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Tell Me About Texas a&m

MrPhlegm

By MrPhlegm
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Mrs Whiggins

Mrs Whiggins 13050

Posted
Posted
21 minutes ago, Lobo said:

So you're saying they rote their own traditions?

Rep to you, that was a good one.

23 minutes ago, Randolph Duke said:

The University of Texas and Texas A&M operate on two different instructional models.

I'll meander slightly off topic for a moment. I've got some fodder from some of the committees that are meeting this spring/summer for the Great Reorganization wherein the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Science are merging. That they were not joined in the past probably has more to do with the military/ag college background than anything, but the upshot was that with individual chancellors for engineering and ag, it led to a power balance that was concentrated in those two colleges with the rest scrabbling for the leftovers. While the talking point has been merging will rectify this unbalance somewhat, after some pointed questions this weekend of some acquaintances currently serving, the thinking is that the president is laying the groundwork for a different business model.

Instead of departments having staff that report to department heads, the staff, (including budget, advising, IT, etc) is all centralized through the dean's office. While that may sound like a money saver, there is some alarm about how pressure can now be applied top down and department heads have really no charge other than to be holding the blame bag when something goes wrong. For example, one office manager that would have sat down with a head to discuss how much money was available for replacement hires now would be a person in the dean's office and the head goes hat in hand to find out if there's any money. Some of that goes on already, but this streamlining is not necessarily going to work in the best interest of students. I mean, I hope that it does, but the issue with such a large school is that when things go wrong, it's like the Titanic--slow to turn and quite a bit of harm caused.

I'm also a little torn because there is a fair amount of waste due to duplication that goes on in some areas at any university, but A&M really should've capped their growth and pushed the students not admitted towards other system schools. It is not the end of the world to apply to a university and not be admitted, it is the beginning of a different journey altogether.

 

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Randolph Duke

Randolph Duke 4034

Posted
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39 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Rep to you, that was a good one.

I'll meander slightly off topic for a moment. I've got some fodder from some of the committees that are meeting this spring/summer for the Great Reorganization wherein the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Science are merging. That they were not joined in the past probably has more to do with the military/ag college background than anything, but the upshot was that with individual chancellors for engineering and ag, it led to a power balance that was concentrated in those two colleges with the rest scrabbling for the leftovers. While the talking point has been merging will rectify this unbalance somewhat, after some pointed questions this weekend of some acquaintances currently serving, the thinking is that the president is laying the groundwork for a different business model.

Instead of departments having staff that report to department heads, the staff, (including budget, advising, IT, etc) is all centralized through the dean's office. While that may sound like a money saver, there is some alarm about how pressure can now be applied top down and department heads have really no charge other than to be holding the blame bag when something goes wrong. For example, one office manager that would have sat down with a head to discuss how much money was available for replacement hires now would be a person in the dean's office and the head goes hat in hand to find out if there's any money. Some of that goes on already, but this streamlining is not necessarily going to work in the best interest of students. I mean, I hope that it does, but the issue with such a large school is that when things go wrong, it's like the Titanic--slow to turn and quite a bit of harm caused.

I'm also a little torn because there is a fair amount of waste due to duplication that goes on in some areas at any university, but A&M really should've capped their growth and pushed the students not admitted towards other system schools. It is not the end of the world to apply to a university and not be admitted, it is the beginning of a different journey altogether.

 

But the model decided upon by Perry, et al, was to push the first two years of aggy undergrad education to the state's junior colleges and community colleges, with the College Station campus being a "finishing school" for STEM majors. Under that approach, it was believed the state could theoretically produce upward of 40,000 STEM graduates from A&M each year, thus meeting the projected demands of the Texas economy for STEM graduates.

That was the "quantity over quality" approach. So far, not many of us are impressed with the "quality" of the resultant product. Personally, I don't give a shit because we never even interview Texas A&M grads.

Here is one of my favorite examples of how aggy wanting to be "just like tu" holds them back.

One of the favorite aggy dreams is "equal PUF funding." That will never happen. First of all, it would take a Constitutional amendment. Secondly, the UT system has far more students than the A&M system, and A&M administrators have already shown they have no interest in developing a legitimate university system. Any additional PUF funding given to the A&M system would be squandered on the College Station campus.

"Equal" PUF funding would take money from various UT system schools who have shown far more promise than any A&M system school (apologies to TAMU-CC that made it into the NCAA MBB tourney, lol). The PUF financial assets are at $31.B. Current funding gives A&M 1/3 of the 0.0525 distribution, which works out to be around $525 million/yr. "Equal" funding with the UT system would give A&M approximately $787.5 million (annually), a difference of roughly $260 mil.

But what the ags don't understand is that UT Austin is FAR more heavily funded by the state legislature and Congress than A&M. UT receives about $6k per FTSE more than A&M from the state, and about $8k per FTSE from Congress. A difference of about $14k per student. Multiply that by A&M's 55.6k enrollment, and it is a difference of well over $750 million, about three times what A&M would potentially receive if "equal" PUF funding was effected.

So the ags bleat about wanting to split the PUF "equally" instead of pressing their elected representatives for equal legislative funding. So much for the value of a Mays Business School education.

The problem for A&M is that a rote education model is far cheaper to effect than a meaningful education model. Elected representatives know this. They aren't going to waste taxpayer money on equalizing A&M and UT Austin legislative funding. In short, if a UT-level education could be delivered on an A&M budget, UT Austin and TAMU would have equal funding. But what the state's economy needs is a whole bunch of STEM grads produced from a rote learning model and a smaller number of well-educated individuals produced from a meaningful learning model.

And, while every aggy would immediately begin to argue with me about this, the fact is the Texas economy has been running quite smoothly using this approach for the past few decades. Meanwhile, aggy is still struggling to define their educational model and to employ it effectively and efficiently.

"Quantity over quality" is only effective in trade school applications. The "aggy network" exists because any aggy is pretty much replaceable by any other random aggy. Not many of them have specific skills, not many of them have specific value. They are essentially all generic and replaceable by another College Station cog. That is because they all had the same rote learning education.

thecb 2020 ut:a&m.jpeg

Edited by Randolph Duke
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Armybrat

Armybrat 40920

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Posted
51 minutes ago, Dennis Taylor said:

Rent free, singing about Daddy on spring break. Unfortunately doesn't appear to be any sheep in sight to hit on.

one aggy has been able to answer for me: if Texas is Varsity,  what does that make aggy?

Middle school 7th grade team.

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SHOOTER12

SHOOTER12 8833

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2 hours ago, Randolph Duke said:

The University of Texas and Texas A&M operate on two different instructional models.

UT focuses on "meaningful learning."

A&M employs "rote learning."

"Meaningful learning refers to the concept that the learned knowledge (lets say a fact) is fully understood by the individual and that the individual knows how that specific fact relates to other stored facts (stored in your brain that is)." "Rote learning is where you memorize something without full understanding and you don't know how the new information relates to your other stored knowledge." https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rallrich/learn/mean.html

The difference in the two instructional models is immense.

Quick example - every aggy loves him his Bible and, because he was taught so, he knows every word in the Bible is exactly what God himself wrote down with his #2 pencil "back then."

A UT grad would be taught the accepted meanings of words change over time and that any modern interpretation would need to be considered with respect to various biases of those who translated the texts from different its original languages and how the meaning of various words have changed over time.

A quicker example - an aggy looks at a grocery store bar code and "knows" the reader reads the black lines. A UT grad looks at the same thing and realizes the reader reads the white lines.

Ķind of racist,  lol

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Nolacycling

Nolacycling 893

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Posted (edited)

Liberal arts, journalism are not supported, yet the media hates us. 

The scribbling that I read on on texags is mind-wrenching. And I'm not talking about their inability to make a point, but their use of the language. 

"Whereupon anyone within shooting distance can contemplate their complete reluctance to buy into the good guys reward for raising all ships by buoying, in possible exponential efforts, the perceived benefits of an inflated Journalism school, the justification isn't justified."

Sufferin' succotash.

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Mrs Whiggins

Mrs Whiggins 13050

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2 hours ago, Randolph Duke said:

...And, while every aggy would immediately begin to argue with me about this, the fact is the Texas economy has been running quite smoothly using this approach for the past few decades. Meanwhile, aggy is still struggling to define their educational model and to employ it effectively and efficiently.

I am in agreement, but it is still frustrating because their situation is combined with a most annoying mindset among some of the students/alums that their book larnin' is only useful if it immediately translates into cash in their pockets. That is a trade school attitude, which you reference, and I don't care if I sound like a snob, a university education should always prepare one for opportunities unknown. That means more than a trade, but a mind well versed in a variety of subject matter and capable of a renaissance.

Not all state universities or even land grant institutions operate like A&M. A&M is um...unique in that regard I believe.

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Gaffords

Gaffords 757

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On 3/14/2022 at 12:50 AM, ButtFumble said:

https://texags.com/forums/7/topics/3277836/replies/61673428

 

We are the ones being hurt the most from the blowback of the t.u. and OU SEC conference expansion. Now nobody in NCAA leadership positions want football playoff expansion nor too many SEC teams in the basketball tournament.
 
The SIPS!!!!....ALWAYS THE SIPS!!!!

Someone remind me who it was that exposed the whole thing in a selfish attempt to blow the whole thing up, no matter how much money this meant for the entire conference?  And what was it again that brought playoff expansion talks to a grinding halt?   Fucking aggy lack of self awareness is just mind numbing...

The only thing he got right is the last part.    Yes aggy, when it comes down to these types of choices between UT and TAM, the University of Texas is always going to be preferred choice and aggy the "if we can't have" choice.  

Hate to tell aggy, but the SEC didn't choose aggy over UT.  Committees won't pick aggy over UT for tournaments.  I know it is impossible for aggy to understand the University of Texas and Texas A&M are NOT equals. They are NOT the same. And the only people in the world who would say they are, is an aggy, plain and simple....

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Randolph Duke

Randolph Duke 4034

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27 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

I am in agreement, but it is still frustrating because their situation is combined with a most annoying mindset among some of the students/alums that their book larnin' is only useful if it immediately translates into cash in their pockets. That is a trade school attitude, which you reference, and I don't care if I sound like a snob, a university education should always prepare one for opportunities unknown. That means more than a trade, but a mind well versed in a variety of subject matter and capable of a renaissance.

Not all state universities or even land grant institutions operate like A&M. A&M is um...unique in that regard I believe.

Texas A&M is the only institution of higher education I have ever known of whose culture is entirely dependent on the ignorance of the alumni, students, administrators and supporters.

Perpetuating aggy culture isn't a matter of "outbreeding them who wants to take us over" as The Rudder Association seeks to promote. Perpetuating aggy culture is a matter of identifying those high school students who excel in memorizing formulas and lists and, from that group, identifying those who are most gullible and naive.

The entire reason I can offer $1 million to any individual who can identify which 1907 football game saw the genesis of the aggy "yell leader" tradition is because no aggy over the past 115 years has been intelligent enough to figure out which game. All aggys know is that they were told something by someone who was held up as an authority figure  and because that someone told them, it has to be true.

Because aggy exists primarily to promote "a certain culture" and not to promote knowledge, aggy will always be about gullible individuals who believe everything they are told by their accepted authority figures. With very few exceptions aggys go through their lives not understanding their perceived authority figures were uneducated themselves. Let's face it, Risk Perry and John Sharp are not fit to be associated with any institution of higher education. But aggys worship their every word, attributing anything that conflicts with the fabricated fairy tales they were "taught" at Fish Camp to a vast conspiracy.

it's sad people have to go through life like that, but those who either can't or won't put in the mental effort to obtain a quality education are doomed to spend their lives as dumb as an aggy.

primitive culture attributes.jpeg

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Deej

Deej 76946

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2 hours ago, DaysOff said:


I've never seen a fan base cry this much after missing the cut of a tournament that 300 other schools also missed. Is anyone else crying this much?

Those aren't tears, they are so full of jizz that it's leaking from their tear ducts.

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markstanco

markstanco 12627

Posted
Posted

I've never seen a fan base cry this much after missing the cut of a tournament that 300 other schools also missed. Is anyone else crying this much?

They have no clue of numerous things.

1. Leading scorer
2. What tf their record is
3. Why they got left out because of the November and December schedule and the 8 game losing streak in January.

Why this shit is so hard for them is amazing.
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markstanco

markstanco 12627

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17 minutes ago, TrashMaster G said:

I'm curious - What was their non-conf SOS?

https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-basketball/ranking/non-conference-sos-by-other

#126.  And I am sure that was factored in. Dartmouth and UT Arlington played a tougher schedule.  Unless I am missing a team, only Georgia played an easier schedule. 

Texas was almost 100 spots ahead of them at #32.

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Dennis Taylor

Dennis Taylor 18876

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4 hours ago, Longboard Horn said:

 

Didn't bother to listen past about a minute, but if only someone could have done something about the team's effort between January 16 and Valentines Day maybe this snub could have been prevented.  I wonder whose responsibility that would be...he should find out more about that

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