Ann Arbor Making Other Places More Highly Rated
The sorry state of Michigan’s on-campus housing is making students nationwide more content with their lot. “I think they’re great. These rooms are bigger than graduate student housing at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor,” one Delaware freshman says.
as if a delaware freshman would know anything about graduate student housing at michigan?
i’m guessing that she used “graduate student housing” as hyperbole and “university of michigan” as an archetype of prestige.
posted by peter honeyman on August 31st, 2006 at 2:49 pmI think Margaret is the mommy.
posted by christina on August 31st, 2006 at 10:59 pmhttp://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2006/delaworld/EmilyCahoon-01.html
The Delaware student could have an older sibling at Michigan or something like that.
But to iterate a point that I made in a previous thread, this is what U of M and Ann Arbor are doing on purpose: implementing substandard living conditions so you can appreciate the real world. As I mentioned before, I lived in a crammed ghetto CMB apartment near campus, and now for the same rent, I’m living in a luxury apartment in Los Angeles right on the beach.
posted by deez on September 1st, 2006 at 3:01 amAAIIIEEE! TIDAL WAVE!
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posted by Nitro on September 1st, 2006 at 8:31 am*
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psyche.
Only 2nd rate schools and 2nd rate thinkers are worried about the state of the housing at UM. If a student is attracted to Delaware or some other second rate school because of the housing, then that’s not the kind of student who should or could go to UM in the first place. The school not waste money building luxury suites for students. It serves no social or educational value.
posted by Jack Bauer on September 3rd, 2006 at 8:51 ami agree with your sentiments, jack.
at the same time, i reckon any brand new dorm is going to compare well to 30-year old grad student housing.
as for wasting money on luxury housing … don’t look now [cough cough north quad].
posted by peter honeyman on September 3rd, 2006 at 2:17 pmNot only are students ranking schools by their lavishness of their housing, but I’ve even heard that some professors decide where they’re going based on the salaries they’re offered.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on September 3rd, 2006 at 5:40 pmThat’s true. Over the years I’ve had a relative or three who’ve deliberately opted to ’slum it’ by chasing after the relatively mediocre pay of academia or school teaching. They specifically sought to avoid available options in the higher-pay corporate world.
“You want wages?
posted by hale on September 3rd, 2006 at 8:03 pmDo you want to be wage slaves?
Answer me that. … No, of course not.
Well, what makes wage slaves? … Wages!
I want you to be free. Be free, my friends.
One for all, and all for me, and me for you,
and three for five, and six for a quarter.”
– Groucho Marx,
speaking to agitated, unpaid hotel staff
in The Cocoanuts
Full disclosure: I’m a Delaware alum.
That school, “second tier” as it may be, has some serious money. Gore. DuPont. MBNA. All are headquartered in Delaware, and all give huge donations. I think something like 6 major new classroom and lab buildings have gone up in the last ten years, so they’re not just spending money on new dorms.
The dorms that the students were raving about in that article are a replacement for a “Motel 6″ looking housing complex that was the site of so many assaults and robberies the university had to close it. Rooms with outside doors and balconies in a dark, wooded setting were great in theory, but in practice they were more than a bit dangerous.
And my freshman dorm room there was tiny, and only 20 feet from the railroad tracks.
posted by Lehigh Valley Refugee on September 3rd, 2006 at 9:44 pm“Not only are students ranking schools by their lavishness of their housing, but I’ve even heard that some professors decide where they’re going based on the salaries they’re offered.”
If you think this is the same thing, you have missed the point. Public schools like UM are stretched financially - - so to maintain its quality, it needs to pay professors, not get caught up in the race to provide more lavish amenities to students.
posted by Jack Bauer on September 4th, 2006 at 8:03 amit needs to pay professors, not get caught up in the race to provide more lavish amenities to students.
I’ve written here some about the idea that colleges are in such a race. Basically, I believe that it’s a misconception based on a couple things. First of all, everything seems lavish compared to what the last generation had. (Think of conservatives arguing that welfare recipients in the 80’s couldn’t be poor because some of them had color televisions.) Then there’s the amenities that colleges build that benefit students and faculty alike, like nice academic buildings and athletic centers. And finally, some colleges do build a fancy building occasionally to get attention, which then turns into “These students today are so pampered compared to how we had it.” No one’s going to write a news story about how Michigan hasn’t built any new housing in three decades.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on September 4th, 2006 at 10:19 amhere’s some data for people — like me! \(^_^)/ — who love numbers.
university of michigan budget details
as far as in can tell, the reported budget does not include sponsored research, so the “real” budget is quite a bit larger … maybe half again the size.
pres. coleman’s FY06 budget overview is grim.
the endowment stands at about $4.9 billion, approximately the GDP of madagascar or nicaragua.
posted by peter honeyman on September 4th, 2006 at 1:48 pmGroucho is my favorite philosopher.
posted by Dave on September 5th, 2006 at 3:55 pmThe total budget is roughly $4.9Bn, whereas the figures depicted look like the usual carve-out designed to let the state think that its $340MM contribution is 26% of something.
The $4.9bn includes roughly $1.3Bn of auxilary monies (chiefly hospitals). Reference to the $3.6Bn figure would include both the ins and outs of the sponsored research component.
As to the link provided, the only component that I could see from a quick glance that related to research is the overhead recovery line. That figure is pretty consistent with expectations of a $775 to $800 total research budget for the coming year.
posted by R.Williams on September 10th, 2006 at 11:28 pm