On Being UL

[Ragin9221]

The state is losing our best & brightest... but do you have data that UL is?

Every school in the world suffers from some out-migration. Some of their graduates are going to leave. The question needs to be, are you bringing in more graduates from other schools, then you are losing to other states.

Because Lafayette and the surrounding area are constantly growing. We added a community college system across the region, and our numbers at UL, and our numbers in the region, did not drop. We are educating more people, and they seem to be staying here.

I would guess that just about all the schools in the state are suffering from out-migration, except for us.

Again, what could we do if we stopped thinking in outmoded ways? Can we design a new approach to the university? And from that, can we rethink how higher education, and the state, can both prosper?

How the University should operate, and it was my mistake when i went to college.

We need to figure out what are the fastest growing industries in the state, put money and try to push more kids into those type of fields.

For example all Universitiies within the state need to get with the Louisiana economic development board or whatever it is called to see what are the long-term goals as far as industries and jobs they are looking to add to the economy of Louisiana.

Then the University needs to promote those majors and industries and put money in programs to build up those majors at the University so we can have the people necessary to develop those industries!

Also the bigger cities in Louisiana need to get with the Universities and the state to figure out how to get those industries to come to Louisiana.

[Ragin9221]

Below credit from Team Kennedy for President. Future of Higher Education needs to be discussed.

College is not for everyone. Four years of education (plus grad school) is necessary to train scholars, engineers, doctors, and scientists, but most jobs simply do not require a college education. In fact, only about a quarter of people with degrees have jobs that are related to them.

Approximately 41 percent of all recent graduates are working jobs that do not require a college degree. College degrees are now required for many jobs that once only required a high school diploma. Some 17 percent of hotel clerks and 23.5 percent of amusement park attendants hold 4-year degrees.

Unfortunately, federal funding is only available for traditional degree programs. Our administration will explore making Title IV funding available for other kinds of programs, including “microcredentials” and “nanocredentials” which give people the specific, useful training they need in the job marketplace .

Then you just hit the nail on the head. Not because they are not available, they are not available here in Louisiana.

Thats why Louisiana ranks deadlast in almost everything. We are poor state, with poor jobs, what do we have oilfield? Even then most are moving to Texas.

I dont know if any of yall been job searching lately but it is very hard to find a good paying job here in Louisiana, and inflation is not helping the situation.

Thats why we have people moving to other states and losing population. Nature of the beast.

Thats why we do need microcredentials and nanocredentials.

[Cajun Monkee]

Fun, I'm gonna go a little tangential on your points.

I think it goes beyond "what kind of student do we want?" I absolutely agree...we should be pursuing, attracting, enrolling, and retaining those students.

But that relationship needs to be forged also in the form of legacies. And intimacy.

Amongst my contemporaries, going to LSU was a status symbol. But as I gained friends on Facebook, I was quite shocked to see the folks I went to high school who I thought went to LSU,in fact graduated from U(s)L. But their allegiance, their kids, and their money go to Baton Rouge.

Now for the tangent.

As you know, I work with orphan, tax delinquent properties. But when we convey these properties, an effort is made to convey them to somebody who will have in intimate (my word) relationship with the neighborhood in which the property is located.

On a double-secret tangential note, I think this is an across Lafayette as a whole, but it is getting better.

But I digress...I think the key is the development of that intimacy.

Not only with these select students, but with the community as well.

Your comment about the LSU President saying he is losing select student to UL is incredibly profound (at least to me).

UL should be screaming from the mountain-tops the ACADEMIC advances this University (Our University) is experiencing.

UL should be fostering that sense of an intimate relationship and legacy not only with these students, but also between itself and the folks who live, work, (and, yes) play here.

And attracting those students of who you speak may mean that we, the loudest supporters of the Athletic Progam (first) and the Academic Program (second), may need to take a step back take a deep breath and recognize and accept that Academia and its ambitions may be a little out of our comfort zone.

[CajunNation]

... Our administration will explore making Title IV funding available for other kinds of programs, including “microcredentials” and “nanocredentials” which give people the specific, useful training they need in the job marketplace .

This right here.

We need a College of Trade.

At the same time, we have to address the out of control tuition in higher education.

Lastly, we need to redouble our efforts in energy research, but with a focus on petro-expansion and nuclear.

I will quote Dr. Fun....

Again, what could we do if we stopped thinking in outmoded ways? Can we design a new approach to the university? And from that, can we rethink how higher education, and the state, can both prosper?

I believe my above suggestions comply with this statement.

[Turbine]

We need a College of Trade.
.

How Louisiana got away rom one of its 1898 core values I do not know.

Working became taboo.

[Ragin9221]

How Louisiana got away rom one of its 1898 core values I do not know.

Working became taboo.

This has nothing to do with UL, but my idea of economic development should be is putting a trade school with 5 different type of trades like. Plumbing, HVAC, Auto-Mechanic, Construction, Welder etc.

Put it in the worst possible neighborhood in every major city in Louisiana, and make it free through the state or the city. If a kid has no opportunity , no home-life and grew up with no opportunity, that they can learn these trades that pay upwards to 20 dollars an hour, and that way they can learn a trade instead of dealing drugs etc. to make money.

Has to be put in somewhere where people can walk to and fro to allow people who have no transportation.

We are talking about kids who dropped out of high school who grew up very poor. Instead of the public school to prison pipeline.

Ragin9221 for governor (joking)

[Cajun Monkee]

This has nothing to do with UL, but my idea of economic development should be is putting a trade school with 5 different type of trades like. Plumbing, HVAC, Auto-Mechanic, Construction, Welder etc.

Put it in the worst possible neighborhood in every major city in Louisiana, and make it free through the state or the city. If a kid has no opportunity , no home-life and grew up with no opportunity, that they can learn these trades that pay upwards to 20 dollars an hour, and that way they can learn a trade instead of dealing drugs etc. to make money.

Has to be put in somewhere where people can walk to and fro to allow people who have no transportation.

We are talking about kids who dropped out of high school who grew up very poor. Instead of the public school to prison pipeline.

Ragin9221 for governor (joking)

Didn't Supertramp write a song about you?

I kid, I kid.

This is just such a wonderful idea. The investment would make such a long-term contribution to both communties and individuals.

Good thought for a Monday morning.

[ZoomZoom]

In the construction trades, it’s a battle getting students. Contractors hire unskilled labor and they get on the job training. And paid.

[R1Letterman]

Any link to the testimony or transcript when he said they were losing students to us

[CajunNation]

In the construction trades, it’s a battle getting students. Contractors hire unskilled labor and they get on the job training. And paid.

A lot of that would go away if we enforced certain laws in this country.

[ZoomZoom]

A lot of that would go away if we enforced certain laws in this country.

Been like that for many years, back into last century.

[Cajun Monkee]

Any link to the testimony or transcript when he said they were losing students to us

I'd put that up on billboards across the city.