Interesting Letter from UT re: Tuition (Austin, Spring: 2009, loans, transfer)

[unsmicck]

Maybe Muschamp will pay for my tuition....

[chickenfry]

call your congressman. maybe bush/obama would pay it

[Trainwreck20]

Well, it's not like they're going to sell the land and take the money to fund programs. They're planning to develop the land for a higher return.

The higher return from the land goes into the university fund...to fund programs.....
If their goal was stewardship of the city, then they should spend less on programs and put more into public improvements. The COA can buy the land, if they want to....put a bond issue up, even, and we can vote to spend the money to buy the land and keep the golf course. The COA is responsible for the stewardship of the city, at least in my opinion.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

The higher return from the land goes into the university fund...to fund programs.....
If their goal was stewardship of the city, then they should spend less on programs and put more into public improvements. The COA can buy the land, if they want to....put a bond issue up, even, and we can vote to spend the money to buy the land and keep the golf course. The COA is responsible for the stewardship of the city, at least in my opinion.

I don't believe the land has been offered for sale. I wish they would, it would be a great use of bond money.

[Austinitegirl]

OK - since we've gotten off the subject of tuition de-regulation and onto the Brackenridge Tract - I need to clear up some very serious misconceptions about what's going on with the Brack Tract.

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

Add to that the fact that UT has big plans to sell the Brackenrige tract (student housing, municipal golf course and kid recreation facilities) and it makes me realize that the UT administration is the greediest thing going.

Just wanted to clarify that this is a decision being made by the UT SYSTEM administration, not the UT Austin Administration - big difference. UT SYSTEM oversees all UT institutions - UTEP, UTSA, MD Anderson, UT Health Science Center in Houston, etc.

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

But why should the school be in the business of running businesses? This is a money sink (or at least, a minimal return), and tuition and fees are paying for it. I don't know why a university should be responsible for funding a public golf course. Now, I admit, it is nice, but it is hard to complain about the cost of school and then say that they should use their money in such a manner.

Whoa there Trainwreck. Back that judgement train up for just a second and take a detour down Fact Check Lane. UT is not running anything. They lease part of the Brackenridge Tract to the City of Austin, who runs the golf course. They are financially benefitting from collecting lease payments on the land, but they aren't running (or funding) the golf course. Tuition and fee payments go to fund academic programs and some university operating costs, not golf courses. I'm not taking sides on Brack Tract or on the issue of how UT spends their money, but don't make supposition based on grossly inaccurate facts. That's a slippery slope, and an inflammatory one, given that we all are Austinites and very directly (or even indirectly) affected by one of the city, state, and country's most iconic institutions.

The issue of the Brack Tract is a very sensitive one and a very political one. The core of the issue is that UT System wants to either sell or re-develop a portion or all of the land. The City of Austin is lobbying to keep the Golf Course, the local neighborhoods are lobbying for WAYA, and UT Austin is lobbying to keep the student housing and the Brackenridge Field Lab, one of UT Austin's best resources and pretty much the only think keeping our Integrative Biology program one of the top in the nation.

Everyone curious about Brack Tract - spend 10 minutes on Google, you'll probably have most of your questions answered. Here are a couple of good links to get you started:

http://www.deepeddy.com/wang/BrackTractFAQ.pdf
University of Texas System - Brackenridge Tract (keep in mind this is the UT System site, so it paints a pretty rosy picture)
The Brackenridge Tract
News: UT's Brackenridge Tract: For Love or Money?: West Austin readies for another battle over redevelopment - The Austin Chronicle

There is certainly a lot of money at stake, but it's extremely political and I'm afraid the outcome will ultimately benefit neither UT Austin nor the City of Austin.

Now back to de-regulation of tuition. This essentially all goes back to funding sources for UT Austin. There is a huge amount of misinformation floating around. For those of you who attended UT back in the 80s and reminisced about how cheap your tuition was back then, let's throw out inflation for just a second and talk about funding sources:

In 1984, UT Austin received almost HALF of it's total annual budget funding from the State, about a third from private funding sources (donations, athletics, housing, etc.), about 12% from the PUF and a paltry 5% from tuition and fees.

About 15 years later, UT Austin NOW receives only about 15% of it's total annual budget from the State (thank you Texas), only 8% from the PUF, thanks to the fact that ALL UT institutions (all 15 of them) share the PUF fund along with other Texas (non UT) institutions. THE REST of UT Austin's annual budget - OVER 75% OF IT has to come from private donations and tuition and fees. The breakdown is a little over 50% private donations, a little under 25% tuition and fees.

So draw what conclusions you may, but the bottom line here is that the financial make up of UT is very different today than it was 15 or 20 years ago, and our current economic climate continues to change that picture.

For what it's worth - in a recent study of 9 of UT's peer institutions (such as Michigan, Ohio State and UCLA), UT ranked 7 out of 9 in terms of cheap tuition for Residents (1 being the most expensive, 9 being the cheapest).

[XodoX]

You might be right about the funding ( I dont know ) but the tuition is still too high. Especially the "flate rate" is something I don't like.

[Austinitegirl]

Maybe "too high" compared to U of H - because cost of living in Houston is relatively low, but (as I said in my post) compared to it's peer institutions, UT is pretty cheap. Think of it as getting a Mercedes education for Ford prices. The School of Engineering will look fantastic on your resume.

[XodoX]

Originally Posted by Austinitegirl

Maybe "too high" compared to U of H - because cost of living in Houston is relatively low, but (as I said in my post) compared to it's peer institutions, UT is pretty cheap. Think of it as getting a Mercedes education for Ford prices. The School of Engineering will look fantastic on your resume.

Well, I don't know about the "looks fantastic on your resume" because I'm from Germany but I guess I'm getting a feeling for it. UT is still a "state university" and one would think they don't want to keep people from attending college due to the high tuition.

[Austinitegirl]

Well - fortunately for UT, deterring people from coming isn't actually one of their concerns. It's kind of a rock star of a school (sorry Aggies). You'll probably hear all about the Top 10% Rule soon - that's a rule that states that any Texas high school student, who (academically) falls within the top 10% of their graduating class, is guaranteed admission into any Texas State School they want - and most of them want to come to UT Austin, so the school is absolutely choking on this rule by the huge influx of tens of thousands of incoming freshman every year.

So - yes, it's a "state school," but one with a private school reputation in terms of research and academics. Once you get here you'll understand.

[XodoX]

Originally Posted by Austinitegirl

Well - fortunately for UT, deterring people from coming isn't actually one of their concerns. It's kind of a rock star of a school (sorry Aggies). You'll probably hear all about the Top 10% Rule soon - that's a rule that states that any Texas high school student, who (academically) falls within the top 10% of their graduating class, is guaranteed admission into any Texas State School they want - and most of them want to come to UT Austin, so the school is absolutely choking on this rule by the huge influx of tens of thousands of incoming freshman every year.

So - yes, it's a "state school," but one with a private school reputation in terms of research and academics. Once you get here you'll understand.

I'm aware of the 10% rule I'm from Germany but I've been living here for almost 3 years now and I am highly interested in anything related to this matter. Read all the UT statistics etc.

Well - fortunately for UT, deterring people from coming isn't actually one of their concerns.

I disagree with you on this. Actually, the state should be concerned about it but UT is still a school that is supposed to provide education to everybody and not jsut those who got the money.

I know "you get what you pay for" but that is ridiculous in my opinion. Education is so essential... if only the rich could go to college then we had a huge problem.