Courtesy of Bullet:

http://www.thefederalist.com/2018/2/28/e...e-popping/

Be sure to check out the links. They are important, particularly the one from Harvard. There is a political spin here which you may or may not agree with. Don't focus on that. Focus on the data and the links.

I've covered much of this before, but it's refreshing to see Harvard agrees.

Auburn and Alabama have been preparing for increased enrollment and have lowered entrance standards. The downsizing in higher education will mean fewer smaller state schools and a funneling of enrollment to the larger state schools. And this will be occurring nationwide. Shrinking State budgets, shrinking Federal Grants, and Tech and Automation will force the largest schools to try to support research with undergraduate enrollment increases. Demographics and economics point to both a downturn in enrollment that will deepen, and the generations succeeding the Boomers having thinner wallets and shallower pockets.

The schools are preparing. You might remember when I said realignment wasn't driven by greed, but out of fear for survival and that it was the pursuit of new and larger revenue streams. Well here's some confirmation.

At Carolina we keep raising enrollment standards, and have had a record number of applicants for the 13th year in a row.

Carolina sets 13th consecutive record for first-year applications
The admitted Class of 2022 was selected from a record-setting 43,384 applicants.
The University expects to enroll a first-year class of 4,205 and an additional 725 transfer students in the College of Arts & Sciences.

https://uncnews.unc.edu/2018/02/01/carol...lications/

(03-02-2018 06:04 AM)XLance Wrote:  At Carolina we keep raising enrollment standards, and have had a record number of applicants for the 13th year in a row.

Carolina sets 13th consecutive record for first-year applications
The admitted Class of 2022 was selected from a record-setting 43,384 applicants.
The University expects to enroll a first-year class of 4,205 and an additional 725 transfer students in the College of Arts & Sciences.

https://uncnews.unc.edu/2018/02/01/carol...lications/

That's because UNC's place at the federal teat is secured. You don't have to worry about it.

(03-02-2018 03:33 AM)JRsec Wrote:  Courtesy of Bullet:

http://www.thefederalist.com/2018/2/28/e...e-popping/

Be sure to check out the links. They are important, particularly the one from Harvard. There is a political spin here which you may or may not agree with. Don't focus on that. Focus on the data and the links.

I've covered much of this before, but it's refreshing to see Harvard agrees.

Auburn and Alabama have been preparing for increased enrollment and have lowered entrance standards. The downsizing in higher education will mean fewer smaller state schools and a funneling of enrollment to the larger state schools. And this will be occurring nationwide. Shrinking State budgets, shrinking Federal Grants, and Tech and Automation will force the largest schools to try to support research with undergraduate enrollment increases. Demographics and economics point to both a downturn in enrollment that will deepen, and the generations succeeding the Boomers having thinner wallets and shallower pockets.

The schools are preparing. You might remember when I said realignment wasn't driven by greed, but out of fear for survival and that it was the pursuit of new and larger revenue streams. Well here's some confirmation.

There is a running complaint among long time Tuscaloosans that the town just isn't the same anymore because we're being overrun with apartments...the University is sprawling out and conquering everything it touches.

I actually don't mind because I know there will economic benefits that come with it even if it creates some inconveniences.

UA's old goal was to reach 35K students by about 2015 if I remember correctly. They reached that goal several years early and from what I've heard the new goal is 50K and they are well on their way as 40K is now within reach. The school has roughly doubled in size since I was a freshman and that was less than 20 years ago.

But to your overall point, yes, some smaller schools are going to end up dying off if for no more reason then there simply won't be enough money to operate them. It's much more efficient to send everyone to 1 campus to study one field rather than allow that same discipline to be a focus on 10 different campuses.

(03-02-2018 12:18 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 03:33 AM)JRsec Wrote:  Courtesy of Bullet:

http://www.thefederalist.com/2018/2/28/e...e-popping/

Be sure to check out the links. They are important, particularly the one from Harvard. There is a political spin here which you may or may not agree with. Don't focus on that. Focus on the data and the links.

I've covered much of this before, but it's refreshing to see Harvard agrees.

Auburn and Alabama have been preparing for increased enrollment and have lowered entrance standards. The downsizing in higher education will mean fewer smaller state schools and a funneling of enrollment to the larger state schools. And this will be occurring nationwide. Shrinking State budgets, shrinking Federal Grants, and Tech and Automation will force the largest schools to try to support research with undergraduate enrollment increases. Demographics and economics point to both a downturn in enrollment that will deepen, and the generations succeeding the Boomers having thinner wallets and shallower pockets.

The schools are preparing. You might remember when I said realignment wasn't driven by greed, but out of fear for survival and that it was the pursuit of new and larger revenue streams. Well here's some confirmation.

There is a running complaint among long time Tuscaloosans that the town just isn't the same anymore because we're being overrun with apartments...the University is sprawling out and conquering everything it touches.

I actually don't mind because I know there will economic benefits that come with it even if it creates some inconveniences.

UA's old goal was to reach 35K students by about 2015 if I remember correctly. They reached that goal several years early and from what I've heard the new goal is 50K and they are well on their way as 40K is now within reach. The school has roughly doubled in size since I was a freshman and that was less than 20 years ago.

But to your overall point, yes, some smaller schools are going to end up dying off if for no more reason then there simply won't be enough money to operate them. It's much more efficient to send everyone to 1 campus to study one field rather than allow that same discipline to be a focus on 10 different campuses.

ATU, if you could drop by downtown Auburn you would see why Auburn residents feel the same way. What was the quaint, "loveliest village on the plains" is being destroyed by grotesque development. It's profiting about 3 or 4 key industries here (meaning key families) and it is absolutely destroying the look and feel of the town. I love Auburn, and while we haven't quite doubled in size since I was here (in terms of undergraduate enrollment) it's getting close.

Auburn however has another issue. The growth is outstripping our water supply and I don't even want to think about the landfill situation.

But clearly what the state of Alabama is doing is organizing higher ed so that they can streamline the state's expenditures in that area. I think eventually our state will have two major state Universities, a state medical school in Birmingham (sans undergraduate there) and a couple of Troy sized schools dedicated to specific disciplines. Satellite campuses are going away and Jr colleges will be either be closed or turned into trade schools. Private schools will stay around as long as there is the demand and/or cash and then they will be the first true victims of what Harvard was addressing.

There is a downside there as well. When we lose privates we will lose the academic check on what our students in public schools are taught. So this whole process is a mixed bag. Yes we need to downsize because it is unsustainable, but downsizing to only publics kills academic freedom.

(03-02-2018 12:34 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 12:18 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 03:33 AM)JRsec Wrote:  Courtesy of Bullet:

http://www.thefederalist.com/2018/2/28/e...e-popping/

Be sure to check out the links. They are important, particularly the one from Harvard. There is a political spin here which you may or may not agree with. Don't focus on that. Focus on the data and the links.

I've covered much of this before, but it's refreshing to see Harvard agrees.

Auburn and Alabama have been preparing for increased enrollment and have lowered entrance standards. The downsizing in higher education will mean fewer smaller state schools and a funneling of enrollment to the larger state schools. And this will be occurring nationwide. Shrinking State budgets, shrinking Federal Grants, and Tech and Automation will force the largest schools to try to support research with undergraduate enrollment increases. Demographics and economics point to both a downturn in enrollment that will deepen, and the generations succeeding the Boomers having thinner wallets and shallower pockets.

The schools are preparing. You might remember when I said realignment wasn't driven by greed, but out of fear for survival and that it was the pursuit of new and larger revenue streams. Well here's some confirmation.

There is a running complaint among long time Tuscaloosans that the town just isn't the same anymore because we're being overrun with apartments...the University is sprawling out and conquering everything it touches.

I actually don't mind because I know there will economic benefits that come with it even if it creates some inconveniences.

UA's old goal was to reach 35K students by about 2015 if I remember correctly. They reached that goal several years early and from what I've heard the new goal is 50K and they are well on their way as 40K is now within reach. The school has roughly doubled in size since I was a freshman and that was less than 20 years ago.

But to your overall point, yes, some smaller schools are going to end up dying off if for no more reason then there simply won't be enough money to operate them. It's much more efficient to send everyone to 1 campus to study one field rather than allow that same discipline to be a focus on 10 different campuses.

ATU, if you could drop by downtown Auburn you would see why Auburn residents feel the same way. What was the quaint, "loveliest village on the plains" is being destroyed by grotesque development. It's profiting about 3 or 4 key industries here (meaning key families) and it is absolutely destroying the look and feel of the town. I love Auburn, and while we haven't quite doubled in size since I was here (in terms of undergraduate enrollment) it's getting close.

Auburn however has another issue. The growth is outstripping our water supply and I don't even want to think about the landfill situation.

But clearly what the state of Alabama is doing is organizing higher ed so that they can streamline the state's expenditures in that area. I think eventually our state will have two major state Universities, a state medical school in Birmingham (sans undergraduate there) and a couple of Troy sized schools dedicated to specific disciplines. Satellite campuses are going away and Jr colleges will be either be closed or turned into trade schools. Private schools will stay around as long as there is the demand and/or cash and then they will be the first true victims of what Harvard was addressing.

There is a downside there as well. When we lose privates we will lose the academic check on what our students in public schools are taught. So this whole process is a mixed bag. Yes we need to downsize because it is unsustainable, but downsizing to only publics kills academic freedom.

I'm not too familiar with the layout of Auburn. I've only been there a couple times so I wouldn't know what the old Auburn looked like.

As far as water, Tuscaloosa should be ok. The city built Lake Tuscaloosa...in the 60s I believe...as a reservoir and so they essentially own the lake even though it's not quite as large as some of the other lakes around the state.

Where we've had some trouble is traffic flow. Actually, there are a couple of areas of town that were poorly laid out anyway and they've always been difficult to deal with, but the problem has been exacerbated.

It's going to get really fun soon though because ALDOT, in all their wisdom, has decided to work on our 2 busiest interstate exits simultaneously. It's bad enough that they've taken about 20 years to widen the interstate between here and Bham from 4 to 6 lanes, but now that they've reached the city they've decided to start a 3 year project to rebuild the bridges over McFarland(our busiest thoroughfare). Just a couple of miles away, they will also be extending the 359 Interchange near our 2nd busiest interstate exit and completely reworking one of the busiest intersections in town so that they can create a new off ramp from the Interchange down to the intersection.

Now if that's not bad enough you have to consider that the Interchange runs directly into Highway 69 South. If you know Tuscaloosa then you know that about 1/4 of the County's population lives off of HWY 69 South. The bad part is there is literally no other way to get to those neighborhoods. That intersection is jammed for hours everyday because there is literally nowhere else for these people to go...and they've decided to completely alter the makeup of how this intersection operates before they bothered to create a couple of side roads to alleviate the traffic flow that was already a mess to begin with.

I thank God I don't live in that part of town because it's going to be a nightmare.

Maybe Tuscaloosa will survive this, but if you don't hear from me in a few months you can safely assume everyone went nuts and that the city has turned into a dystopian desert.

(03-02-2018 01:27 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 12:34 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 12:18 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 03:33 AM)JRsec Wrote:  Courtesy of Bullet:

http://www.thefederalist.com/2018/2/28/e...e-popping/

Be sure to check out the links. They are important, particularly the one from Harvard. There is a political spin here which you may or may not agree with. Don't focus on that. Focus on the data and the links.

I've covered much of this before, but it's refreshing to see Harvard agrees.

Auburn and Alabama have been preparing for increased enrollment and have lowered entrance standards. The downsizing in higher education will mean fewer smaller state schools and a funneling of enrollment to the larger state schools. And this will be occurring nationwide. Shrinking State budgets, shrinking Federal Grants, and Tech and Automation will force the largest schools to try to support research with undergraduate enrollment increases. Demographics and economics point to both a downturn in enrollment that will deepen, and the generations succeeding the Boomers having thinner wallets and shallower pockets.

The schools are preparing. You might remember when I said realignment wasn't driven by greed, but out of fear for survival and that it was the pursuit of new and larger revenue streams. Well here's some confirmation.

There is a running complaint among long time Tuscaloosans that the town just isn't the same anymore because we're being overrun with apartments...the University is sprawling out and conquering everything it touches.

I actually don't mind because I know there will economic benefits that come with it even if it creates some inconveniences.

UA's old goal was to reach 35K students by about 2015 if I remember correctly. They reached that goal several years early and from what I've heard the new goal is 50K and they are well on their way as 40K is now within reach. The school has roughly doubled in size since I was a freshman and that was less than 20 years ago.

But to your overall point, yes, some smaller schools are going to end up dying off if for no more reason then there simply won't be enough money to operate them. It's much more efficient to send everyone to 1 campus to study one field rather than allow that same discipline to be a focus on 10 different campuses.

ATU, if you could drop by downtown Auburn you would see why Auburn residents feel the same way. What was the quaint, "loveliest village on the plains" is being destroyed by grotesque development. It's profiting about 3 or 4 key industries here (meaning key families) and it is absolutely destroying the look and feel of the town. I love Auburn, and while we haven't quite doubled in size since I was here (in terms of undergraduate enrollment) it's getting close.

Auburn however has another issue. The growth is outstripping our water supply and I don't even want to think about the landfill situation.

But clearly what the state of Alabama is doing is organizing higher ed so that they can streamline the state's expenditures in that area. I think eventually our state will have two major state Universities, a state medical school in Birmingham (sans undergraduate there) and a couple of Troy sized schools dedicated to specific disciplines. Satellite campuses are going away and Jr colleges will be either be closed or turned into trade schools. Private schools will stay around as long as there is the demand and/or cash and then they will be the first true victims of what Harvard was addressing.

There is a downside there as well. When we lose privates we will lose the academic check on what our students in public schools are taught. So this whole process is a mixed bag. Yes we need to downsize because it is unsustainable, but downsizing to only publics kills academic freedom.

I'm not too familiar with the layout of Auburn. I've only been there a couple times so I wouldn't know what the old Auburn looked like.

As far as water, Tuscaloosa should be ok. The city built Lake Tuscaloosa...in the 60s I believe...as a reservoir and so they essentially own the lake even though it's not quite as large as some of the other lakes around the state.

Where we've had some trouble is traffic flow. Actually, there are a couple of areas of town that were poorly laid out anyway and they've always been difficult to deal with, but the problem has been exacerbated.

It's going to get really fun soon though because ALDOT, in all their wisdom, has decided to work on our 2 busiest interstate exits simultaneously. It's bad enough that they've taken about 20 years to widen the interstate between here and Bham from 4 to 6 lanes, but now that they've reached the city they've decided to start a 3 year project to rebuild the bridges over McFarland(our busiest thoroughfare). Just a couple of miles away, they will also be extending the 359 Interchange near our 2nd busiest interstate exit and completely reworking one of the busiest intersections in town so that they can create a new off ramp from the Interchange down to the intersection.

Now if that's not bad enough you have to consider that the Interchange runs directly into Highway 69 South. If you know Tuscaloosa then you know that about 1/4 of the County's population lives off of HWY 69 South. The bad part is there is literally no other way to get to those neighborhoods. That intersection is jammed for hours everyday because there is literally nowhere else for these people to go...and they've decided to completely alter the makeup of how this intersection operates before they bothered to create a couple of side roads to alleviate the traffic flow that was already a mess to begin with.

I thank God I don't live in that part of town because it's going to be a nightmare.

Maybe Tuscaloosa will survive this, but if you don't hear from me in a few months you can safely assume everyone went nuts and that the city has turned into a dystopian desert.

I'm smiling sarcastically. the ALDOT has been doing road resurfacing on I85 and working on Auburn exits for 3 consecutive years. Work picks up in the Summer and then always goes past deadline into the football season.

BTW, I'm very familiar with Tuscaloosa. I had to travel through there many times over the years. And 69 was never a fun drive. Cottondale and Northport might as well be Tuscaloosa the way that Opelika and Auburn are one in the same except for zip code and tax purposes.

Congestion has always been an issue in Tuscaloosa and the whole strip area is inconvenient traffic wise. Downtown can be worse.

In Auburn the downtown area was really a two block area of small one or two story buildings forever. The Oak Trees sat on the corner that separated the business district from the main campus. Developers are now taking it to 4 stories with massive parking garages and it's all being built on the main arteries out of the downtown area. I wouldn't say that Auburn had congestion, I'd say that twice a day we have gridlock.

But aesthetically, it's monstrously ugly. Tuscaloosa, other than the main campus, was never beautiful. It just had too much sprawl. Parts of Northport are lovely but not main business drag. But the downtown Auburn area was picturesque and peaceful. Not any more.

(03-02-2018 01:45 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 01:27 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 12:34 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 12:18 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 03:33 AM)JRsec Wrote:  Courtesy of Bullet:

http://www.thefederalist.com/2018/2/28/e...e-popping/

Be sure to check out the links. They are important, particularly the one from Harvard. There is a political spin here which you may or may not agree with. Don't focus on that. Focus on the data and the links.

I've covered much of this before, but it's refreshing to see Harvard agrees.

Auburn and Alabama have been preparing for increased enrollment and have lowered entrance standards. The downsizing in higher education will mean fewer smaller state schools and a funneling of enrollment to the larger state schools. And this will be occurring nationwide. Shrinking State budgets, shrinking Federal Grants, and Tech and Automation will force the largest schools to try to support research with undergraduate enrollment increases. Demographics and economics point to both a downturn in enrollment that will deepen, and the generations succeeding the Boomers having thinner wallets and shallower pockets.

The schools are preparing. You might remember when I said realignment wasn't driven by greed, but out of fear for survival and that it was the pursuit of new and larger revenue streams. Well here's some confirmation.

There is a running complaint among long time Tuscaloosans that the town just isn't the same anymore because we're being overrun with apartments...the University is sprawling out and conquering everything it touches.

I actually don't mind because I know there will economic benefits that come with it even if it creates some inconveniences.

UA's old goal was to reach 35K students by about 2015 if I remember correctly. They reached that goal several years early and from what I've heard the new goal is 50K and they are well on their way as 40K is now within reach. The school has roughly doubled in size since I was a freshman and that was less than 20 years ago.

But to your overall point, yes, some smaller schools are going to end up dying off if for no more reason then there simply won't be enough money to operate them. It's much more efficient to send everyone to 1 campus to study one field rather than allow that same discipline to be a focus on 10 different campuses.

ATU, if you could drop by downtown Auburn you would see why Auburn residents feel the same way. What was the quaint, "loveliest village on the plains" is being destroyed by grotesque development. It's profiting about 3 or 4 key industries here (meaning key families) and it is absolutely destroying the look and feel of the town. I love Auburn, and while we haven't quite doubled in size since I was here (in terms of undergraduate enrollment) it's getting close.

Auburn however has another issue. The growth is outstripping our water supply and I don't even want to think about the landfill situation.

But clearly what the state of Alabama is doing is organizing higher ed so that they can streamline the state's expenditures in that area. I think eventually our state will have two major state Universities, a state medical school in Birmingham (sans undergraduate there) and a couple of Troy sized schools dedicated to specific disciplines. Satellite campuses are going away and Jr colleges will be either be closed or turned into trade schools. Private schools will stay around as long as there is the demand and/or cash and then they will be the first true victims of what Harvard was addressing.

There is a downside there as well. When we lose privates we will lose the academic check on what our students in public schools are taught. So this whole process is a mixed bag. Yes we need to downsize because it is unsustainable, but downsizing to only publics kills academic freedom.

I'm not too familiar with the layout of Auburn. I've only been there a couple times so I wouldn't know what the old Auburn looked like.

As far as water, Tuscaloosa should be ok. The city built Lake Tuscaloosa...in the 60s I believe...as a reservoir and so they essentially own the lake even though it's not quite as large as some of the other lakes around the state.

Where we've had some trouble is traffic flow. Actually, there are a couple of areas of town that were poorly laid out anyway and they've always been difficult to deal with, but the problem has been exacerbated.

It's going to get really fun soon though because ALDOT, in all their wisdom, has decided to work on our 2 busiest interstate exits simultaneously. It's bad enough that they've taken about 20 years to widen the interstate between here and Bham from 4 to 6 lanes, but now that they've reached the city they've decided to start a 3 year project to rebuild the bridges over McFarland(our busiest thoroughfare). Just a couple of miles away, they will also be extending the 359 Interchange near our 2nd busiest interstate exit and completely reworking one of the busiest intersections in town so that they can create a new off ramp from the Interchange down to the intersection.

Now if that's not bad enough you have to consider that the Interchange runs directly into Highway 69 South. If you know Tuscaloosa then you know that about 1/4 of the County's population lives off of HWY 69 South. The bad part is there is literally no other way to get to those neighborhoods. That intersection is jammed for hours everyday because there is literally nowhere else for these people to go...and they've decided to completely alter the makeup of how this intersection operates before they bothered to create a couple of side roads to alleviate the traffic flow that was already a mess to begin with.

I thank God I don't live in that part of town because it's going to be a nightmare.

Maybe Tuscaloosa will survive this, but if you don't hear from me in a few months you can safely assume everyone went nuts and that the city has turned into a dystopian desert.

I'm smiling sarcastically. the ALDOT has been doing road resurfacing on I85 and working on Auburn exits for 3 consecutive years. Work picks up in the Summer and then always goes past deadline into the football season.

BTW, I'm very familiar with Tuscaloosa. I had to travel through there many times over the years. And 69 was never a fun drive. Cottondale and Northport might as well be Tuscaloosa the way that Opelika and Auburn are one in the same except for zip code and tax purposes.

Congestion has always been an issue in Tuscaloosa and the whole strip area is inconvenient traffic wise. Downtown can be worse.

In Auburn the downtown area was really a two block area of small one or two story buildings forever. The Oak Trees sat on the corner that separated the business district from the main campus. Developers are now taking it to 4 stories with massive parking garages and it's all being built on the main arteries out of the downtown area. I wouldn't say that Auburn had congestion, I'd say that twice a day we have gridlock.

But aesthetically, it's monstrously ugly. Tuscaloosa, other than the main campus, was never beautiful. It just had too much sprawl. Parts of Northport are lovely but not main business drag. But the downtown Auburn area was picturesque and peaceful. Not any more.

I actually like our downtown area now. It's not as nice as some of the small cities I've visited, but it's much better than it was when I was growing up. That and the River Walk/Jack Warner Pkwy area has become pretty nice although that's more of a recent development. That whole area is much more suited to foot traffic now than it used to be so I think that's part of the improvement. If you live in that general part of town, and there are a lot more housing options there now, then it's not too hard to get around, but if you are passing through from one area to another then traffic will slow you down big time.

The part of the County that has really grown in recent years is the Vance/Lake View area out past Mercedes that bumps up to Jefferson and Bibb Counties. Now, part of that is the Bham suburbs have just sprawled out so much that most of those people work in Birmingham and didn't want to live in Jefferson County. Some of it is the natural growth that came with Mercedes and the suppliers being close by. It's about a 30 minute drive down the interstate to that area from downtown Tuscaloosa so it's pretty disconnected even though we're all technically in the same County. Nice area though as there are plenty of new neighborhoods, but you can still have some land and not be very far from either Tuscaloosa or Bham.

Speaking of ALDOT, what I really want from them is a 4 lane highway all the way to Montgomery. It's only about 90 miles and HWY 82 is a straight shot, but most of it is 2 lane and it winds through a few small towns too much. It is 4 lane from here to Brent in the middle of Bibb County, but it quickly narrows and they haven't worked on it hardly since I was a kid. You'd think a decent highway between 2 of the state's largest cities would be a no-brainer, but apparently not. Maybe I'm biased because I have to work down there sometimes and the trip could be so much smoother, but it makes sense to me. And let's not even get started on the trip between here and Mobile.

(03-02-2018 03:14 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 01:45 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 01:27 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 12:34 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 12:18 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  There is a running complaint among long time Tuscaloosans that the town just isn't the same anymore because we're being overrun with apartments...the University is sprawling out and conquering everything it touches.

I actually don't mind because I know there will economic benefits that come with it even if it creates some inconveniences.

UA's old goal was to reach 35K students by about 2015 if I remember correctly. They reached that goal several years early and from what I've heard the new goal is 50K and they are well on their way as 40K is now within reach. The school has roughly doubled in size since I was a freshman and that was less than 20 years ago.

But to your overall point, yes, some smaller schools are going to end up dying off if for no more reason then there simply won't be enough money to operate them. It's much more efficient to send everyone to 1 campus to study one field rather than allow that same discipline to be a focus on 10 different campuses.

ATU, if you could drop by downtown Auburn you would see why Auburn residents feel the same way. What was the quaint, "loveliest village on the plains" is being destroyed by grotesque development. It's profiting about 3 or 4 key industries here (meaning key families) and it is absolutely destroying the look and feel of the town. I love Auburn, and while we haven't quite doubled in size since I was here (in terms of undergraduate enrollment) it's getting close.

Auburn however has another issue. The growth is outstripping our water supply and I don't even want to think about the landfill situation.

But clearly what the state of Alabama is doing is organizing higher ed so that they can streamline the state's expenditures in that area. I think eventually our state will have two major state Universities, a state medical school in Birmingham (sans undergraduate there) and a couple of Troy sized schools dedicated to specific disciplines. Satellite campuses are going away and Jr colleges will be either be closed or turned into trade schools. Private schools will stay around as long as there is the demand and/or cash and then they will be the first true victims of what Harvard was addressing.

There is a downside there as well. When we lose privates we will lose the academic check on what our students in public schools are taught. So this whole process is a mixed bag. Yes we need to downsize because it is unsustainable, but downsizing to only publics kills academic freedom.

I'm not too familiar with the layout of Auburn. I've only been there a couple times so I wouldn't know what the old Auburn looked like.

As far as water, Tuscaloosa should be ok. The city built Lake Tuscaloosa...in the 60s I believe...as a reservoir and so they essentially own the lake even though it's not quite as large as some of the other lakes around the state.

Where we've had some trouble is traffic flow. Actually, there are a couple of areas of town that were poorly laid out anyway and they've always been difficult to deal with, but the problem has been exacerbated.

It's going to get really fun soon though because ALDOT, in all their wisdom, has decided to work on our 2 busiest interstate exits simultaneously. It's bad enough that they've taken about 20 years to widen the interstate between here and Bham from 4 to 6 lanes, but now that they've reached the city they've decided to start a 3 year project to rebuild the bridges over McFarland(our busiest thoroughfare). Just a couple of miles away, they will also be extending the 359 Interchange near our 2nd busiest interstate exit and completely reworking one of the busiest intersections in town so that they can create a new off ramp from the Interchange down to the intersection.

Now if that's not bad enough you have to consider that the Interchange runs directly into Highway 69 South. If you know Tuscaloosa then you know that about 1/4 of the County's population lives off of HWY 69 South. The bad part is there is literally no other way to get to those neighborhoods. That intersection is jammed for hours everyday because there is literally nowhere else for these people to go...and they've decided to completely alter the makeup of how this intersection operates before they bothered to create a couple of side roads to alleviate the traffic flow that was already a mess to begin with.

I thank God I don't live in that part of town because it's going to be a nightmare.

Maybe Tuscaloosa will survive this, but if you don't hear from me in a few months you can safely assume everyone went nuts and that the city has turned into a dystopian desert.

I'm smiling sarcastically. the ALDOT has been doing road resurfacing on I85 and working on Auburn exits for 3 consecutive years. Work picks up in the Summer and then always goes past deadline into the football season.

BTW, I'm very familiar with Tuscaloosa. I had to travel through there many times over the years. And 69 was never a fun drive. Cottondale and Northport might as well be Tuscaloosa the way that Opelika and Auburn are one in the same except for zip code and tax purposes.

Congestion has always been an issue in Tuscaloosa and the whole strip area is inconvenient traffic wise. Downtown can be worse.

In Auburn the downtown area was really a two block area of small one or two story buildings forever. The Oak Trees sat on the corner that separated the business district from the main campus. Developers are now taking it to 4 stories with massive parking garages and it's all being built on the main arteries out of the downtown area. I wouldn't say that Auburn had congestion, I'd say that twice a day we have gridlock.

But aesthetically, it's monstrously ugly. Tuscaloosa, other than the main campus, was never beautiful. It just had too much sprawl. Parts of Northport are lovely but not main business drag. But the downtown Auburn area was picturesque and peaceful. Not any more.

I actually like our downtown area now. It's not as nice as some of the small cities I've visited, but it's much better than it was when I was growing up. That and the River Walk/Jack Warner Pkwy area has become pretty nice although that's more of a recent development. That whole area is much more suited to foot traffic now than it used to be so I think that's part of the improvement. If you live in that general part of town, and there are a lot more housing options there now, then it's not too hard to get around, but if you are passing through from one area to another then traffic will slow you down big time.

The part of the County that has really grown in recent years is the Vance/Lake View area out past Mercedes that bumps up to Jefferson and Bibb Counties. Now, part of that is the Bham suburbs have just sprawled out so much that most of those people work in Birmingham and didn't want to live in Jefferson County. Some of it is the natural growth that came with Mercedes and the suppliers being close by. It's about a 30 minute drive down the interstate to that area from downtown Tuscaloosa so it's pretty disconnected even though we're all technically in the same County. Nice area though as there are plenty of new neighborhoods, but you can still have some land and not be very far from either Tuscaloosa or Bham.

Speaking of ALDOT, what I really want from them is a 4 lane highway all the way to Montgomery. It's only about 90 miles and HWY 82 is a straight shot, but most of it is 2 lane and it winds through a few small towns too much. It is 4 lane from here to Brent in the middle of Bibb County, but it quickly narrows and they haven't worked on it hardly since I was a kid. You'd think a decent highway between 2 of the state's largest cities would be a no-brainer, but apparently not. Maybe I'm biased because I have to work down there sometimes and the trip could be so much smoother, but it makes sense to me. And let's not even get started on the trip between here and Mobile.

I used 82 a lot back in the day. Cahaba to Clanton wasn't too bad and there were a few speed traps along that road, but the peaches in season were a heckuva perk to be able to stop at one of those roadside stands and load up was a treat.

Heading to Mobile from Tuscaloosa is a journey through long, winding, and poorly surfaced roads through what, about 4 hours plus of nothing? The only thing worse is heading from Starkville to Mobile. Extreme West Alabama doesn't have a really straight shot to anywhere. I defy you to find a great route from Florence to Mobile!

(03-02-2018 03:48 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 03:14 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 01:45 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 01:27 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 12:34 PM)JRsec Wrote:  ATU, if you could drop by downtown Auburn you would see why Auburn residents feel the same way. What was the quaint, "loveliest village on the plains" is being destroyed by grotesque development. It's profiting about 3 or 4 key industries here (meaning key families) and it is absolutely destroying the look and feel of the town. I love Auburn, and while we haven't quite doubled in size since I was here (in terms of undergraduate enrollment) it's getting close.

Auburn however has another issue. The growth is outstripping our water supply and I don't even want to think about the landfill situation.

But clearly what the state of Alabama is doing is organizing higher ed so that they can streamline the state's expenditures in that area. I think eventually our state will have two major state Universities, a state medical school in Birmingham (sans undergraduate there) and a couple of Troy sized schools dedicated to specific disciplines. Satellite campuses are going away and Jr colleges will be either be closed or turned into trade schools. Private schools will stay around as long as there is the demand and/or cash and then they will be the first true victims of what Harvard was addressing.

There is a downside there as well. When we lose privates we will lose the academic check on what our students in public schools are taught. So this whole process is a mixed bag. Yes we need to downsize because it is unsustainable, but downsizing to only publics kills academic freedom.

I'm not too familiar with the layout of Auburn. I've only been there a couple times so I wouldn't know what the old Auburn looked like.

As far as water, Tuscaloosa should be ok. The city built Lake Tuscaloosa...in the 60s I believe...as a reservoir and so they essentially own the lake even though it's not quite as large as some of the other lakes around the state.

Where we've had some trouble is traffic flow. Actually, there are a couple of areas of town that were poorly laid out anyway and they've always been difficult to deal with, but the problem has been exacerbated.

It's going to get really fun soon though because ALDOT, in all their wisdom, has decided to work on our 2 busiest interstate exits simultaneously. It's bad enough that they've taken about 20 years to widen the interstate between here and Bham from 4 to 6 lanes, but now that they've reached the city they've decided to start a 3 year project to rebuild the bridges over McFarland(our busiest thoroughfare). Just a couple of miles away, they will also be extending the 359 Interchange near our 2nd busiest interstate exit and completely reworking one of the busiest intersections in town so that they can create a new off ramp from the Interchange down to the intersection.

Now if that's not bad enough you have to consider that the Interchange runs directly into Highway 69 South. If you know Tuscaloosa then you know that about 1/4 of the County's population lives off of HWY 69 South. The bad part is there is literally no other way to get to those neighborhoods. That intersection is jammed for hours everyday because there is literally nowhere else for these people to go...and they've decided to completely alter the makeup of how this intersection operates before they bothered to create a couple of side roads to alleviate the traffic flow that was already a mess to begin with.

I thank God I don't live in that part of town because it's going to be a nightmare.

Maybe Tuscaloosa will survive this, but if you don't hear from me in a few months you can safely assume everyone went nuts and that the city has turned into a dystopian desert.

I'm smiling sarcastically. the ALDOT has been doing road resurfacing on I85 and working on Auburn exits for 3 consecutive years. Work picks up in the Summer and then always goes past deadline into the football season.

BTW, I'm very familiar with Tuscaloosa. I had to travel through there many times over the years. And 69 was never a fun drive. Cottondale and Northport might as well be Tuscaloosa the way that Opelika and Auburn are one in the same except for zip code and tax purposes.

Congestion has always been an issue in Tuscaloosa and the whole strip area is inconvenient traffic wise. Downtown can be worse.

In Auburn the downtown area was really a two block area of small one or two story buildings forever. The Oak Trees sat on the corner that separated the business district from the main campus. Developers are now taking it to 4 stories with massive parking garages and it's all being built on the main arteries out of the downtown area. I wouldn't say that Auburn had congestion, I'd say that twice a day we have gridlock.

But aesthetically, it's monstrously ugly. Tuscaloosa, other than the main campus, was never beautiful. It just had too much sprawl. Parts of Northport are lovely but not main business drag. But the downtown Auburn area was picturesque and peaceful. Not any more.

I actually like our downtown area now. It's not as nice as some of the small cities I've visited, but it's much better than it was when I was growing up. That and the River Walk/Jack Warner Pkwy area has become pretty nice although that's more of a recent development. That whole area is much more suited to foot traffic now than it used to be so I think that's part of the improvement. If you live in that general part of town, and there are a lot more housing options there now, then it's not too hard to get around, but if you are passing through from one area to another then traffic will slow you down big time.

The part of the County that has really grown in recent years is the Vance/Lake View area out past Mercedes that bumps up to Jefferson and Bibb Counties. Now, part of that is the Bham suburbs have just sprawled out so much that most of those people work in Birmingham and didn't want to live in Jefferson County. Some of it is the natural growth that came with Mercedes and the suppliers being close by. It's about a 30 minute drive down the interstate to that area from downtown Tuscaloosa so it's pretty disconnected even though we're all technically in the same County. Nice area though as there are plenty of new neighborhoods, but you can still have some land and not be very far from either Tuscaloosa or Bham.

Speaking of ALDOT, what I really want from them is a 4 lane highway all the way to Montgomery. It's only about 90 miles and HWY 82 is a straight shot, but most of it is 2 lane and it winds through a few small towns too much. It is 4 lane from here to Brent in the middle of Bibb County, but it quickly narrows and they haven't worked on it hardly since I was a kid. You'd think a decent highway between 2 of the state's largest cities would be a no-brainer, but apparently not. Maybe I'm biased because I have to work down there sometimes and the trip could be so much smoother, but it makes sense to me. And let's not even get started on the trip between here and Mobile.

I used 82 a lot back in the day. Cahaba to Clanton wasn't too bad and there were a few speed traps along that road, but the peaches in season were a heckuva perk to be able to stop at one of those roadside stands and load up was a treat.

Heading to Mobile from Tuscaloosa is a journey through long, winding, and poorly surfaced roads through what, about 4 hours plus of nothing? The only thing worse is heading from Starkville to Mobile. Extreme West Alabama doesn't have a really straight shot to anywhere. I defy you to find a great route from Florence to Mobile!

I'm a big fan of stopping off and getting fresh peaches when they're in season although unfortunately there's not nearly as many of those fruit stands as there used to be. You can see quite a few of them empty and deteriorating on the side of the road. A few of them are still doing pretty well I think.

I just wish the trip was quicker more than anything. You get stuck behind an 18 wheeler with a line of cars and there's just nowhere to go. The countryside is pretty for the most part though.

Every now and then they talk about building a new super highway between Florence and Mobile...a revamped 43. I would love it because it would run right through Tuscaloosa and make going North or South much easier. That and it would probably make beach goers from further North more likely to take that route and spend some money along the way, but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm not that old, but if they ever build that in my lifetime then I'll be impressed. How long did it take to build I-22? Even Mississippi finished their portion long before we did. How embarrassing is that?

(03-02-2018 04:44 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  I'm not that old, but if they ever build that in my lifetime then I'll be impressed. How long did it take to build I-22? Even Mississippi finished their portion long before we did. How embarrassing is that?

Nothing about what Alabama did with I-22 makes sense. Why does it awkwardly end at I-65 instead of connecting with I-459 and forming the northern arc of the B'ham Perimeter?

(03-02-2018 07:09 PM)vandiver49 Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 04:44 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  I'm not that old, but if they ever build that in my lifetime then I'll be impressed. How long did it take to build I-22? Even Mississippi finished their portion long before we did. How embarrassing is that?

Nothing about what Alabama did with I-22 makes sense. Why does it awkwardly end at I-65 instead of connecting with I-459 and forming the northern arc of the B'ham Perimeter?

Probably because the corrupt city government of Birmingham is impossible to deal with so it was just more cost efficient (meaning no extortion from the city) to do it otherwise. One of the biggest issues with UAB football was the extortion level rates they charged the state for the use of Legion Field for 6 games, especially since part of the stadium had been condemned (upper deck) and the concession areas had difficulty with obtaining fresh water (broken pipes) and of course issues in the restrooms.

In other words Vandiver they want money but spend nothing on maintaining what they have. I was in Birmingham a few months ago and they hadn't even replaced lost street signs that I had noticed were missing the previous year. They are pathetic!

(03-02-2018 07:09 PM)vandiver49 Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 04:44 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  I'm not that old, but if they ever build that in my lifetime then I'll be impressed. How long did it take to build I-22? Even Mississippi finished their portion long before we did. How embarrassing is that?

Nothing about what Alabama did with I-22 makes sense. Why does it awkwardly end at I-65 instead of connecting with I-459 and forming the northern arc of the B'ham Perimeter?

See, that would make sense which is probably why they didn't do it.

There has also been talk of creating a Northern half for I-459(over the course of 20 years) that would incorporate more of a spiral design rather than simply completing the loop. Why would they do that? Your guess is as good as mine.

Tuscaloosa was supposed to get a Northern bypass years ago...an additional connector from I-20/59 around the Northern end of town that would then swing back and reconnect with the interstate on the Western end of the County. The funding was set aside for the early phases in the 90s. Portions of it, including a new bridge over the river have been built in the years since, but who knows when or if that will ever be completed. I haven't heard any updates in years.

(03-02-2018 08:30 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 07:09 PM)vandiver49 Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 04:44 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  I'm not that old, but if they ever build that in my lifetime then I'll be impressed. How long did it take to build I-22? Even Mississippi finished their portion long before we did. How embarrassing is that?

Nothing about what Alabama did with I-22 makes sense. Why does it awkwardly end at I-65 instead of connecting with I-459 and forming the northern arc of the B'ham Perimeter?

Probably because the corrupt city government of Birmingham is impossible to deal with so it was just more cost efficient (meaning no extortion from the city) to do it otherwise. One of the biggest issues with UAB football was the extortion level rates they charged the state for the use of Legion Field for 6 games, especially since part of the stadium had been condemned (upper deck) and the concession areas had difficulty with obtaining fresh water (broken pipes) and of course issues in the restrooms.

In other words Vandiver they want money but spend nothing on maintaining what they have. I was in Birmingham a few months ago and they hadn't even replaced lost street signs that I had noticed were missing the previous year. They are pathetic!

Good point. I would say that Birmingham leadership has a legacy of being corrupt, but quite frankly I'm not sure some of those folks are smart enough to know the difference between an unethical idea and a stupid one.

Alabama didn't stop playing our biggest games in Birmingham until about 98/99 when we expanded Bryant-Denny to have a greater capacity than Legion Field. We continued to play a game or two per season there until 2003 I think.

When we finally pulled out for good, I remember one of the city councilman commenting to the media that he thought it was terribly unfair. He said that the city had spent a lot of money putting in an upper deck and Bama was really violating the spirit of the agreement. The article noted that the upper deck had been constructed in the 60s...roughly 40 years before Bama left town. Let's forget for a moment that the city didn't maintain Legion Field like they should have, the city councilman literally thought his position made sense. This was not some moron on the street. This was one of the city leaders...

Of course, as you mentioned, that very upper deck structure had to be torn down not long after that due to safety concerns.

I also heard a while back that Birmingham had yet to make good on their debts to the builders who constructed the new baseball stadium downtown. Par for the course, I thought.

I completely understand why UAB wants their own stadium given the difficulties of working with leadership in Bham, but I didn't support their most recent proposal because I felt like it depended too much on a "plan" to acquire revenue rather than actually having that money in the bank. Considering their paltry fan support, I think asking the UA System to guarantee a loan was unreasonable.

Speaking of UAB, this is the same school that didn't understand they needed a football foundation until a few years ago so there weren't a whole lot of people confident that they would recoup the money.

When it comes to the people that run Birmingham, there is no shortage of people who don't seem to understand what they're doing.

(03-02-2018 08:30 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 07:09 PM)vandiver49 Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 04:44 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  I'm not that old, but if they ever build that in my lifetime then I'll be impressed. How long did it take to build I-22? Even Mississippi finished their portion long before we did. How embarrassing is that?

Nothing about what Alabama did with I-22 makes sense. Why does it awkwardly end at I-65 instead of connecting with I-459 and forming the northern arc of the B'ham Perimeter?

Probably because the corrupt city government of Birmingham is impossible to deal with so it was just more cost efficient (meaning no extortion from the city) to do it otherwise. One of the biggest issues with UAB football was the extortion level rates they charged the state for the use of Legion Field for 6 games, especially since part of the stadium had been condemned (upper deck) and the concession areas had difficulty with obtaining fresh water (broken pipes) and of course issues in the restrooms.

In other words Vandiver they want money but spend nothing on maintaining what they have. I was in Birmingham a few months ago and they hadn't even replaced lost street signs that I had noticed were missing the previous year. They are pathetic!

The bolded is true of all politicians as they prefer ribbon cutting to dust pans. But they are incentived by the reactions from the public as they aren't big fans of maintenance either.

(03-02-2018 08:30 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 07:09 PM)vandiver49 Wrote:  

(03-02-2018 04:44 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  I'm not that old, but if they ever build that in my lifetime then I'll be impressed. How long did it take to build I-22? Even Mississippi finished their portion long before we did. How embarrassing is that?

Nothing about what Alabama did with I-22 makes sense. Why does it awkwardly end at I-65 instead of connecting with I-459 and forming the northern arc of the B'ham Perimeter?

See, that would make sense which is probably why they didn't do it.

There has also been talk of creating a Northern half for I-459(over the course of 20 years) that would incorporate more of a spiral design rather than simply completing the loop. Why would they do that? Your guess is as good as mine.

Tuscaloosa was supposed to get a Northern bypass years ago...an additional connector from I-20/59 around the Northern end of town that would then swing back and reconnect with the interstate on the Western end of the County. The funding was set aside for the early phases in the 90s. Portions of it, including a new bridge over the river have been built in the years since, but who knows when or if that will ever be completed. I haven't heard any updates in years.

Oh you mean that 422 Corridor-X foolishness? Yeah, that has about as much of a chance of getting built as Atlanta's Outer Perimeter. I'm just happy ALDOT repaved/widened I-20 East of Anniston to the GA state line.

I presume this is the same thing that's been talked about in Louisiana. There, they are speaking about "merging" nearby campuses.

(03-03-2018 09:15 AM)BePcr07 Wrote:  I presume this is the same thing that's been talked about in Louisiana. There, they are speaking about "merging" nearby campuses.

Right now they are closing and merging Satellite campuses. I look for the closing and transformation of Jr Colleges to continue as well. Then I think funding will streamlined to UAB Medical school, Auburn, Alabama, and Troy. I also don't anticipate other schools being merged or closed until the actual numbers crunch hits, but they are being set up for it when it is needed. Privates of course are on their own. But remember privates that are sponsored by, or backed by churches are gong to feel the same pinch. Huge chunks of money giving to religious institutions go to back their offices, building maintenance, insurance programs for buildings and staffs, and of course pensions. With Boomers on their way out and the subsequent generations less well funded the churches will drawback from the outside in. Meaning peripheral missions will close first. So the smaller privates like a Huntington or Samford will get less and less in the form of church support so their tuition will have to go up at exactly the wrong time. When the Harvard piece talks about 50% going belly up, I think these kinds of schools will make up a large portion of that 50%. Closing satellite campuses for state schools won't even be counted as a bankruptcy toward that 50% estimation because the governing entity will still be viable. Those will be victims of downsizing. But if you look at the number of small religiously backed schools in each state those will be the ones to go.

Duke, Baylor, T.C.U., Emory, Wake Forest were all once established by religious entities, but are basically self governing and self supportive. Those schools might feel the pinch in a huge enrollment downturn but they won't be forced to shut down. They offer excellent educations in certain disciplines and in the cases of schools like Duke and Emory, (and many others I didn't list) they do some tremendous and well funded research.

(03-03-2018 12:30 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-03-2018 09:15 AM)BePcr07 Wrote:  I presume this is the same thing that's been talked about in Louisiana. There, they are speaking about "merging" nearby campuses.

Right now they are closing and merging Satellite campuses. I look for the closing and transformation of Jr Colleges to continue as well.

When it comes to our junior college system, I've thought for a long time that they should be integrated into the secondary education system. Use the existing campuses as hubs perhaps...maybe build a few more in areas where they don't have an adequate facility. We should probably do that instead of dropping tens of millions of dollars every time a local school board wants to build a new school.

Anyway, it seems our K-12 system does virtually nothing meaningful towards preparing kids to actually get a job so I'm wondering why we spend money on both? Wouldn't it make more sense to use those high school and middle school years to give kids hands-on experience at learning a trade? Assuming that is the path they choose of course...

I know some kids will be more academically focused as they seek to attend a traditional 4 year school and I think it's important to give everyone else a broad knowledge of topics(especially history), but I don't know why the system couldn't be construed to be more flexible. As it stands, seems like we're wasting our kids' precious time and energy(not to mention tax dollars) just because that's the way it's always been done.

(03-03-2018 01:06 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-03-2018 12:30 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-03-2018 09:15 AM)BePcr07 Wrote:  I presume this is the same thing that's been talked about in Louisiana. There, they are speaking about "merging" nearby campuses.

Right now they are closing and merging Satellite campuses. I look for the closing and transformation of Jr Colleges to continue as well.

When it comes to our junior college system, I've thought for a long time that they should be integrated into the secondary education system. Use the existing campuses as hubs perhaps...maybe build a few more in areas where they don't have an adequate facility. We should probably do that instead of dropping tens of millions of dollars every time a local school board wants to build a new school.

Anyway, it seems our K-12 system does virtually nothing meaningful towards preparing kids to actually get a job so I'm wondering why we spend money on both? Wouldn't it make more sense to use those high school and middle school years to give kids hands-on experience at learning a trade? Assuming that is the path they choose of course...

I know some kids will be more academically focused as they seek to attend a traditional 4 year school and I think it's important to give everyone else a broad knowledge of topics(especially history), but I don't know why the system couldn't be construed to be more flexible. As it stands, seems like we're wasting our kids' precious time and energy(not to mention tax dollars) just because that's the way it's always been done.

Choosing a trade path versus and University path is what they do in Germany and it works quite well. Parents in the U.S. however will insist however that their kids won't take a trade (social stigma). It's unfortunate but true. Plus the poorer kids which may choose a trade wouldn't have the credentials to take those athletic scholarships without a University path curriculum in High School.

What I'd recommend is that those regional Jr Colleges be used as the catch up time so many of the kids need coming out of rural or less well staffed High Schools rather than having them clog and slow down the Freshman and Sophomore classes at Auburn and Alabama. The problem however is that doesn't swell the undergraduate enrollment as much which means that we aren't maxing the main two schools revenue from kids who will probably not make it to their Junior year anyway.

(03-03-2018 01:06 PM)AllTideUp Wrote:  

(03-03-2018 12:30 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(03-03-2018 09:15 AM)BePcr07 Wrote:  I presume this is the same thing that's been talked about in Louisiana. There, they are speaking about "merging" nearby campuses.

Right now they are closing and merging Satellite campuses. I look for the closing and transformation of Jr Colleges to continue as well.

When it comes to our junior college system, I've thought for a long time that they should be integrated into the secondary education system. Use the existing campuses as hubs perhaps...maybe build a few more in areas where they don't have an adequate facility. We should probably do that instead of dropping tens of millions of dollars every time a local school board wants to build a new school.

Anyway, it seems our K-12 system does virtually nothing meaningful towards preparing kids to actually get a job so I'm wondering why we spend money on both? Wouldn't it make more sense to use those high school and middle school years to give kids hands-on experience at learning a trade? Assuming that is the path they choose of course...

I know some kids will be more academically focused as they seek to attend a traditional 4 year school and I think it's important to give everyone else a broad knowledge of topics(especially history), but I don't know why the system couldn't be construed to be more flexible. As it stands, seems like we're wasting our kids' precious time and energy(not to mention tax dollars) just because that's the way it's always been done.

That is basically undoing the entire college prep system that HS moved to. Which is fine since there wasn’t a good reason to eliminate the Vo-tech track.