The San Antonian

St. Louis Hall added to National Register

St. Mary's University announced that St. Louis Hall was added to the National Registry of Historic Places.

The Cowboy MBA

The Express-News has an article about a new master's degree program at A&M-Kingsville that is a business degree for ranch management. It also includes work done on the King Ranch. Interesting, that's all.

Rating our Schools

Wait wait wait....diverse is bad now? Well, apparently it is if you ask SA's two largest school districts. Click Here for the article.

Is this a nice diplomatic way of saying "poor Meskins are dragging our rating down"? And why aren't these poor Hispanics doing better? And if they're not doing well, does that mean the rating is unfair or does it mean they're deflecting from the dereliction in their duty to educate everyone; including poor Hispanics.

Back from vacation; new school year

I'm back from vacation and it has taken all of two days in the office to remind me why I needed a vacation to begin with.

I will start the posting with an article about new dorms at UTSA. I loved living in a dorm in college. They were fairly spartan but it was the camaraderie and connection that made it a great place to learn. I understand that schools compete for students. But this quote stood out to me:

Laurel Village has some nice touches, but amenities can get much fancier, said Goss of Collegiate Development Services. These amenities include flat-screen televisions built into living areas and laundry rooms, fitness centers, pools, volleyball courts and putting greens. "I have even heard of rock climbing walls," Goss said. "But that's not the norm." 

Seriously, college is expensive enough. It will only get more expensive as dorms turn into luxury condos. I blame Paris Hilton and MTV's Cribs. Kids want way too much luxury these days.

Geez, I sound like a crotchety old man. Get off my lawn!

Thanks, Career Point!!

The E-N has an article about for-profit trade schools, like Career Point, which are graduating more students than the ACCD schools.

If the community colleges can't keep up, then the for-profits will pick up the slack. This isn't a well-rounded liberal arts education these students want. They just want something that will get them a higher paying job. And they want to get it in a way that is convenient to them.  Either the community colleges adapt or they will become irrelevant for anything other than transferring students to UTSA.

A&M will have to wait until 2009

Governor 39% has vetoed a bill that would have allowed the Texas A&M-San Antonio to become a stand-alone university ahead of schedule.

Part of me thinks it's reasonable to stick to the timetable originally planned for. And another part of me is against anything Rick Perry does.

UTSA toughens admissions standards

UTSA will be harder to get into next year according to this article in the E-N. Will fewer kids getting accepted at UTSA help the new TAMU-SA? I think it will.

Top 10 Cap to be a reality

The E-N has a report that the Texas Senate has approved a cap to the Top 10 admission rule. I knew this would happen because UT wanted it. I can imagine other schools like Texas State and Texas Tech are going to be happy about it because those kids that get locked out of UT will need to go somewhere.

I also liked the part about Senator Tommy Williams claiming his worst vote ever was for tuition deregulation. Tuition has gone up a ton and will only continue to grow. This idea of combining the free market with education is only going to make our best public universities accessible only to the rich.

Follow up on UIW Football

The UIW press conference about their new football team yielded this great quote from President Louis Agnese:

"We've been developing professional schools, graduate programs, sports programs, and this is just one more thing," Agnese said. "In Texas you can't be a university and not have football. So it was time."

Nice slap at St. Mary's. Can StMU really afford to take that crap lying down? I don't think so. That should be more than enough motivation to add a football team. Hell, they could just renovate VJ Keefe to make it suitable for baseball and football and kill two birds with one stone.  

Don't let UIW leave us behind, President Cotrell. Take action now.

UIW to add football

According to the E-N a football team will be added at Incarnate Word starting as early as 2009.

Can St. Mary's let UIW do this without adding football themselves? UIW/StMU is San Antonio's only college rivalry. It has to move from to the gridiron now, doesn't it?

C'mon St. Mary's. Add football!