goodbye powers, hello community college

Fin aid has always been taken out of tuition and fees paid by students. In 2003, a tuition increase was contingent on setting aside 20% of new tuition for a variety of financial aid programs. That plan also included pricing incentives to graduate on time and I believe flat rate tuition plans.

Additionally, when you and I were at UT, the State provided much more support...something like 60%. In the 70s it was like 75%. Now it's below 20%, hence the tuition increases. Ivan, the "State" can be loosely defined as taxpayers - the vast majority of whom never went to college or had children who went to college. These folks subsidized financial aid.
 
I'd like to know the overall cost of operating UT'S undergraduate programs. I would bet my bottom dollar that it is more than the tuition cost of $11,000 per student -- probably more than double. If so, this would mean that every student is receiving a gift from someone, whether it be the state, the endowment fund, the athletic department, etc. Students who don't qualify for financial aid may get less of a supplement than students who do qualify, but no student actually pays more than fair share.
 
I say eliminate all financial aid. If someone has the grades, provide them with a loan by the government, but do not make it free money. Explain the terms and hold them accountable.

People are borrowing money when they should not borrow. If you need loans to go to school, attend a local college and stay at home to save money. Also, parents who leverage themselves with huge debt so their kid can go to college, live in a dorm and not work are idiots.

Life is not fair but the only way to overcome it is hard work and common sense. It is also the primary way of breaking out of poverty as well as avoiding early pregnancy, drugs and crime.
 
Rick Perry will no longer be governor January 2015. Rick Perry is not running for reelection. Either Greg Abbott or Wendy Davis will be governor. I'll go out on a limb and assume it will be UT alum Greg Abbott. I do not think Abbott will allow UT to become a community college. If Perry's goal is to turn UT into a community college, Perry has about 6 months to do it. It is not logical to assume this is a part of a Perry scheme to turn UT into a community college as Perry has insufficient time to complete that task.

The MAJORITY of the regents have supported Powers during the Perry administration. Every time attempts were made to remove Powers by a MINORITY of the regents, the MAJORITY of regents voted to keep Powers. Then a whistleblower came forward (according to news reports) and now apparently, though we will not know for sure until Thursday, a majority of the regents no longer supports Powers. It seems logical to assume if the regents were simply doing the political bidding of Perry, these regents would have voted Powers out long ago in the numerous opportunities they had to do so. It also seems logical that legitimate wrongdoing occurred for the regents to change their mind. However, while logical, these are only assumptions. I will add, that while logical guesses can be made, we will not know for sure whether legitimate wrongdoing has occurred by Powers or if this is a witch hunt until we see whatever evidence has been presented to the regents. However, Powers does not support open records. Under the closed records policy supported by Powers, we the taxpayers of the State of Texas would never be allowed to see the evidence against Powers. This brings me to my next point.

As far as the open records go, the regents only have one job. Their job is to manage the university. They should have access to all the records. The public should have access to this public university's records as well (other than things like employee health records as discussed by another poster). Being for Powers running the university without interference from the regents is like being for Rick Perry being able to run the state of Texas without interference from the state legislature. It's like thinking that a corporation's board of directors should be responsible for a company but have no power in hiring or firing the CEO or even seeing the company's financial statements. How ironic would it be if the regents fired Powers for wrong doing but refused to make their evidence public to Powers or anyone in accordance with Powers's own closed records policy?

I find it odd that so many posters concerned about the quality of UT's education seem to have not protested Bill Powers cutting programs in western civilization, numerous foreign languages and various other things like fencing. World class universities offer these things. Community colleges do not.

The Texas Exes is the alumni lobby and advocacy group. It is the job of the Texas Exes to advocate position of the majority of the alumni whether the alumni are for or against Powers. There is a apparently debate on this issue. I do not know what the majority of alumni think and will not speculate. Yes the Exes has events for sporting events. The Law School also has a tailgate for UT football games. I hope that one would not think that just because a law professor serves hotdogs before a UT football game as part of the tailgate, that he or she is not qualified to teach law.

It seems wrong that a poor student has to pay interest on loan money that goes to a student who was only slightly more poor and does not have to take loans. Taking from the poor and making them pay interest on that taking to give to the slightly more poor seems wrong to me. Hell taking from the middle class or ANYONE that has to take out loans to give to another seems wrong to me. At least just take from the rich! Taking from anyone who cannot afford school and needs loans is unjust. Another poster called it corrupt. Also yes, I do know students who could not afford school and had to take loans for everything but for some reason were not considered quite poor enough to qualify for the program discussed above.

Finally many have said that Powers does not deserve to be fired but deserves to go out on his own terms. Would Powers suddenly fire a longtime and previously successful employee, not allowing the employee to go out on his own terms, just because the employee was no longer wanted? Ask Mack Brown.
 
Htown77, I agree with your perspective and have written similar things in other places. Most alumni don't care that Powers hasn't been open with the records. They are afraid of the conservative Perry bogeyman who has to be against education because he is conservative and an aggie. I don't like Perry myself. The information I have seen doesn't justify kicking Powers out. However, you make the most important point of all. We don't know the whole story so being for or against someone is meaningless at this point.
 
Well, Powers gets to leave on his own terms. I don't know enough about collegiate leadership to know if extended lame duckery is a good idea. I do know it seldom works well in corporations, municipal leadership or elective offices.
 
m - correct SB1304 (2009) made it mandatory to notify how much of one student's money will be taken out of their pocket and given to someone else. My youngest was at Texas at the time and I saw the first email sent my kid showing what portion of the tuition bill was being sent to someone else. Corrupt.
The BOR will still have the opportunity to boot Powers today as he is on the agenda, but I am sure they are spineless and will not do so. He is up after discussing admissions, so maybe there is still a chance.
 
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