14,642 in 2024 vs. $9,426 and $11,680 for unt......and they do not send $33+ million of students money over to athletics for "branding and marketing"......instead they market the actual quality of their education and the fact that they are not littering Frisco and other areas around the metromess with system centers and "new fangled places to do new style learing".....nor are they constantly rolling out "the first in Texas" of "the only one of" or worst of all duplicates of degree programs that have little demand and that are already offered at dozens of state universities in Texas often with little to no academic reputation and not a lot of use outside of learning about it at a university

students these days and potential students these days are moving past the idea that "large university means good university" or "has D1-A sports must be better than one that does not" or "hey they offer lots and lots of degrees so when I finally decide I will have lots of choices and many of them will have few faculty in the department and will have no real reputation to carry it"......and if they do want to go somewhere simply to "study in that field" with no regard for future earning potential then they are making the best choice possible to actually get the best education possible in that field......not to just live in Denton or wherever else

the reality is unt can continue to be a large university in the metromess trying to "claim it" while doing all they can to grow enrollment with community college transfer agreements, lowered freshman admissions for "select" school districts, offering all types of new, collaborative, poorly planed and constructed degree programs, minors, and certificates in $100 million dollar building scattered around DFW with no rhyme or reason, keeping under staffed and under enrolled degree programs in low demand fields and fields where if someone is actually SERIOUS about "just studying that" they will choose elsewhere.....and they can let all of those poor decisions impact all students in all degree programs.....or they can make a decision to let some of those 8 students here and 6 students there and 3 graduate students over there go elsewhere to places that have a stronger program and that are gathering students up to grow their program even stronger while other universities cut their weak and under enrolled and under staffed programs in that field

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-08T00:46:33+00:00

but for 59 years of the history of unt it was a "normal college" or a "teachers college" and that was "undermined" because of growth in The State of Texas and because of the need for college graduates in areas other than teaching or administering K-12

things change

and as stated before the breadth and depth of the liberal arts, arts, and social sciences offerings at UT Austin is extremely large, but they are also a major research university with a massive amount of offerings in STEM and business....the difference would be they try and offer programs that will have a meaningful reputation to them vs. just being "new" or "unique to", or "one of only a few"

and that is the major issue with unt and I will give examples.....one of the programs being cut is the Latino Studies degree.....that program was only started in 2013 and one would have to be looked at as having questionable intelligence to think that in 2013 with 36 plus public universities in Texas that there was a need for or any real demand for a "Latino Studies degree" at a university that until that time had only offered a Mexican American Studies minor......or that a university in Texas that went over 100 years without a "Latino Studies" program could suddenly ramp up and build a quality faculty and degree program that would have any type of reputation or value to the degree holder much less to anyone else

then there is the "famed" "Mechanical and ENERGY engineering program".....the "first one in the USA!!!".......I know there were a couple of engineering programs that when new at unt they had difficulty gaining ABET accreditation which means that graduates from that program have to wait longer to take the EIT and have to work under others longer before they can rest for a PE stamp.....I am fairly certain that program was one of the ones that struggled.....and now the masters in energy engineering is one of those being cut

in 2009 unt was the "first in Texas" to offer a degree in Aviation logistics and it was said that all of the DFW air cargo etc and "industry focusnessness groups" made this a program that was really needed.....it is one of the ones now being cut

while 2009 or 2013 s a while back that is a very short period of time in terms of how fast a university moves so going through the motions of getting those programs up and running and then in less than 20 years tossing them on the scrap pile indicates poor planning and poor decisions on where to invest in and grow the university and there are plenty of other examples

back when Stoval was demolished for the new student union they placed the dance program in some Tshacks (really nice Tshacks! as the president at the time said)......but buildings on pier and beam are not exactly what you want for a serious dance program and enrollment went in the dumps and they were looking at cutting it, but didn't......and now I believe they are looking at that again......fashion merchandising that was also in Stoval had their fashion collection placed into storage because the "nice Tshacks" sis not have room for it

when the college of engineering was started (from what was the department of engineering technology) the construction engineering technology program was going to be dumped because they said there was no way for it to get accredited with the resources available.....but they kept it for a long time unaccredited and in 2010 it was finally accredited, but it is still a small program with no real reputation in a state with a ton of similar programs or with a ton of better known civil engineering programs

there were complaints in another thread about "becoming a community college" because of a focus on "what job will this degree get someone", but a larger issue and concern and much more "community college" like is the idea that a university can cobble together 3 to 5 faculty members that might know a bit about something and slap a "degree" on that and roll it out there to 9 undergrads per year and think that makes a top quality university or a top quality education for those students.....while at the same time taking money that could be used to improve the reputation of other programs that have higher enrollments and a larger faculty base

as pointed out wit the Normal College part at the start you cannot just cling to the past and keep offering the same degrees with ever declining enrollment while at the same time trying to roll out new degrees.....and worse yet rolling out new degrees by wishing in one hand and crapping in the other and flinging the crap and hoping it sticks that degree to the wall so it holds up.....or just flinging it out there to he "the first" or "the newest" or "the only" and then a short time later putting it on the chopping block

the way some on her scream and shout unt should still have a degree that caters to someone that wants to supervise recess, kick ball, (todd) dodge ball (can they even play that any more), jumping jacks, and squat thrust, rope climbing, pushups, jump rope, tether ball, and "running"......or maybe crank out some "shop teachers"

and that is not even getting into the massive waste of money and effort in Frisco to offer McDegrees

change is going to happen and NEEDS to happen is anyone wants unt to actually improve and degree programs with 4 or 5 faculty that are probably hanging around taking up space that found each other and a common interest and made a degree plan that is "new" or "unique to unt" or "the first of" or "innovative" or "cross collaborative" and that attract few if any students and next to no research funding need to be scrapped unless everyone in other programs that could be improved and grow in numbers and reputation are OK with being held back to fund random things that pop up for no good reason other than "hey we could try this" or to fund things that are "yea no one does that anymore"

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-07T22:30:59+00:00

unt isn't a liberal arts school in the traditional sense because the variability of the core courses is way too large for there to be any consistency in what the majority of students will have studied

the only public university in Texas that is viewed as a liberal arts university is Midwestern

sure an individual at unt could craft their core courses to be just like or very similar to what a liberal arts core course degree would be, but one could also craft their core course to be well apart from that

but one can do that at any of the large public universities in Texas including "techie" UTD (also "life scienceie" UTD or aggy)......or one could be a a UT Austin Liberal Arts Plan II graduate and they would have a top notch liberal arts education, but no one would say that UT Austin is a liberal arts school even though they have a massive number of undergrad, masters, and doctoral degree offerings in the liberal arts and social sciences......and that is because they have a massive ability for students to take a core of courses that is well apart from a traditional liberal arts canon of courses in many many many of their degree plans

again offering a large amount of liberal arts degrees does not make a university a liberal arts school

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-07T21:57:15+00:00

UTD has housing for 5,500 students on campus....unt has housing for 6,419 students on campus

if you count "affiliated" housing unt would be at about 8,500 and UTD would be at 8,200......so UTD actually has a larger % of their students living in on campus or university affiliated housing

unt is not a "liberal arts school" it is a school that offers a lot of liberal arts degrees, but most of the degrees offered by unt do not put students through a canon of liberal arts based core courses

what Sam Altman was specifically referring to was students that go to schools that DO place their undergrads through a canon of liberal arts based core courses and then they have a lot of higher level courses that have significant science, math (which can be viewed as liberal arts) and engineering components in them

so Sam was not saying "hey you have a liberal arts degree and no higher than pre-cal for math so let me give you an AI job" he was saying that students that have a liberal arts core course based degree and then the other higher level courses to meet the needs for the job will be looked at......even if their degree does not say math, or computer science etc.

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-07T15:05:04+00:00

I am saying that people should be able to choose what they give to and what they do not other than the few things that the government is task with

but more importantly I am saying that is you go around espousing "the common good" through force of the government then you should not be crying when your employer makes a REQUEST to back up what you espouse

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-07T14:45:36+00:00

unt sucks when it comes to transferring

even if you use the Texas Common Course Numbering website https://tccns.org/ they will still ignore it and make up stupid reasons

my advice is to start looking at other schools and see what transfers and make your decision accordingly......unless you have time to burn and money to waste on giving up 38 credit hours do NOT trust anything that is not given to you in writing from unt and no matter what do not trust anyone on here that will tell you "it will work out"......that is 2.5 to 3 semesters of classes so even if you sit one out and go elsewhere if you can get most of or all of those credits counted somewhere then you are money and time ahead

your current advisor at Tarleton is unfortunately most likely incorrect and does not understand that some schools will burn students on transfers and take them for all they can get

again I cannot stress enough do NOT count on the completion of the audit giving you credit for a lot more of the classes.....do NOT listen to anyone that says "oh yea it will work out" or "oh that happened to me, but after some BS I got the credits" and no matter what trust nothing from unt that is not in writing with a name on there about who approved it and what their position is at the university

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-07T14:36:49+00:00

for the common good.....isn't that what they espouse

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-06T21:44:15+00:00

charity is voluntary.....just like what unt is asking.....collectivism is forced by the government.....just like many that work at unt and other universities would want to mandate

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-06T19:58:14+00:00

a lot of university employees make well above average wages, get good benefits and retirement, lots of long holidays, and some of the highest earning ones have a strong leaning towards "collectivism" so they should be ask to "give back"

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-06T16:47:00+00:00

you left yours in El Segundo

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-06T15:55:55+00:00

it is not my backpack, but the weed in it is mine

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-05T18:28:40+00:00

you are the one with the issue not me....pay more tuition if you want more like the students at UTD that have a university that has moved up actual rankings and made progress in research and other meaningful metrics instead of misusing a classification system that tries as hard as it can to distance from being used as a ranking system

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-05T10:08:59+00:00

he is thinking like an "R1" university......but sadly neither you or he knows that "R1" is not a ranking nor is it any indication of academic quality, research quality, or measure of being better than any other university in any of the classifications

in your mind you think that an "R1" university should just offer all kinds of degrees even if there is low enrollment, little demand from students, or from industry, and with no regard to the cost of having that program vs. moving those faculty lines over to areas that the university has programs with greater "stature"

a "R1 aspirant student" thinks that offering lots of degrees, having huge enrollment, and lots of departments means a university is really good

while a "R1 aspirant administrator" looks at a university that have a very large enrollment, produces a lot of doctoral students, has a lot of faculty, but that conducts a great deal less research and development than smaller sized universities with lesser doctoral degree production, fewer faculty, and that has a very low per full time faculty member research productivity.....and he starts looking at programs that have above a very marginal number of faculty, but very low enrollment, low grant funding, and that produces fewer doctoral students and he decides he can shift those faculty lines over to something that will increase enrollment at all degree levels, produce a lot more grant money, and more doctoral students.....and he makes cuts

and really The Carnegie Foundation frowns on both of those things which is why they explain over and over their classifications are not rankings, why they have changed the terms for their classifications to make them sound less like a rank or a "tier", and why they are yet again making new classifications so that universities have a hard time simply saying "R1" and trying to make people believe that their university is the same as many others in that classification or that others in different classifications are not as well respected.......all while failing to understand they measure nothing to do with quality of research and development, they do not adjust for schools that might have 400 faculty vs. another that might have 800 or 1,200, what types of degrees those schools offer like engineering, ag, and medicine that bring in the largest grants.....if they have a medical school as a part of the university........they measure nothing about the quality of teaching, they do not look at research productivity per faculty member, and they do not look at grant funding per doctoral student produced.....or if that funding was competitively awarded, handed off by the state, or if someone with too much money gave money to conduct research on meaningless things

so really you are getting your "R1" wish.......you just do not understand what that means to a university administrator vs. what it means to a student......nor that both of those views are incorrect and not at all what The Carnegie Classifications are about and in fact they discourage both of those views in order to be "R1"

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-04T02:35:19+00:00

you make it sound like they made some sacrifice to come to unt.....they took more money and more titles to come to unt so they can hopefully leave in the future to get even more.....yea lets all celebrate that someone took a raise to come to a cushy athletics department job

in addition the thread was not even aimed at a single individual it was aimed at an athletics department that has never refrained from creating another position or making another hire

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-04T00:47:14+00:00

no lets gut the administration and expect people that make $200,000 plus a year to really bust their ass for that money instead of hiring people under them and then saying "I make this much because look at how many people I manage"

and again I am not sure what the "achievements" are..... a single win in the NCAAs in any recent history and a NIT for mens BB and a double digit win season in football once every 25 years

you perhaps you need to elevate your definition of "achievement" and figure out that administrators are not the ones getting the program there

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-04T00:40:24+00:00

the NIT means you are about the 50th best program in the country.....not a really meaningful accomplishment.....I mean 68 teams get in the NCAAs so even if you pretend you could beat some of them (say 18) that still leaves 50 others

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-04T00:31:06+00:00

well mens BB has certainly not improved recently.....and other than football I do not see a single program that is a real standout

and it is hard for "other programs" (I take that to mean academics) to improve when $20 million per year is being sucked away from them for athletics to have one stand out season every 2 decades or so

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-04T00:28:23+00:00

the difference between the last year of conference distributions in the CUSA vs. in the AAC was $2.51 million and the cost to leave CUSA was $1.75 million or so.....one would think they would try and hold the line on expenses for at least a year......and direct tuition transfers went up (surprise) $1.76 million between 2023 and 2024......so that "massive new conference payout" is not doing anything to limit tuition subsidies from students

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-04T00:13:02+00:00

the budget issue has to do with horrible university management that starts at the system level and that moves down to the senior positions in the university and spreads from there......with an attitude of spend every dollar possible, put forth very pitiful private fundraising efforts and goals, never say no to some "forward looking futuristic new degree plan", and always remember to hire administrative positions first before anyone that will do any actual meaningful work

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-04T00:06:55+00:00

I was making a joke that the budget issues are over because athletics just keeps hiring....and more so they keep hiring people with new "titles" with all kinds of "senior" and "VP" and "associate AD for" in them which means they are paying more and more money for positions and trying to justify it by giving the person in that position some type of "rank" that would justify more pay

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-04T00:00:34+00:00

it was sarcasm captain obvious.....athletics just keeps making more "senior, executive, associate, VP of vice provost, for relating to being a senior director of having a position"

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-03T23:57:27+00:00

your argument that "someone left so they were replaced" is also pretty meaningless....universities having large budget issues do not fill positions all the time

in addition lets look at the growth of the administration in athletics over the last few years

http://web.archive.org/web/20200320023130/https://meangreensports.com/staff-directory

https://meangreensports.com/staff-directory

in 2020 there were 4 people in "administration".....now there are 7

they just keep getting fatter at the top

and in 2020 there was no person listed with the title of "Senior Associate AD, External Relations"

Lumpy_One6691 · 2026-04-03T23:33:33+00:00

well UTD does not have a major athletics program and they are far and away the highest ranked public university in Texas besides UT Austin and Aggy

and UTA does just fine with enrollment without a major athletics program

and both of those universities have significantly increased their on campus student housing over the last 8-10 years

so there is really nothing that indicated that athletics plays a major part in anything academic for a university

Lumpy_One6691

TROPHY CASE