4 ms·

I once hung out in the campus of Texas A&M University (no. 14 on the list) for the PyTexas conference. It was so different from other university campuses in tha

I once hung out in the campus of Texas A&M University (no. 14 on the list) for the PyTexas conference. It was so different from other university campuses in that it felt almost like I was in a military base, or like in West Point or something (which I've never been to). A good portion of the students I saw were in uniform (ROTC), and the main student center, housing the bookstore and the cafeteria, was a war memorial. Signs at the entrance asked you to be quiet and remove your hats in honor of fallen soldiers. While I understand that this article uses concrete data, like the research money trail and other direct measurable links to the military, Texas A&M certainly _feels_ incredibly "militarized", almost like a military academy. There's a palpable air of austerity and discipline there that makes it so different from most other campuses I've been to, which have much more of the traditional church-y university look while seeming to be full of rowdy young kids.

krisdol 11y ago
Almost all of A&Ms recruiting pamphlets feature pictures of ROTC kids. It's how they advertised the school, it's the culture that is ingrained from freshmen camp onward. I think they have a big training program for students who are actually interested in becoming officers. While it's a fair criticism of a university, it's almost like criticizing a christian university for being too religious. There's a pretty drastic difference between it and other Texas schools, like UT. For me, it was one of the biggest turn offs when I was choosing a college.
- mcguire 11y ago
  A&M is actually surprisingly low on the list. But the one that seems to be missing is Vanderbilt; that was one school I thought the government actively recruited from, and had close ties do. I was once told specifically that was where NSF administrators went to die.
cvwright 11y ago
A&M alum here. This is kind of a cynical take, but I think some of the things you mentioned are done for more than one reason, and they're not all obvious at first glance. For example, if lots of students walk on the grass around the MSC, it gets all trampled and torn up. The administration would have to spend a lot of money to maintain or fix it. But if the grass itself is a war memorial, then the students won't walk on it. In fact, they'll police each other so that if anybody does walk on the grass, they get a stern reminder. Oh, and the grass on the football field at Kyle Field is a memorial too. Conveniently, the football team and the band can walk on this memorial without desecrating it. But if the fans were to rush the field after a game? Oh no, that would be extremely disrespectful. So A&M doesn't have to deal with the same kind of post-game chaos that you sometimes get at other schools. It's really clever in a Machiavellian sort of way.
- mcguire 11y ago
  "For example, if lots of students walk on the grass around the MSC, it gets all trampled and torn up. ... In fact, [the students]'ll police each other so that if anybody does walk on the grass, they get a stern reminder." Several years ago, there was a bit of a squawk when an Aggie cadet drew his (ceremonial) sword on some visitors to campus who were walking on the grass. The "A" in "A&M" stands for "Agricultural"; it stands to reason that they're proud of their grass. (Obligatory disclaimer: UTAustin alum here. Come down to Austin! Walk on our grass! We're fine with it! Hell, walk on the grass at Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium, for all I care. Just try not to get pooped on by the grackles. They're nasty.) (Obligatory Aggie joke: Several years ago, they had a fire at the campus library. Several thousand books were lost. The worst part is, some of them hadn't been colored in yet.)
  - dTal 11y ago
    I heard this one as "Did you hear that the George W. Bush Presidential Libary burned down? Both books were destroyed."
stonogo 11y ago
Texas A&M is a "senior military college," meaning it is one of the six primary ROTC campuses in the USA. The Citadel is another one. One of the requirements for this designation is that able-bodied students must undergo military training. So yeah, it's militarized. This is not a coincidence: it's policy. It's hilarious that Texas A&M is this far down the list -- and it does not make the list look well constructed. Their definition of "militarized" seems to mean "people who went to this school work for the government now" and then they act surprised by how many schools close to the seat of government feed into government IT. Some of these schools, like the University of Phoenix and Grantham University, are distance-learning institutions catering to people who already have jobs; these people almost certainly worked for the government before enrolling. Grantham University in particular bends over backwards to attract military veteran students. I'm not sure what the value of this article is.
- ereyes01 11y ago
  Ah, I didn't know about "senior military colleges." That certainly explains a lot! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senior_Military_College https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senior_Military_...
- gertef 11y ago
  > I'm not sure what the value of this article is. It's whatever they could scrape together to substantiate a cool headline idea. Vice.
prawn 11y ago
For anyone else unaware, ROTC = Reserve Officers' Training Corps. "Officer training program for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces."

krisdol 11y ago

Almost all of A&Ms recruiting pamphlets feature pictures of ROTC kids. It's how they advertised the school, it's the culture that is ingrained from freshmen camp onward. I think they have a big training program for students who are actually interested in becoming officers. While it's a fair criticism of a university, it's almost like criticizing a christian university for being too religious. There's a pretty drastic difference between it and other Texas schools, like UT. For me, it was one of the biggest turn offs when I was choosing a college.

mcguire 11y ago
A&M is actually surprisingly low on the list. But the one that seems to be missing is Vanderbilt; that was one school I thought the government actively recruited from, and had close ties do. I was once told specifically that was where NSF administrators went to die.

cvwright 11y ago

A&M alum here. This is kind of a cynical take, but I think some of the things you mentioned are done for more than one reason, and they're not all obvious at first glance. For example, if lots of students walk on the grass around the MSC, it gets all trampled and torn up. The administration would have to spend a lot of money to maintain or fix it. But if the grass itself is a war memorial, then the students won't walk on it. In fact, they'll police each other so that if anybody does walk on the grass, they get a stern reminder. Oh, and the grass on the football field at Kyle Field is a memorial too. Conveniently, the football team and the band can walk on this memorial without desecrating it. But if the fans were to rush the field after a game? Oh no, that would be extremely disrespectful. So A&M doesn't have to deal with the same kind of post-game chaos that you sometimes get at other schools. It's really clever in a Machiavellian sort of way.

mcguire 11y ago
"For example, if lots of students walk on the grass around the MSC, it gets all trampled and torn up. ... In fact, [the students]'ll police each other so that if anybody does walk on the grass, they get a stern reminder." Several years ago, there was a bit of a squawk when an Aggie cadet drew his (ceremonial) sword on some visitors to campus who were walking on the grass. The "A" in "A&M" stands for "Agricultural"; it stands to reason that they're proud of their grass. (Obligatory disclaimer: UTAustin alum here. Come down to Austin! Walk on our grass! We're fine with it! Hell, walk on the grass at Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium, for all I care. Just try not to get pooped on by the grackles. They're nasty.) (Obligatory Aggie joke: Several years ago, they had a fire at the campus library. Several thousand books were lost. The worst part is, some of them hadn't been colored in yet.)
- dTal 11y ago
  I heard this one as "Did you hear that the George W. Bush Presidential Libary burned down? Both books were destroyed."

stonogo 11y ago

Texas A&M is a "senior military college," meaning it is one of the six primary ROTC campuses in the USA. The Citadel is another one. One of the requirements for this designation is that able-bodied students must undergo military training. So yeah, it's militarized. This is not a coincidence: it's policy. It's hilarious that Texas A&M is this far down the list -- and it does not make the list look well constructed. Their definition of "militarized" seems to mean "people who went to this school work for the government now" and then they act surprised by how many schools close to the seat of government feed into government IT. Some of these schools, like the University of Phoenix and Grantham University, are distance-learning institutions catering to people who already have jobs; these people almost certainly worked for the government before enrolling. Grantham University in particular bends over backwards to attract military veteran students. I'm not sure what the value of this article is.

ereyes01 11y ago
Ah, I didn't know about "senior military colleges." That certainly explains a lot! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senior_Military_College https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senior_Military_...
gertef 11y ago
> I'm not sure what the value of this article is. It's whatever they could scrape together to substantiate a cool headline idea. Vice.

prawn 11y ago

For anyone else unaware, ROTC = Reserve Officers' Training Corps. "Officer training program for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces."