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Post by Speedwell Cat on Mar 7, 2021 9:09:31 GMT -5
Absolutely. Not the kind of shape you can sell to college-shopping families in 2021, that's for sure.
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Post by FLCATAMOUNT on Mar 7, 2021 12:01:35 GMT -5
What a total waste of $80 million dollars. Only school in America that tears down perfectly good 45 year old dorms just because they want to change the look of the campus. Many schools have similar dorms and they don’t do this. Poor leadership on display. What? The dorms were sketchy when I was there 16 years ago. I can't imagine what kind of shape they were in before being torn down. There are high rise dorms all over America in most colleges. Go to UNC, UGA, App State, Ga Southern, Etc., that are as old or older and those schools are not tearing them down. They might have been in bad shape because Western did not do the necessary maintenance but that was caused by an administration who did not keep them up so they could tear them down. Just saying that good students are not choosing a college because of dorms. People who go to Harvard do not choose Harvard because of the dorms. Same thing for UNC, NC State or UGA. it is a waste of money that the school had to borrow which takes money away from other more important projects. If you borrow money for this, it limits the amount that can be borrowed for other projects like athletic facilities because the school can only take on so much debt. So the school will be able to say we will have to raise the money privately for athletic facilities because we have reached our debt limit. We will have to agree to disagree on what should be a priority. Don’t just blindly believe what the administration tells you.
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Post by Admin on Mar 7, 2021 14:46:31 GMT -5
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Post by bonsaiburke on Mar 8, 2021 9:25:36 GMT -5
What? The dorms were sketchy when I was there 16 years ago. I can't imagine what kind of shape they were in before being torn down. There are high rise dorms all over America in most colleges. Go to UNC, UGA, App State, Ga Southern, Etc., that are as old or older and those schools are not tearing them down. They might have been in bad shape because Western did not do the necessary maintenance but that was caused by an administration who did not keep them up so they could tear them down. Just saying that good students are not choosing a college because of dorms. People who go to Harvard do not choose Harvard because of the dorms. Same thing for UNC, NC State or UGA. it is a waste of money that the school had to borrow which takes money away from other more important projects. If you borrow money for this, it limits the amount that can be borrowed for other projects like athletic facilities because the school can only take on so much debt. So the school will be able to say we will have to raise the money privately for athletic facilities because we have reached our debt limit. We will have to agree to disagree on what should be a priority. Don’t just blindly believe what the administration tells you. Just because there is a need for athletics doesn't mean you should ignore everything else on campus. You can have a university without athletics, you can't have a university without students. Western seems to have a strategy to bring in students by updated amenities and dorms. We are not an ivy league school or a P5 school, there needs to be other things to bring kids in. In the long run the older dorms such as Scott, Walker, Leatherwood, and Harrill were eyesores that probably kept potential students away.
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Post by upstatecat88 on Mar 8, 2021 10:22:22 GMT -5
I’ve been more in the FLCAT camp on this one.....just to use State and Carolina as examples, buildings like Scott and Walker are a dime a dozen, yet no one cries about how hideous and outdated they are. To the contrary, we are always told how “picturesque” Chapel Hill is. At the end of the day, it all comes to two words: retention rate. WCU has to have shiny new carrots to dangle.
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Post by FLCATAMOUNT on Mar 8, 2021 15:40:33 GMT -5
I’ve been more in the FLCAT camp on this one.....just to use State and Carolina as examples, buildings like Scott and Walker are a dime a dozen, yet no one cries about how hideous and outdated they are. To the contrary, we are always told how “picturesque” Chapel Hill is. At the end of the day, it all comes to two words: retention rate. WCU has to have shiny new carrots to dangle. Sad that we are in a position that we have to use new dorms to get students to attend WCU and not academic reputation. Another failure of the leadership over the past 40 years. App has tons of old dorms and they don’t need new dorms just to get kids to enroll. How sad. More examples of poor leadership.
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Post by FLCATAMOUNT on Mar 8, 2021 15:43:48 GMT -5
There are high rise dorms all over America in most colleges. Go to UNC, UGA, App State, Ga Southern, Etc., that are as old or older and those schools are not tearing them down. They might have been in bad shape because Western did not do the necessary maintenance but that was caused by an administration who did not keep them up so they could tear them down. Just saying that good students are not choosing a college because of dorms. People who go to Harvard do not choose Harvard because of the dorms. Same thing for UNC, NC State or UGA. it is a waste of money that the school had to borrow which takes money away from other more important projects. If you borrow money for this, it limits the amount that can be borrowed for other projects like athletic facilities because the school can only take on so much debt. So the school will be able to say we will have to raise the money privately for athletic facilities because we have reached our debt limit. We will have to agree to disagree on what should be a priority. Don’t just blindly believe what the administration tells you. Just because there is a need for athletics doesn't mean you should ignore everything else on campus. You can have a university without athletics, you can't have a university without students. Western seems to have a strategy to bring in students by updated amenities and dorms. We are not an ivy league school or a P5 school, there needs to be other things to bring kids in. In the long run the older dorms such as Scott, Walker, Leatherwood, and Harrill were eyesores that probably kept potential students away. If you are correct, it is sad that Western has to do this to attract students when schools like App State and ECU, etc. do not have to do this. They are not P5 schools either.
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Post by CharlotteCat on Mar 8, 2021 16:43:59 GMT -5
Is there a point to this discussion about tearing down and rebuilding dorms? Does everything have to turn into an argument, do we have to continue to repeat what's been said over and over? pro or con?
I know it makes for lots of posts on the board, and I'm sure it appeals to Jerry (the posts), but why argue about dorms? we've got serious problems and we're talking about dorms?
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Post by upstatecat88 on Mar 8, 2021 17:44:42 GMT -5
Is there a point to this discussion about tearing down and rebuilding dorms? Does everything have to turn into an argument, do we have to continue to repeat what's been said over and over? pro or con? I know it makes for lots of posts on the board, and I'm sure it appeals to Jerry (the posts), but why argue about dorms? we've got serious problems and we're talking about dorms? First of all, I didn’t think we were arguing (YOU’RE the one who seems angry at the moment) And, secondly, this is a “General Discussions” folder if I’m not mistaken; which kinda means we can kick different things around and not worry as much about riling the hypersensitive types, ok?
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Post by bonsaiburke on Mar 8, 2021 22:16:37 GMT -5
Just because there is a need for athletics doesn't mean you should ignore everything else on campus. You can have a university without athletics, you can't have a university without students. Western seems to have a strategy to bring in students by updated amenities and dorms. We are not an ivy league school or a P5 school, there needs to be other things to bring kids in. In the long run the older dorms such as Scott, Walker, Leatherwood, and Harrill were eyesores that probably kept potential students away. If you are correct, it is sad that Western has to do this to attract students when schools like App State and ECU, etc. do not have to do this. They are not P5 schools either. Why is it sad? It is a legitimate recruiting technique. "Hey you could live in this 1965 bunker or come live in a new dorm with the latest amenities!" Pretty sure I would pick that over a dorm where I wouldn't have to keep box fans in the window (ah good times in Scott). I understand you would rather see the money go to athletics but in the long run school is much bigger than just sports. Western is improving all across the board to provide a better experience for the student and that is a good thing.
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