TAMUK names Finalist for Univeristy President

[JavsFan]

Re: TAMUK names Finalist for Univeristy President

No, he's headed back to Wisconsin.

They want to be closer to their grandkids.

I think they will maintain a presence in Kingsville also.

['89HOG]

Re: TAMUK names Finalist for Univeristy President

Regarding the TAMUCC / TAMUK merger, it's not a matter of IF the merger will occur. It's a matter of WHEN the merger will occur.

How close do you think we are to this happening? I haven't heard anything since it was raised up a couple of years ago, but like someone mentioned in an earlier post, now that our new President came from Collie Station I won't be surprised if this becomes a topic again. Once Doc Tallant is gone, they can make it seem like this was an A&M idea.

BTW, it was good to see you at the tailgate a couple of weeks ago.

[LSC Fan]

Re: TAMUK names Finalist for Univeristy President

How close do you think we are to this happening? I haven't heard anything since it was raised up a couple of years ago, but like someone mentioned in an earlier post, now that our new President came from Collie Station I won't be surprised if this becomes a topic again. Once Doc Tallant is gone, they can make it seem like this was an A&M idea.

BTW, it was good to see you at the tailgate a couple of weeks ago.

I think John Sharp sees the big picture here and just went about it the wrong way a couple of years ago which is surprising because of his experience in state government . It's going to have to be legislative process because getting both sides to come together outside of it and then ask for the legislature's blessing is going to be like herding cats. The fact is in the scheme of things and in spite of millions be spent on both the CC and Kingsville campuses, it's almost a drop in the bucket vs the investments the UT system has made in UTSA and UTRGV and both Kingsville and Corpus are sandwiched in between them. The question is going to be whether we want to be thin deli style meat between the two pieces of bread or a quarter pounder? There is going to be some horse trading and all of that and both schools and their respective supporters are going to have to take some pain. But in order for this region to tap into that permanent university fund and expand opportunities here and with a potential for the population to finally catchup to some of the other state's metros thanks to Oil and NG and related industries placing stake-holds in the region, it's going to have to be done. Or else the state may just say shift everything to one campus and be done and sadly that might benefit Corpus more than Kingsville.

How that ultimately effects athletics and particularly football, who the heck knows? I hope the original plan which was tossed around would be the one they went with because that would get us the facilites we need quicker. And it could be part of the horse trading. The dirty and not so private secret is Corpus really doesn't give a rat's tail about Islander athletics. They really haven't since day one in part because they have never formed a bond with this community. In all my years that my kids have been in school here on the northwest side of town, I've never heard of the Islanders doing outreach here, like promoting camps and or having a recognition day for a certain school at one of their games. Community outreach, such public service projects are hardly publicized where as TAMUK has done a good job with all of the above. So let's say this grand plan actually went down and the powers to be said the new South Texas A&M or whatever they would call it would be called the Javelinas and football will remain in Kingsville with baseball relocating to Robstown, you would hear a few screams of protest from some of their high dollar donors like the family who used to own the Stripes stores. But the rest of the community would shrug their shoulders and say "oh well." I think if they could keep basketball and a few of the other sports, they would be just content with that.

['89HOG]

Re: TAMUK names Finalist for Univeristy President

I think John Sharp sees the big picture here and just went about it the wrong way a couple of years ago which is surprising because of his experience in state government . It's going to have to be legislative process because getting both sides to come together outside of it and then ask for the legislature's blessing is going to be like herding cats. The fact is in the scheme of things and in spite of millions be spent on both the CC and Kingsville campuses, it's almost a drop in the bucket vs the investments the UT system has made in UTSA and UTRGV and both Kingsville and Corpus are sandwiched in between them.

I agree about the spending but UTSA has been in place since the 60s/70s and has had a much larger enrollment so it would make more sense that they spend more money on that campus.

The question is going to be whether we want to be thin deli style meat between the two pieces of bread or a quarter pounder? There is going to be some horse trading and all of that and both schools and their respective supporters are going to have to take some pain. But in order for this region to tap into that permanent university fund and expand opportunities here and with a potential for the population to finally catchup to some of the other state's metros thanks to Oil and NG and related industries placing stake-holds in the region, it's going to have to be done. Or else the state may just say shift everything to one campus and be done and sadly that might benefit Corpus more than Kingsville.

How that ultimately effects athletics and particularly football, who the heck knows? I hope the original plan which was tossed around would be the one they went with because that would get us the facilites we need quicker. And it could be part of the horse trading. The dirty and not so private secret is Corpus really doesn't give a rat's tail about Islander athletics. They really haven't since day one in part because they have never formed a bond with this community. In all my years that my kids have been in school here on the northwest side of town, I've never heard of the Islanders doing outreach here, like promoting camps and or having a recognition day for a certain school at one of their games.

Agree on this too. CC has a very strange culture. It has always seemed to have a very pretentious viewpoint, almost as if 'we're better and we know it, and really don't care about anything outside of our city'. CC could have been attracting so much commerce, industry, etc due to it being a port city, but it seems to just exist in a state of contention. If some of the people I've known that were on Kingsville's Chamber of Commerce would have been on CC's, CC's economy would be much better and it would be a much better city.

Community outreach, such public service projects are hardly publicized where as TAMUK has done a good job with all of the above. So let's say this grand plan actually went down and the powers to be said the new South Texas A&M or whatever they would call it would be called the Javelinas and football will remain in Kingsville with baseball relocating to Robstown, you would hear a few screams of protest from some of their high dollar donors like the family who used to own the Stripes stores. But the rest of the community would shrug their shoulders and say "oh well." I think if they could keep basketball and a few of the other sports, they would be just content with that.

Let's face it, UT has done a much better job of building its university system than A&M. I remember when I was in school and the topic of being acquired by A&M vs UT was discussed, many of us preferred UT over A&M. We can't go back in time, but I can only imagine how different our alma mater would be had it been UT-Kingsville. I know A&M has invested a lot of money in our school, but I really believe it would only be better had it been acquired by UT.

[LSC Fan]

Re: TAMUK names Finalist for Univeristy President

Let's face it, UT has done a much better job of building its university system than A&M. I remember when I was in school and the topic of being acquired by A&M vs UT was discussed, many of us preferred UT over A&M. We can't go back in time, but I can only imagine how different our alma mater would be had it been UT-Kingsville. I know A&M has invested a lot of money in our school, but I really believe it would only be better had it been acquired by UT.

IMO, UT really looks at their system schools somewhat as extension of Austin and thus responds accordingly. They collaborate better, share resources, etc. It might be the fact that many of their schools didn't have a legislative gun put to their heads to take them on much like the A&M system had when they took us and few others under their umbrella. Or they were started by UT to be part of the system. I will say A&M has done better the last ten years vs the first 10 and part of that is due to Sharp being Chancellor and his connection to rural Texas and A&I in particular.

I agree about the spending but UTSA has been in place since the 60s/70s and has had a much larger enrollment so it would make more sense that they spend more money on that campus.

Indeed. But UTSA didn't become the system school of choice until the 90's. UT Arlington was the big kid among the system schools. Back when I was in High School in the late 80's in the RGV, UTSA started the drive to shed the commuter school reputation it had since it's inception and it worked. I know several of my classmates and ones that graduated before and after me who went to UTSA. Fast forward almost 25 years and my oldest started up there in 2016 and I hadn't been on campus other than driving by it a few times on 1604 and WOW! New buildings everywhere and apartments on almost every piece of available real estate close to campus. Enrollment in 1990 was around 12k and today it's over 30k and the campus shows it. Now UTRGV is trying to the same and in smaller scale it's working although the task is tougher thanks to location. I don't think they will entirely shed the commuter image, but they will continue to draw from out of region thanks to a new Med School and few other ventures.

I agree on this too. CC has a very strange culture. It has always seemed to have a very pretentious viewpoint, almost as if 'we're better and we know it, and really don't care about anything outside of our city'. CC could have been attracting so much commerce, industry, etc due to it being a port city, but it seems to just exist in a state of contention. If some of the people I've known that were on Kingsville's Chamber of Commerce would have been on CC's, CC's economy would be much better and it would be a much better city.

Arrgh.. Don't get me started on this, but you just did! :curse::smile-big: I think I know who you are talking about with the Kingsville Chamber? He probably did more to save NAS Corpus directly (his main focus was on NAS Kingsville) than many of the people here in Corpus like to claim credit for doing so. You hit the nail right on the head and we are patiently waiting to move upstate (Hill Country, San Antonio, or outside of Austin) because of this. I've been told Austin and Corpus were roughly the same size in the 60's, but went different ways in the 70's and the end result is Corpus is about 500 to 600k less in population than Austin today. There are some good and bad points about all that growth in Austin and I've spent enough time up there to see it. But in Corpus, the families who controlled large chunks of the real estate market and other businesses here did a good job protecting their own, when combined with the Oil and Real Estate crashes in the 1980's, it put Corpus behind the eight ball for decades. Unfortuanately during that crash in the 80's, instead of welcoming new ventures or industry into town, those same interest scared them away and it carried into the 90's. Today we are still paying for that nonsense with infrastruture that needs to be fixed because it was defered on fixing because the money just wasn't there nor the tax base. It has begun to change in the last few years and there is more stuff happening in and around Corpus, but it's still behind the mojo the rest of the state has enjoyed of recent. However it's probably too late to keep me and my family around too much longer. We love the part of the city we live in and the school district, but my second oldest graduates (he might go to UTSA too) this spring and my youngest is in seventh and she is all on board to going ahead making a move before she starts high school. We sold our company last December and the new ownership let me go in August which was probably for the best because I had about had it with the new ownership and their ethics(or lackof) , so I am job hunting which might take me to one of the areas noted above anyway. My wife fortunately got a job soon after we sold that allows her to work at home, so she could take it with her anywhere there is a relaible and secure internet connection. On top of that, after seeing all the brutal destruction in Rockport and AP first hand due to Harvey, I just assume not to have to go through that sort of thing going into my 50's. That was truly a devestating event for friends and former co workers of ours and they are still trying to recover. The Hill Country (Blanco, Fredricksburg, Kerrville, Bulverde, Boerne, etc) would fit nicely. Even San Marcos is almost an entirely different place from the 80's and 90's when it was known for being on Playboy's Top Party school list and butt whoopings more often than not by A&I! :smile-big:

[javs26]

Re: TAMUK names Finalist for Univeristy President

I have always thought that the merger would stay on and they would just give it some time for the bad press to die down (From listening to Tallant and others responses, I just always got the feeling that it was not if it should happen but more that this is going to happen, because this is the only way). I think it will eventually happen with talks ramping up with the new president coming on. Like what was mentioned above, this would be the way to speed up the process for getting new facilities.