Quote:
Originally Posted by TakeFive
Rant proposal:
Like metro supported funding for a new stadium, a $450 million voter approval plus a $650 million funding commitment from the State and lastly a $250 minimum pledge of funds from the private/corporate community. The plan would be for 20% to go to the CU Boulder campus and the other 80% to go for the acceleration of the Auraria Master Plan.
Presumably the State portion would be part of a larger package for the whole state (which would include additional CU funding). If you assume this would take 2-3 years to put in place and a build-out over 10-12 years then you're looking 15 years (in total) down the road (not unlike Fastracks).
Rant Rant:
If there's one thing that "this place" has gotten right it's the huge investment made over the last decade and still going in higher education. Why would such a cheap place do that?
Not unlike Denver and Colorado in the 1990's, Arizona and Phoenix Metro needs to diversify their economy and they want to raise the perception and reputation of their academic standing.
ASU has doubled the size of their Engineering School and intends to increase it by another 50%. They've made similar additions to their sciences capacity. The W.P. Carey School of Business which is already well regarded is also being expanded. Etc. Etc. The ASU Main Campus (in Tempe) is now over 55,000 students. They have another 20,000 plus at other metro locations including downtown Phoenix.
The City of Phoenix has collaborated with ASU and to date the downtown campus is home to the "Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the College of Health Solutions, the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, the College of Public Programs and the School of Letters and Sciences." The The Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law will relocate downtown by the end of 2016.
Additionally the city set aside a significant nearby parcel of land to which both ASU and the UofA are building medical and bioscience school facilities.
With this commitment to education and other measures Arizona is promoting themselves as "Open for Business" and intending to compete Across the Board. Time will tell.
Colorado needs to also invest in their education infrastructure in order to continue to compete.
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<I made the first "bold" emphasis>
Investing in higher education is very difficult, due in part, to how universities divvy up the financial pie.
Public moneys need to be targeted to specific departments, rather than for the entire school. This can be very difficult to do with public moneys due to political problems within universities between schools (departments) being projected upon the public at large. Innumerable arguments concerning the "value of a liberal arts education" in general, and, the need to maintain "academic freedom" become labels for various departments insisting on an "equal" piece of the pie.
Private funding is totally different, as private money can be targeted at the request of the giver as it is a "gift" rather than being considered "funding."
If we want to improve our engineering education in Colorado, IMO, private seed money needs to targeted specifically at departments within the Colorado School of Mines, CU, and, CSU, for the express purpose of providing money to TEACH STUDENTS IN ENGINEERING CLASSES, not for research. While this would seem an intrusion into what higher education believes is their fundamental right to disburse money as they desire, IMO, the cost benefits of targeted funding is far higher than having a given university handle the funds. Private gifts or endowments have the ability to be that specific.
In my opinion, if we want to increase our output of engineers, we need to do two things: first, encourage the moneyed few and corporations to donate targeted money to engineering departments via student scholarship money, and, second, we need to reduce the number of overseas engineers permitted per green card programs to enter and work for US companies on an annual basis.
The same issue also relates to computer programming.
Doing so would greatly irritate many involved in using foreign national "temps" as with that source of talent reduced, compensation in the US would have to increase.
(In other words, the key to the success of Arizona's efforts are the private moneys.)
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