New UCSB Dorm. Also known as crazy billionaire's social experiment

[synoptic 138]

Maybe not the thread for it, but to me it seems univeristy rankings are just a bunch of marketing bullshit.  

Edited November 2, 2021 by synoptic

[tbone_ 14,123]

Maybe not the thread for it, but to me it seems univeristy rankings are just a bunch of marketing bullshit.  

This is true. They all use the same textbooks. Up to you what you do with the info as you live your life.

Here in Phoenix I know plenty of successful people that went to NAU and plenty of dumbasses that went to brand name pac 12 schools.

I do think going to a football school could be fun during and after. Too bad I wasn’t able to do that.

[Hefeweizen 5,320]

41 minutes ago, synoptic said:

Maybe not the thread for it, but to me it seems univeristy rankings are just a bunch of marketing bullshit.  

You’re right, aggy is the best university in the world.

['stache 21,814]

45 minutes ago, synoptic said:

Maybe not the thread for it, but to me it seems univeristy rankings are just a bunch of marketing bullshit.  

 

5 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

This is true. They all use the same textbooks. Up to you what you do with the info as you live your life.

Here in Phoenix I know plenty of successful people that went to NAU and plenty of dumbasses that went to brand name pac 12 schools.

I do think going to a football school could be fun during and after. Too bad I wasn’t able to do that.

I've been saying this for years. You have your Ivy's way out front, some "public ivys" and renowned private schools that have particularly good academic reputations, then you have everyone else, public and private schools that offer the same courses, and you get out of it what you put in, with plenty of highly intelligent grads who go on to great things, and many "C's get degrees" students who end up in cubicle jobs living in cheap suburban housing. That glut is indistinguishable and its dumb to have some ranked 101 and others 301. They're the same fucking school. And as we've seen from OU and Clemson (among others) the data is highly manipulated.

[tbone_ 14,123]

I don’t even think the Ivy’s and certain publics are way out front from an undergrad academics standpoint. Sure, you benefit from the reputation later on. But you are reading that same Econ 101 text book at Tech that you are at Brown.

[Hefeweizen 5,320]

4 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

I don’t even think the Ivy’s and certain publics are way out front from an undergrad academics standpoint. Sure, you benefit from the reputation later on. But you are reading that same Econ 101 text book at Tech that you are at Brown.

Class size , access to research, access to professors, access to internships, access to alumni are all real differentiators.  
 

The name on the degree does matter.  Texas doesn’t hurt but Tech, aggy, BlowU, and rapelor do.  

 

I went to UT and still have fond memories.  But I went because Rice and Caltech told me I wasn’t good enough.  I would have picked either of those over Texas in a heartbeat.  

[tbone_ 14,123]

I get that not everyone agrees with me

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

6 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

I don’t even think the Ivy’s and certain publics are way out front from an undergrad academics standpoint. Sure, you benefit from the reputation later on. But you are reading that same Econ 101 text book at Tech that you are at Brown.

This^^^ Reputations are laid upon like a cheap $20 whore today at many schools Ivys included. Graduation from those schools gets you in doors you otherwise wouldn’t though.

Virginia has 4 known law schools. UVA, W&M, U of Richmond, and Washington & Lee. 2 public’s 2 privates.

UVA average starting salary is about $30-50k higher than W&M, and  W&L and a good deal higher than U of R. based on what a recruiter at the largest law firm in Va. told me once.

All of those schools have pretty good law schools, but reputation definitely plays a role.

[synoptic 138]

I work in a technical field and get to work with some folks at the top of the profession in terms of contributions and accomplishments.  You cannot tell who went to what university unless you ask (or it comes up in sports discussions).  No one cares in the slightest were anybody studied.  Arguably the top person in the field went to an average ranked state school. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,512]

This feels like a big to do about nothing. If given the choice of my memories of Jester with narrow windows like a jail cell, or this option (private rooms and a common area,) I would take the Munger dorm option.

[yoladu 4,094]

2 hours ago, 52-80 said:

whats the big fuss?  its a sleeping pod.  during the day time, you're in class.  in the afternoon, you're socializing in the common space.  the room is for intense studying sessions and jerking off. 

pretty much this.. the rooms are 7' x 10' (cell like)

8 rooms in a pod, a pod also has a common space (500sf) with kitchenette (i would call it), and two private toilet/shower rooms

there are 64 pods per floor - so they are packing in 512 rooms per floor. Yikes!

 

https://sam.ucsb.edu/campus-planning-design/current-projects/munger-hall

• click on the link titled "presentation" which has renderings and floor plans. you get a better sense of it.

 

It does have 10 exit/fire stairs per floor that i would imagine all exit to grade. So, the whole two "entrances" on the first floor is not as egregious as it sounds.

Wayfinding and signage will have to be clear and simple.

1st floor and top floor are amenities floors. the top floor looks pretty bad ass actually. re: presentation.

 

Edited November 2, 2021 by yoladu

[TKthunder2 4,991]

56 minutes ago, synoptic said:

Maybe not the thread for it, but to me it seems univeristy rankings are just a bunch of marketing bullshit.  

I wouldn’t say it’s marketing, it’s just biased.  The best schools have these 1000 characteristics now we rank everyone else based on if they have the same things.

Texas got dinged for not having a dedicated Graduate level business building so they built the new one and our rankings increased.  Did that have any effect on the undergraduates?  Maybe just a little, but it increased our rankings and bumped us up a few spot which had a far greater effect.

The Dell medical school and the new graduate housing being built by the baseball field will also help our ranking but at the end of the day less than 1 out of 100 undergrads will use these but many will Google the USN&WR rankings which care about these things when applying or accepting admission.

[Not a cat 5,655]

Not to derail the thread from its current college rankings discussion, but this is a pic taken from the study room of a UCSB dorm room.  You can kind of see why a monstrous, windowless dorm doesn't really fit in and is causing controversy. 

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,512]

Munger seems like a tool but it's not like these dorms are a prison that is preventing someone from going outside to enjoy that view above. Also do we need to make college life be equivalent to a resort? We need to be finding methods to lower college costs not raise them.

It's also not a bad idea to encourage students to want to graduate ASAP so they can move on with their life. I think it's wrong to let them have dorms with ocean views only to let them run headfirst into real life that puts them in a dump apt after graduation. 

[tbone_ 14,123]

To your point, I lived in fucking Garden Gate for a year. Hard to have a ton of sympathy.

[Not a cat 5,655]

31 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

To your point, I lived in fucking Garden Gate for a year. Hard to have a ton of sympathy.

I did too.  Shit hole, but stumbling distance from Abel's.  

[tbone_ 14,123]

I did too.  Shit hole, but stumbling distance from Abel's.  

Yes. Many hours of hearts and arch rivals.

[BabaYaga 15,296]

On 11/2/2021 at 9:36 AM, Hefeweizen said:

You’re right, aggy is the best university in the world.

If you want to be a vet, stay in Texas, and make shitloads of money doing it - there's an argument to be made.  Everyone jerking off about overall rankings and not the quality of the department you are majoring in is just a waste of time.  

It's the Indian, not the arrow....

 

[Baboontyme 2,810]

This is fucking insane. I don't even believe it's real. There is no way it's real or actually happening. It's a weirdos wet dream science experiment. 

And we up in here talking about college rankings and how the cells in Bellevue aren't really that bad? I'm so confused. 

[Grade of D as in David 13,253]

10 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Munger seems like a tool but it's not like these dorms are a prison that is preventing someone from going outside to enjoy that view above. Also do we need to make college life be equivalent to a resort? We need to be finding methods to lower college costs not raise them.

It's also not a bad idea to encourage students to want to graduate ASAP so they can move on with their life. I think it's wrong to let them have dorms with ocean views only to let them run headfirst into real life that puts them in a dump apt after graduation. 

So we should make everyone go to school in college station then.

[tbone_ 14,123]

Saw Jason Isbell in Santa Barbara a couple years ago. I had never been before. I get why billionaires have places there. Pretty damn phenomenal.

[washparkhorn 9,939]

Appears to be a prototype for human receptacles in a wired pod structure. Or a commie utopia. 

Pass.

[SquishMitten 10,406]

Also, not a fire marshal, but only two entrances?

Also not a fire marshal, but I think they care more about the number of exits

ETA: Since there are a lot of people commenting on this same point…the article says there are 14 additional exits, so there’s 16 total.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,512]

I find this whole story to be something that people are trying to get riled up but it's a non-issue.  And they want to be outraged at an old billionaire as out of touch. If a school builds a horrible dorm, then don't live in it.

When I was at UT, many didn't want to live in Jester so you know what they did? They didn't live there. Perhaps some didn't have much of a choice, but if the dorm was important enough for their college experience and they hated their only choice that much, the could go to school elsewhere. There is no right to having your college experience 100% your way. This isn't Burger King.

The news cycle has to create an outrage story du jour to get clicks and views. It's a slow day and here is a story of a guy born in 1924 telling someone born in 2003 how to live in college. This will get clicks from everyone under 25.

 

[Foosters 17,856]

13 hours ago, tbone_ said:

Saw Jason Isbell in Santa Barbara a couple years ago. I had never been before. I get why billionaires have places there. Pretty damn phenomenal.

Nice. I've got tix to see him there in February 

[Baboontyme 2,810]

1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I find this whole story to be something that people are trying to get riled up but it's a non-issue.  And they want to be outraged at an old billionaire as out of touch. If a school builds a horrible dorm, then don't live in it.

When I was at UT, many didn't want to live in Jester so you know what they did? They didn't live there. Perhaps some didn't have much of a choice, but if the dorm was important enough for their college experience and they hated their only choice that much, the could go to school elsewhere. There is no right to having your college experience 100% your way. This isn't Burger King.

The news cycle has to create an outrage story du jour to get clicks and views. It's a slow day and here is a story of a guy born in 1924 telling someone born in 2003 how to live in college. This will get clicks from everyone under 25.

 

I disagree. I find it creepy as fuck. 

Here are my criteria for looking at this. 

#1 as a parent - would I be ok with my kid living there and taking part in this dude's creepy science experience? Nope. 

#2 would I want this building/science experiment popped right into the middle of my beautiful campus? Nope. I didn't go to Texas. If you did, are you saying you would be cool with him popping this science experiment in the middle of your 40 acres? 

I understand that no one is REQUIRED by law to live there, but it's still super off putting and creepy. The whole part about having to build it exactly to his specs is the deal breaker between what makes it a Burger King situation and a creepy science experiment. I still am 60/40 that it's an Onion-type of put on. 

I would want no part of this as a parent, alum, resident, whatever. I don't take part in outrage culture, but I wonder if those downplaying it might be looking at things more from an anti cancel culture perspective than a truly rational perspective. This is some Monty Burns level shit. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,512]

7 minutes ago, Baboontyme said:

I disagree. I find it creepy as fuck. 

Here are my criteria for looking at this. 

#1 as a parent - would I be ok with my kid living there and taking part in this dude's creepy science experience? Nope. 

#2 would I want this building/science experiment popped right into the middle of my beautiful campus? Nope. I didn't go to Texas. If you did, are you saying you would be cool with him popping this science experiment in the middle of your 40 acres? 

I understand that no one is REQUIRED by law to live there, but it's still super off putting and creepy. The whole part about having to build it exactly to his specs is the deal breaker between what makes it a Burger King situation and a creepy science experiment. I still am 60/40 that it's an Onion-type of put on. 

I would want no part of this as a parent, alum, resident, whatever. I don't take part in outrage culture, but I wonder if those downplaying it might be looking at things more from an anti cancel culture perspective than a truly rational perspective. This is some Monty Burns level shit. 

I don't see this as a social experiment. He wanted to fund a building based on his design. At the end of the day, UCSB is the one making the decision to build it or not. 

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

4 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I don't see this as a social experiment. He wanted to fund a building based on his design. At the end of the day, UCSB is the one making the decision to build it or not. 

This.^^^^  Why am I reminded of “Back To school”.  Rodney Dangerfield gives Dean Martin a check to fund a new  library.
 

 Uptight English professor dude scoffs, and dean Martins response…” I don’t think Phillip realizes the size of the check we’re talking about here.

:

[Guest Lobo]

Funny you mention that, I was thinking about that scene twice this week.  In one regard, with the "In all fairness to Mr. Melon, it was a really big check Phillip."  And also again, when hearing the crazy ass story of Gia the Monkey/Coach Banks on Halloween.  I was picturing some donor trying to play it off to President Hartzell (former Business Professor/Dept. Head/Dean), "Nothing wrong good clean business, and a little Monkey Business..."   Ned's reaction to that is so hilarious to me for some reason.  And of course the movie features a scene with monkeys because 2021 Timeline.  

Edited November 4, 2021 by Lobo

[tbone_ 14,123]

Nice. I've got tix to see him there in February 

At the outside venue? The place we went was like a mini red rocks. Very cool.

[Baboontyme 2,810]

26 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I don't see this as a social experiment. He wanted to fund a building based on his design. At the end of the day, UCSB is the one making the decision to build it or not. 

Fully understood. Reeks of desperation on the University side and I would hope my University would wave them off because it IS a social experiment in my opinion. Then again my University let Larry Nassar run around unchecked for 20 years so...

[High Plains Drifter 11,049]

4 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

This.^^^^  Why am I reminded of “Back To school”.  Rodney Dangerfield gives Dean Martin a check to fund a new  library.
 

 Uptight English professor dude scoffs, and dean Martins response…” I don’t think Phillip realizes the size of the check we’re talking about here.

:

 

except the check wasn't about funding a new library. It was about getting Rodney (and by extension his kid) special treatment. The library was just the excuse. Rodney was a rich asshole, but at least he was funny. 

In this case, the check isn't about low cost dorm housing. Its about the vanity of the donor. The low cost dorm is just the excuse. The donor is a rich asshole, but I'm not seeing any humor here.

The school should tell him thanks, but no thanks, we don't accept donations with that many strings attached.

 

Aesthetics matter. Of all people, you, an architect, should know this.

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

5 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

except the check wasn't about funding a new library. It was about getting Rodney (and by extension his kid) special treatment. The library was just the excuse. Rodney was a rich asshole, but at least he was funny. 

In this case, the check isn't about low cost dorm housing. Its about the vanity of the donor. The low cost dorm is just the excuse. The donor is a rich asshole, but I'm not seeing any humor here.

The school should tell him thanks, but no thanks, we don't accept donations with that many strings attached.

 

Aesthetics matter. Of all people, you, an architect, should know this.

Oy vey. My comment was a 35,000’  level observation. I’m not even gonna comment on the aesthetics as there are none, unless you consider Soviet era buildings aesthetic .
 

However form does follow function, and the form of that monstrosity follows the function.  House lots of people as cost effectively as possible.

Hello 21st c. Cabrini Green.

EDIT: and Rodney wasn’t a rich asshole.  He was a guy who made it big despite coming from humble origins.  His character was actually very likable.

Edited November 4, 2021 by Onboard 2.0

[washparkhorn 9,939]

2 minutes ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Hello 21st c. Cabrini Green.

Different design flaw, but I agree. The floorplan (from the link above) looks likes solitary confinement with friends. I wonder if there are studies that demonstrate the effects of limited natural sunlight on sleep (among other things).

Munger should stick to vulture capitalism, his specialty. He won't. His next step will be to praise China as superior to the United States. 

 

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

3 minutes ago, washparkhorn said:

Different design flaw, but I agree. The floorplan (from the link above) looks likes solitary confinement with friends. I wonder if there are studies that demonstrate the effects of limited natural sunlight on sleep (among other things).

Munger should stick to vulture capitalism, his specialty. He won't. His next step will be to praise China as superior to the United States. 

 

Oh yeah different parameters, but still the close quarter, warehousing of people with little to no privacy, natural light or aesthetics.

[Augustus 3,061]

Japanese students wonder what all the hubbub is about.

[TKthunder2 4,991]

Jester is butt fucking ugly as sin.  I would have loved to have my own private room without a roommate to study and masturbate in (probably not in that order though).  I don’t think I ever opened our fucking window because we had a bedsheet taped over it to better sleep off hangovers and most daylight hours we didn’t sit in our room because it was fucking depressing.

The only thing that would suck in this dorm is the communal toilet; other than that I would have preferred a setup like this especially with a semi-private common area for video games and watching sports with your suite mates.

[tbone_ 14,123]

I had a communal toilet and showers in Jester. Nbd.

[DaysOff 7,948]

On 11/2/2021 at 10:49 AM, 52-80 said:

whats the big fuss?  its a sleeping pod.  during the day time, you're in class.  in the afternoon, you're socializing in the common space.  the room is for intense studying sessions and jerking off. 

 

My freshman year pot luck roommate in Simkins had a designated nap time and jerkoff session every afternoon at 3pm. 

[52-80 19,155]

8 minutes ago, DaysOff said:

 

My freshman year pot luck roommate in Simkins had a designated nap time and jerkoff session every afternoon at 3pm. 

consistency is the cornerstone of success

[956 Worldwide 34,711]

Quote

 

Thomas Girardelli, another Berkshire Hathaway billionaire, has announced plans to fund a new football stadium at his alma mater, Auburn University. Though he has no training as an architect and has never played football, Girardelli designed the stadium and field himself. Instead of grass on the field there will be gravel, the locker rooms will be underwater, and three-fourths of the seats will face the parking lot. “I think people will love it,” he said.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/windows-were-never-on-the-table

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,907]

18 hours ago, 52-80 said:

consistency is the cornerstone of success

I thought it was the hobgoblin of little minds