I would hate for the growth to come at the expense of the student-teacher relationships and family feel of the University.
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I understand that, but growth has to happen. I put that I didn't want to grow faster than we could accomodate. La. Tech has the potential to be a much larger university. If we can keep academic standards high and the ratio low, it is good thing. Tech is in a prime spot right now to really knock out any other college in N. Louisiana.
Besides, on the athletic side, wouldn't you LOVE to see a huge student body, more alumni, and the dollars that follow that?
I like the idea of a cap but we are nowhere near where I would like it. I have said before that I think 12,000 undergrads is a good number. Right now we are under 12,000 total enrollment. I would like to see us grow our graduate programs significantly.
It is not just about programs (probably hurts us in their metrics because we dont have a lot of post grad schools with LSU having them all). Student debt upon graduation (plus fo us), selectivity/acceptance rate is probably a metric, student "happiness" is a metric through surveys. Endowment size is probably used (negative for us), I believe diversity is a metric (probably lacking there). Number of programs offered is probably a metric that hurts us given our lack of professional schools. So, it is more than just the quality of the programs you have.
Two major pushes need to be made.
(1) Increasing the endowment. We really, badly need to be at least in the ~200m range.
(2) Increasing the number of American graduate students.
US News and World Report: Methodology
25% - Peer assessment
16% - Average graduation rate
10% - Financial resources per student
7.5% - Critical reading and math portions of the SAT and composite ACT scores
7% - Faculty compensation
6% - High school class standing in top 10%
6% - Class size, 1-19 students
5% - Average alumni giving rate
5% - Graduation rate performance
4% - Average freshman retention rate
3% - Percent faculty with top terminal degree in their field
2% - Class size, 50+ students
1.5% - Acceptance rate
1% - Percent faculty that is full time
1% - Student/faculty ratio
You hit the nail on the head. Look at what's in the Monroe paper today. Tech's PR people need to get articles like this in papers along the I-10 corridor in Louisiana.
http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/2...llege+rankings
Where does tier III put us as far as being in the top 200, 250, etc.
Reneau said Tech is ranked #190. (To my knowledge, USN&WR does not release numerical rankings for the 3rd and 4th Tier schools.)
LSU is tied with 6 schools for the last spot in the "top tier" at #128.
There are 262 institutions designated as "National Universities" based on various criteria, 164 public and 98 private.
Conference USA Academics
1. Rice (Tier 1 #17)
2. Tulane (Tier 1 #50)
3. SMU (Tier 1 #68)
4. Tulsa (Tier 1 #88)
5. UAB (Tier 3)
5. UCF (Tier 3)
7. East Carolina (Tier 4)
7. Houston (Tier 4)
7. Memphis (Tier 4)
7. Southern Miss (Tier 4)
7. UTEP (Tier 4)
12. Marshall (South Region, Master's, Tier 1 #45)