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Some state universities are under such incredible demand; your plan will require building many new ones. Which, in relative terms, is not that hard: simply re-

by jMyles 10y ago

Some state universities are under such incredible demand; your plan will require building many new ones. Which, in relative terms, is not that hard: simply re-purpose state prisons.

nashashmi 10y ago
It will be less labor intensive and more fruitful to build new schools. Maybe prisons can serve as dorms.
- emehrkay 10y ago
  Could you imagine spending any time in a building that was originally designed to be a prison? Aren't those things made to break spirits and punish people simply by being in it? Have you ever entered a space and felt uncomfortable simply because it doesn't have windows or the walls are barren or it is just "cold"? We'd probably see a lot more drop outs if prisons were repurposed as dorms. Shit, some new schools are designed with the same brush as these prisons and we can probably easily predict the success/failure rates of students coming from them.
  - nordify 10y ago
    Both Sweden and Finland have hotels in the capital city center which are former prisons. According to reviews they are well regarded.
  - lovich 10y ago
    Many of the colleges I had visited and the one I went to had prison like dorms. It seems to be the default type of building to construct whenever there is an unexpected increase in students and they have to put as many people into a small place as possible. I know the room I shared with another student in college was smaller than some prison cells.
xorfish 10y ago
Make the courses harder to pass. If you filter out a lot of students early on, you don't need to build new ones.
- CaptSpify 10y ago
  I'd argue that the goal should be to get more people into colleges, rather than filtering more people out
  - maxerickson 10y ago
    Why? People going to college should consider it a valuable use of their time, not a necessary credential for entering the workforce. Guess which of those I believe drives college admissions right now. Of course many careers will benefit from a college education, but here in the US we have long since surpassed that number of people attending college.
    - CaptSpify 10y ago
      > Why? Because education is important, and our society is helped by everyone having access to improve their lives. I don't want to get into an automation discussion, but I personally believe that it will be even more important in the next few decades. > People going to college should consider it a valuable use of their time, not a necessary credential for entering the workforce I completely agree! But I think that is a separate problem. I'd love to go to school for things completely unrelated to my career. I don't think college should necessarily be easy, but getting into it should be. I personally believe that encouraging people to further educate themselves, especially "non-intellectuals"* , is a great way for everyone to benefit. IME, most people who skip college aren't skipping it because they are dumb, but because they don't have the resources to attend easily. In my own experience: High-school wasn't reflective of my current educational desires. I want to attend more college classes, but don't have the resources to do so. I live a pretty simple lifestyle, and if college isn't easily accessible to me, I can't see how it's accessible to people with kids, two jobs, etc * : I don't know how else to phrase that without sounding condescending. If someone has a better wording, let me know.

by jMyles 10y ago

Some state universities are under such incredible demand; your plan will require building many new ones. Which, in relative terms, is not that hard: simply re-purpose state prisons.

nashashmi 10y ago

It will be less labor intensive and more fruitful to build new schools. Maybe prisons can serve as dorms.

emehrkay 10y ago
Could you imagine spending any time in a building that was originally designed to be a prison? Aren't those things made to break spirits and punish people simply by being in it? Have you ever entered a space and felt uncomfortable simply because it doesn't have windows or the walls are barren or it is just "cold"? We'd probably see a lot more drop outs if prisons were repurposed as dorms. Shit, some new schools are designed with the same brush as these prisons and we can probably easily predict the success/failure rates of students coming from them.
- nordify 10y ago
  Both Sweden and Finland have hotels in the capital city center which are former prisons. According to reviews they are well regarded.
- lovich 10y ago
  Many of the colleges I had visited and the one I went to had prison like dorms. It seems to be the default type of building to construct whenever there is an unexpected increase in students and they have to put as many people into a small place as possible. I know the room I shared with another student in college was smaller than some prison cells.

xorfish 10y ago

Make the courses harder to pass. If you filter out a lot of students early on, you don't need to build new ones.

CaptSpify 10y ago
I'd argue that the goal should be to get more people into colleges, rather than filtering more people out
- maxerickson 10y ago
  Why? People going to college should consider it a valuable use of their time, not a necessary credential for entering the workforce. Guess which of those I believe drives college admissions right now. Of course many careers will benefit from a college education, but here in the US we have long since surpassed that number of people attending college.
  - CaptSpify 10y ago
    > Why? Because education is important, and our society is helped by everyone having access to improve their lives. I don't want to get into an automation discussion, but I personally believe that it will be even more important in the next few decades. > People going to college should consider it a valuable use of their time, not a necessary credential for entering the workforce I completely agree! But I think that is a separate problem. I'd love to go to school for things completely unrelated to my career. I don't think college should necessarily be easy, but getting into it should be. I personally believe that encouraging people to further educate themselves, especially "non-intellectuals"* , is a great way for everyone to benefit. IME, most people who skip college aren't skipping it because they are dumb, but because they don't have the resources to attend easily. In my own experience: High-school wasn't reflective of my current educational desires. I want to attend more college classes, but don't have the resources to do so. I live a pretty simple lifestyle, and if college isn't easily accessible to me, I can't see how it's accessible to people with kids, two jobs, etc * : I don't know how else to phrase that without sounding condescending. If someone has a better wording, let me know.