Gatchamania.net - Print: When I say stupid school...

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Posted by Elvin Ruler on 07-04-2004 at 02:51:

When I say stupid school...

I mean that that the Powers That Be are actually stupid. Don't get me wrong. I love my university. I respect the faculty in both the music school and the rest of the college. The professors truly want the students to learn and make it their priority to do so.

However, the Board of Regents has been making some...weird...decisions. For instance, they are so far in debt that they cut the English department's budget to the point that they cannot buy paper, the Music School just to $0 (who needs money, anyways?), and the Telecomm department just got cut completely. Three of its best programs suffer while some of the worse (not bad, per say, just not as good) programs, such as the sports program, are left alone. However, they are not so far in debt that they need to stop making multi-million dollar contracts for new buildings. I had thought that, when they extended their prestige-building construction projects' completion dates that the Powers That Be had gotten a clue. I mean, tuition is so bad that we are one of the few universities in the state with a *dropping* income freshman rate. But I was horribly mistaken, for they have just signed a new contract for a building that I'm sure will be very useful: a watchtower. A group of us were snickering about angry music students storming it and using it to snipe from, referring to the University of Texas' watchtower incident. When we heard the design was modeled after that same watchtower we stopped laughing...for a minute or two anyway. Apparently the university had gotten some windfall cash and, rather then help its best programs, decided to build another, well, building...which will need financial help from tuition funds...

Ah well.

Anyways, like I said, I love my school. I have learned a great deal, and my musical technique has improved immensely. I just have to question some of the decisions that the board makes. They're pretty much separate from the school and don't see a lot of what's going on. I guess that's to be expected. But the faculty's good, so as long as the students remain here and spread the word about just *how* good our faculty is, the university should get out of this mess eventually.

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Posted by Tengu on 07-04-2004 at 10:04:

Of course the sports section mustnt suffer, its a very important part of collegate life

but why does your place need a watchtower?

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Posted by Elvin Ruler on 07-04-2004 at 16:11:

I dunno. That's what we were wondering. Like I said, the only thing we could figure (beyond decorative purposes and having one for the sake of having one) is that it's...impressive...

The Board of Regents have a serious "We want this place to be an Ivy League university so we can be paid more" complex. Which is a shame, because I think the university has done well without the massive buildings.

As for the sports section, I'll admit that our track teams and our women's basketball team are pretty good. However, we won a record of *three* football games, are on voluntary probation for our men's basketball, and our baseball team is only moderate. In other words, we only do well in minor sports. I don't know why we need the absurd amount of football players on full tuition scholarships when most of them just sit on the bench. Ah well, Texas will always fight for football, I guess. *shrugs* I think the music students could take the football team anyday. ^_^

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Posted by lyon on 07-04-2004 at 16:17:

perhaps you should Elvin .. the music students could challenge the football students to a game of scrum. no tubas allowed.

winner gets possession of the new watchtower and bragging rights.

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Posted by Elvin Ruler on 07-04-2004 at 16:23:

Lol, that would be hilarious. Most of us actually do some sports. We played soccer for a while on the second floor of the music building (sadly cancelled because we realized that if we kicked the ball as hard as we were into the computers we might get into just a *little* bit of trouble). Now that spring is here, we're thinking about taking it outside.

Instead of tubas, though, could we use euphoniums? Not as large, but still pretty brutal. Big Grin

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Posted by Elvin Ruler on 07-04-2004 at 16:35:

That was very weird. My browser kept giving me a "gateway timeout" when I was trying to submit it. So I kept hitting refresh. Finally, I just closed the window and came back to the page...there were, oh, about a million of my posts...whoops.

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