Houston CORE developments thread (Dallas, Austin: 2015, purchase, colleges)

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Stupid and selfishness on behalf of UH. Didn't want competition.

Now the guy who spearheaded the rejection of the UT Data Center in Houston appears to be the frontrunner in the campaign for Mayor of Houston.

So not only does he not get punished for his selfishness he might get a real nice reward.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

Now the guy who spearheaded the rejection of the UT Data Center in Houston appears to be the frontrunner in the campaign for Mayor of Houston.

So not only does he not get punished for his selfishness he might get a real nice reward.

What exactly do you mean by data center? Do you mean an actual data center or a data sciences Institute ?

[SanJac]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

Now the guy who spearheaded the rejection of the UT Data Center in Houston appears to be the frontrunner in the campaign for Mayor of Houston.

So not only does he not get punished for his selfishness he might get a real nice reward.

He’s also been the enemy of UH on issues such as mandating Freshman live on campus - something Khator wanted very badly to improve UH’s graduation rate and enhance it’s ability to get AAU status. I can see both sides. UH is accessible to have-nots more than UT and A&M. Adding a barrier to entry would impact that population.

In terms of fending off UT encroaching on UH’s turf, that likely would not have happened without the super-stardom of Renu Khator and her influence in Austin. Let’s be honest, UT and A&M have enjoyed a huge economic advantage over every other university in Texas thanks to the Permanent University Fund (PUF) which they refuse to amend. I don’t blame UH for keeping UT out of Houston. Houston has done just fine without them and you could argue A&M is practically a Houston school anyway, so we already have 3 powerhouse universities.

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

What exactly do you mean by data center? Do you mean an actual data center or a data sciences Institute ?

Whatever that was that UT was planning off Buffalo Speedway in southwest Houston. BTW as far as I know UT still owns that land.

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by SanJac

He’s also been the enemy of UH on issues such as mandating Freshman live on campus - something Khator wanted very badly to improve UH’s graduation rate and enhance it’s ability to get AAU status. I can see both sides. UH is accessible to have-nots more than UT and A&M. Adding a barrier to entry would impact that population.

In terms of fending off UT encroaching on UH’s turf, that likely would not have happened without the super-stardom of Renu Khator and her influence in Austin. Let’s be honest, UT and A&M have enjoyed a huge economic advantage over every other university in Texas thanks to the Permanent University Fund (PUF) which they refuse to amend. I don’t blame UH for keeping UT out of Houston. Houston has done just fine without them and you could argue A&M is practically a Houston school anyway, so we already have 3 powerhouse universities.

I don't care how unfairly U of H is treated by the PUF. I'm talking about what's best for the City of Houston, not the University of Houston which BTW are not affiliated with each other. Blocking a prestigious university from spending hundreds of millions of dollars on any institution in Houston does not seem like a good idea to me. Playing defense is not a good strategy when trying to diversify an economy. Yes, Houston has done well without a undergrad presence from either UT or A&M but you cannot unring the bell, and there is no telling how much better this city would be now, or in the future had that Campus been developed or any other undergrad campus by either or both UT and A&M.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

Whatever that was that UT was planning off Buffalo Speedway in southwest Houston. BTW as far as I know UT still owns that land.

What I’m asking is if UT planned an actual warehouse of servers that compute data (a data center). Or if by data center, you meant a data sciences research facility.

I’m not calling you out, I’m asking because I legitimately don’t know much about UT’s plan. As far as I know, they were getting ready to drop the first phase project that was eventually a full university.

Anyway, UT is one of the primary investors of Helix Park so let’s not pretend like they’ve entirely abandoned the region.

[atadytic19]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Stupid and selfishness on behalf of UH. Didn't want competition.

I thought that 2. I don't think what UT was building was a data center though. The plans looked like the makings of a full fledged college. It would have been great for the city of Houston but bad for UH.
But I do see the benefits of building up the schools you already have. 3 of the top 10 schools in Texas are located in the core, just a few miles away from each other, so while UT Houston wouldn't take long to become a powerhouse, I think the city core isn't really lacking in terms of major schools already.
Apart from the top 3, there's TSU and UHD and HCC is pretty big.
Lone Star College already has a huge full time student population, it would be nice if it could be turned into a flagship school for another statewide university system. But Texas already has more university systems than most, so that may be overkill.

UHD has been floating the idea of breaking off from the UH system, or at least rebranding itself with a more independent name for as long as I can remember. It has grown to about 15k students so it is kinda odd to have a university system with 2 large student bodies both in the core.

Para UT said they were not building a 4 year college, but it certainly looked like they were. As far as the PUF, it looks like Texas is going on an alternate route as far as the other university systems are concerned.

They are hoping the new Texas University Fund bill passes in November. If it does a new fund will be developed which mainly benefits UH and Texas Tech systems with less benefits to UNT and Texas State systems. So it looks like instead of going after a fair share of the PUF they are creating a whole new fund

It's funny because UTD and UT-arlington were ahead of UNT for Emerging Research University dollars, but when UT pulled out of the big 12, UT affiliated Schools were blocked out of the TUF. UTSA and UTEP were farther along than UNT too. They must be big mad.

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Anyway, UT is one of the primary investors of Helix Park so let’s not pretend like they’ve entirely abandoned the region.

Yeah, in terms of endowments UT Austin and UT Dallas are the only schools in the UT system with bigger endowments than UT health science center and UTMB so the UT Schools are still contributing a lot to the metro without a 4 year college

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

What I’m asking is if UT planned an actual warehouse of servers that compute data (a data center). Or if by data center, you meant a data sciences research facility.

I’m not calling you out, I’m asking because I legitimately don’t know much about UT’s plan. As far as I know, they were getting ready to drop the first phase project that was eventually a full university.

Anyway, UT is one of the primary investors of Helix Park so let’s not pretend like they’ve entirely abandoned the region.

They never really fully explained what they were going to do at that location which was part of the controversy. UofH accused them of trying to establish an undergrad presence in Houston and UT did admit they were planning on about 1,200 undergrads at that location. But Whitmire was also throwing things out like environmental hazards at the location ect ect. I looked to me like he was just being a hatchet man for the UofH, which is his Alma Mater, instead of looking at the bigger picture.

[oil capital]

Originally Posted by atadytic19

Oh yeah, I don't know much about those apart from the ones I mentioned ( Prairie View, Sam Houston, etc)

[b].

What is your opinion on Houston killing UT's foray into Houston? It is the only Texas metro without a statewide university system 4 yr college.

One of the worst days in the history of Houston.

[LocalPlanner]

UT isn't blameless for the fiasco - a taxpayer-supported institution shouldn't get to avoid transparency on huge moves like the property purchase.

That said, UH's reaction and politico's indulging them was pretty awful for Houston.