Post: Penn State To Close Some Of Their Campuses

[CajunFun]

Penn State is closing several of its campuses.

The UL System should consider doing likewise.

The research is clear: the more college graduates, the more a state's economy grows. The growth more than offsets the investment.

So why does Louisiana continue to make it harder for students to go to college? Tuitions and fees are sky-rocketing. And yet, some here have proposed raising the fees even higher so that we might pay for... athletics?

And now we should close campuses? Will that help?

Before we propose things like this, we need to know what the savings would be; what the additional costs would be; how many college graduates we would lose; and what the impact to the Louisiana economy would be over the long run.

For some reason the idea keeps reappearing, that we have 'too many' colleges, when in the past some of us have shown that a) we have about the right university/population ratio when compared to the rest of the US, and b) with the exception of Tech-ULM-Grambling, our universities are nicely spaced out so that most of our population is within a reasonable commute to a college.

When the commute becomes too long, there are students who cannot afford to live on or near campus, and enrollments drop.

Everyone with any real-world experience knows that there is an enormous difference between cutting costs, and saving money; and there is an even larger difference between cutting costs, and making money. A business or an economy that only cuts costs goes nowhere. They have to look to the future. In fact, the case could be make that the only reason to watch costs today, is to make shrewd investments for growth down the road.

For those of us here who graduated college, we immediately understand that.

Unfortunately, it appears that most of Louisiana does not.

[Boomer]

The research is clear: the more college graduates, the more a state's economy grows. The growth more than offsets the investment.

So why does Louisiana continue to make it harder for students to go to college? Tuitions and fees are sky-rocketing. And yet, some here have proposed raising the fees even higher so that we might pay for... athletics?

And now we should close campuses? Will that help?

Before we propose things like this, we need to know what the savings would be; what the additional costs would be; how many college graduates we would lose; and what the impact to the Louisiana economy would be over the long run.

For some reason the idea keeps reappearing, that we have 'too many' colleges, when in the past some of us have shown that a) we have about the right university/population ratio when compared to the rest of the US, and b) with the exception of Tech-ULM-Grambling, our universities are nicely spaced out so that most of our population is within a reasonable commute to a college.

When the commute becomes too long, there are students who cannot afford to live on or near campus, and enrollments drop.

Everyone with any real-world experience knows that there is an enormous difference between cutting costs, and saving money; and there is an even larger difference between cutting costs, and making money. A business or an economy that only cuts costs goes nowhere. They have to look to the future. In fact, the case could be make that the only reason to watch costs today, is to make shrewd investments for growth down the road.

For those of us here who graduated college, we immediately understand that.

Unfortunately, it appears that most of Louisiana does not.

[Boomer]

….I remember when Trump in his first term kinda saved the historical Black universities…..anybody got the scoop on how it was done? Just one time monies or an ongoing payment system….as we get away from an older forced system of hiring minorities, how will this be affected?

[Boomer]

……Hey Doc Fun, why do people not use prepositions in their correspondence? For instance you use “graduated college”… what happened to “graduated from college”….. Just asking for some who have the same thoughts as to the change! Please join in if you are curious or know the answer!

[MarlinMan3]

….I remember when Trump in his first term kinda saved the historical Black universities…..anybody got the scoop on how it was done? Just one time monies or an ongoing payment system….as we get away from an older forced system of hiring minorities, how will this be affected?

Boomer with his hand on the pulse: hot off the press...

https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-shee...tion-at-hbcus/

It was 255 million a year plus 100 m in scholarships

[CajunFun]

……Hey Doc Fun, why do people not use prepositions in their correspondence? For instance you use “graduated college”… what happened to “graduated from college”….. Just asking for some who have the same thoughts as to the change! Please join in if you are curious or know the answer!

Well, a lot of language is idiomatic... and fashionable. I remember a foreign student asking one of my profs, "What does it mean to be out of French fries?" If you take it word by word, it is a bit weird.*

In Jamaica, I was amazed by the patois, the dropping of verbs and subjects, which matched some of the African American structures I heard in the South. I was also fascinated by the New Testament in Gullah.**

My grandmother was Lebanese, her English was broken, and of course, living with the Cajuns, I have often had occasion to reflect on idiomatic differences. I once proposed a bumpersticker, 'UL is for real... get used of it,' only to have VO raise hell because that is acceptable in some schools in Vermilion Parish. But both are perfectly understandable, it's just that one is preferable because of class distinctions... which are, again, fashion.

(And BTW, I still want a t-shirt that says, 'University of Louisiana to Lafayette.')

Anyway, I was told that really, it should be "was graduated," because the institution graduates us.

*And in line with this topic, I recently started wondering about the word 'weird.' It comes from the defunct old English wyrd, which meant 'fate.' Shakespeare called the three witches in Macbeth 'the weird sisters,' (Harry Potter fans, take note) a word he borrowed from the Scots. His intention was that they were the three fates. But precisely because of his revival of the word, and where he used it, today it means 'strange.' Again, language is arbitrary.

**For a friend's wedding, I read a passage from 'De good nyews bout Jedus Christ wa Luke write.' I suspect people were thinking, "Why is that white man talking like that?"

[VObserver]

Fun, I have no problem with "used of it" in colloquial speech by S. Louisiana natives. I do, however, object to presenting it as a proper English usage in a school setting.

[CajunFun]

Fun, I have no problem with "used of it" in colloquial speech by S. Louisiana natives. I do, however, object to presenting it as a proper English usage in a school setting.

Read my post, it's all fashion. 'Proper,' 'standard,' 'accepted,' are just snobbishness. Today there is a 'proper' way to spell every word. I think it was in 16th century England that a 'gentleman' (again, snootiness) should be able to spell any word in the language at least three ways.

I remember hearing that in the 19th century, when the English nobility were entertaining someone they thought was a poser, they would serve a pear as dessert. Only a person of 'breeding' (again, note the snotty condescension) would know the proper way to eat a pear with a knife & fork.

I could go on. But all of us who are fastidious about language (myself included!) are really just playing the age-old game of, "We're better than you are."

Sorry. But I literally wrote the book on the subject.

(PS I edited this three times to make sure there were no misspellings or grammatical errors. Like I said, we're all guilty.)