Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:34 pm EST
Texas prez puts Longhorn football on nuclear alert
The University of Texas has a demographic problem: State law requires public universities to admit any Texas student who finishes in the top 10 percent of their high school's graduating class. As the state continues to grow, that's a lot of kids -- in just a decade, the share of "10 percent" students enrolling in the university has more than doubled, to 86 percent of incoming freshman. What if that number keeps rising?
First, said UT president William Powers in arguing against the requirement in front of the state legislature Wednesday night, the university will have to stop admitting international and out-of-state students altogether. Then, as the glut get completely out of hand, it will have to ... eliminate football?
Without some change to the law, UT will be forced to reject all Texas high school graduates who are not in the top 10 percent by 2013, according to a report by the university. By 2015, the report said, there will be no room in the freshman class for students from other states or countries. "It has become a crisis for us," Powers said. "We’re simply out of space." Asked about athletics, he said such programs, including football, might also have to be eliminated eventually. Most football players do not rank in the top 10 percent.
Say this for William Powers: The man has cojones, if not a great sense of quelling mass public outrage and fear. Besides serving as the de facto face of the university -- and, to some extent, the state -- at last check, Texas football was worth nearly $40 million in annual net revenue, more than any other program in the country. If the university ever seriously considered scuttling football, half the state would descend on Austin to burn down the administration tower, and the legislature would pass out the torches. They're proud of their school and all, but no Longhorns, no Texas.
So big, broad, 10-gallon hats off to you, President Powers, for putting your finger anywhere near that red button -- hell, for suggesting that button even exists, even if its deployment is beyond anyone's wildest imagination. Makers of canned goods, masking tape, gas masks, bunkers, urine-powered scooters and multi-colored threat charts everywhere commend your commitment to spreading the cause of hyperbole and fear.
Dr. Saturday
Matt Hinton
Dr. Saturday is a college football blog edited by Matt Hinton. Email him tips and feedback.
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13 Comments
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Sorry no room for you in our colleges, we have to admit knuckle dragging defensive lineman.
Signed
Institutes of higher learning in bizzaro world.
Anyhow, I too admire the cajones of a college president arguing in front of the legislature against admitting students who perform strongly in the classroom.
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I thought the reason Mack Brown got his recruits signed so early was to prevent them from being recruited by the Ivy League schools--the Pre-Med Dead Period lasts until May, no?
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1) Reject the other 90% of Texas high school graduates (thus facing cries of elitism)
2) Stop admitting foreign or non-Texas students (universities love to crow about diversity, doing this would really put a damper on that for UT)
3) And finally, eliminating football and other sports (source of state/school pride, etc).
By making a wide appeal, to in no particular order - lovers of diversity, sports fans and defenders of "average" students, I think its more likely than not that Powers gets his law changed in some way.
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Regarding the foreign students, without them, where would the actual intellectually challenging disciplines like physics, math, and engineering get their students? White Americans can't be expected to work that hard!
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Put it this way: Do you think that Harvard would be as good of a school as it is if 90% of the students came from Massachusetts?
(One more point... There are good high schools, and there are really bad high schools... 10% doesn't work when the playing fields aren't even.)
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Also, Texas has 6 million more people than Florida, which factors into the issue. According to the e-mails from Pres. Powers, we're already at the point where we're guaranteeing more acceptances than we can actually let in.
(Oh, before you knock UT's reputation, it IS one of the best public schools in the country. Seriously, check out its rankings.)
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If Texas expanded its university system to accommodate the mandated admissions, that would be a very different thing.
On getting rid of football, it's a common academic trope. Once they asked the chairman of the French department where I teach what he'd cut if they cut his funding. He said "Introductory French," because he knew that would get the legislators' attention. In Texas, threats to football are regarded quite seriously.
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I do not know where you are from but it is painfully obvious that you know very little about the 10% rule. It has overall damaged the University of Texas because students who would otherwise come nowhere near being qualified to attend the University of Texas (think the valedictorian at Pampa HS with a 970 SAT) get in automatically in virtue of being the best students at a very uncompetitive high school. I'm thrilled with this result because, although I currently attend UT (graduate student) the 10% rule has been great for my alma mater -- Texas Tech -- in that it forces UT's academic standards down and thus Tech's up relative to the state's biggest school.
The top 10% rule was originally proposed as the means of increasing "diversity" by permitting kids who would not otherwise qualify for admission at University's, like Texas, that had high academic standards.
You seem to think this is an "ego" think because Powers apparently wants to improve the academic integrity of the University of Texas. But that's his job, right?
The teacher above had it figured out. The 10% rule damages the academic integrity of Universities that are bound to it and that is one of the reasons it has come under fire. Athletics is a convenient issue because people get worked up about it. What a very dumb athlete who could never get into UT but for their athletic prowess and a very good student from a highly competitive high school that finishes in the top 15% of his/her class and has 95th percentile SAT score, is that neither will get to attend the University of Texas if 100% of the student body is made up of people who graduated top 10% of their class. That's the hyperbole.
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