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Originally Posted by TakeFive
The "acceleration of the Auraria Master Plan" means Construction Projects: Buildings and classrooms. Additionally certain infrastructure needs to be upgraded so I should also add the City/County of Denver as a contributor.
Arizona/ASU was merely used as an example. They hired a "rock star" from Ohio State for their President and he set in motion putting ASU on the map. Just as Philip Anschutz took the lead when CU moved and created a whole new Med School and campus so too there were a few key long term successful developers that were ready to leave substantial legacy donations for building new facilities. So like Anschutz with the new Med School, private donors were very much a key component.
As for B1/B2 visas I have no issues with them. With manufacturing and R&D facilities from the likes of Intel, Micron Tech, Western Digital and ON Semiconductor there's are lots of those from India. ASU does attract many Foreign students.
ASU (I'd guess) added over $1.5 billion in new facilities over the last decade. They took a "Build it and they will come" approach and as far as I Know they didn't limit who "they" were or where they came from.
Why take three decades or longer to execute on the Auraria Master Plan if it can be done much quicker?
The Auraria campus can be a Big contributor to the downtown Denver urban fabric as well as to the economy.
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I have issues with the B1/B2 visas because domestic talent needs to be developed ASAP.
Large numbers of US males between age 30 and 50, thought at age 16, that the software revolution would enable them to make a good living, if they learned on their own and spent thousands of hours in front of their computers. IMO, as young people have always been gullible, that most of those who did so were reacting to dumb *** movies, vacuous talking heads on TV, and innumerable gee whiz magazine articles, who extolled the virtue of the garage genius who created a multibillion dollar company from humble beginnings. This, is true, for the one out of 10,000 or so of those who committed themselves to success by this route.
Until corporations started using large numbers of B1/B2 visas, many of these now slightly older people got the entry positions (often without any degree) and, a considerable number moved up the technical chain. This reinforced the mass media's selling of this rag to riches lifestyle to those still teenagers.
Now we too often face the reality that an engineering degree, and, a masters degree are what the corporate world wants for entry level positions. In addition, with B1/B2 visas and the growth of (mostly) Indian corporations who actively market Indian engineers to US businesses, the laws of supply and demand have radically lowered the compensation for entry and middle level technical jobs.
IMO, this process, bottom line, is lowering both our GDP and our long term competitiveness.
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The university and college facility building boom, IMO, is more a result of academic institutions competing among themselves for students, in an era of almost no growth in the number of college students nationwide. I suspect much of this has to do with impressing 17 and 18 year olds with how much "chrome" is on the academic vehicle (of course increased professor bragging rights over their new multimillion dollar building doesn't hurt either).
All this during a time when the cost of getting a university degree has inflated at a faster rate than even the catastrophic inflation in the medical business!
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What is needed simply is to adjust the real world supply and demand by creating short term personnel shortages and simultaneously making learning such skills far more affordable.
IMO, if a US student sees that if he or she works very hard at learning very complex skills at a university, if student loans total a small sum at graduation, and, if good jobs are available, then a large number will take advantage of the opportunity.
As you know, in the sciences it is not what the building looks like, but a combination of teacher quality and resources for the undergraduate and masters level student to use.
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