Should Tech Go Private?

[OldJacketFan]

The poll numbers are interesting so far. 60/40 in favor.

 

[RonJohn]

I have not voted as of yet, but I would be inclined to vote no. What would the advantages/disadvantages be? I would like to know what everyone believes the change would accomplish. As I see it:

Advantages:
Freedom to add Colleges and degree programs without interference.
Ability to terminate ineffective employees more easily.

Disadvantages:
No in-State tuition.
Most likely higher tuition for all students.

Even if the Trustees were free to make any decisions, there is no guarantee that they would make changes to help the athletics programs. Mr. Brock donated a lot of money to build the indoor practice facility, but is that a guarantee that he would vote to potentially dilute the academic reputation of the school to help the football program? I believe the calculus requirement is set by the school, and not by the Regents, so Ga Tech could change that now if it wished. I see the two being almost equal: A Board of Regents that I have little ability to persuade or a Board of Trustees that I have little ability to persuade.

 

[OldJacketFan]

I have not voted as of yet, but I would be inclined to vote no. What would the advantages/disadvantages be? I would like to know what everyone believes the change would accomplish. As I see it:

Advantages:
Freedom to add Colleges and degree programs without interference.
Ability to terminate ineffective employees more easily.

Disadvantages:
No in-State tuition.
Most likely higher tuition for all students.

Even if the Trustees were free to make any decisions, there is no guarantee that they would make changes to help the athletics programs. Mr. Brock donated a lot of money to build the indoor practice facility, but is that a guarantee that he would vote to potentially dilute the academic reputation of the school to help the football program? I believe the calculus requirement is set by the school, and not by the Regents, so Ga Tech could change that now if it wished. I see the two being almost equal: A Board of Regents that I have little ability to persuade or a Board of Trustees that I have little ability to persuade.

Those two issue I think are a non factor based on other schools that are private. As I noted Vandy, through their endowment, makes sure that if a student is admitted and has the financial need the money is there. I think Tech would still offer a break for in state students as they are the life blood of the school.

 

[99jacket]

I don't see how we can go private if we have to buy the land the school sits on. We have an endowment of 2B. That would all be eaten up buying the land and buildings. Unless we cut some sort of insane sweetheart deal. Why would the BOR be inclined to cut such a deal?

 

[RonJohn]

Those two issue I think are a non factor based on other schools that are private. As I noted Vandy, through their endowment, makes sure that if a student is admitted and has the financial need the money is there. I think Tech would still offer a break for in state students as they are the life blood of the school.

That is the stated goal of many private schools. There have been arguments made that in some of the schools that recently went private that "requirements" were put in place that effectively give nearly 100% breaks in tuition to wealthy children of alumni while offering no aid to children of poor families. I have not read details of those arguments and they scream of liberally biased reporting, but they are out there. I read a report about Yale or Harvard some time ago.(Seems like a couple of years, but as I have aged I can't put much stock in how long ago something happened) Their endowment paid more money in fees to the endowment administrators than it paid in tuition assistance to students. That means that brokerage firms get more money from the endowment than the students to. It is a valiant goal to attract the best students and then ensure that they can afford the school. In practice however, that large sum of money creates political nightmares. I'm not saying that is is impossible to make that goal and achieve it, only that it isn't easy. There will be groups that lobby and press for advantages(alumni advantages, economic advantages, academic advantages, hidden advantages disguised as something else)

I didn't see anything in your reply about the advantages of going private. The only one I could really think of was adding more degree programs without the BOR rejecting them. Do you have any others?

 

[Skeptic]

Why on earth would the State of Georgia give up ownership of the Georgia Institute of Technology?

Have you considered the quality of your public officials there? You'd probably have to explain the difference in public and private. Several times.

 

[OldJacketFan]

I can only speak to what I know personally. My adult daughter went to and graduated from Vandy after being accepted as a transfer student, she qualified for and received a full ride as she qualified for both an academic scholarship and the financial need (age 24 when she was accepted, her income only for qualification). The information I posted on Vandy as to their position is their policy since 2009 or 2010.

Advantages? No interference from the political hacks on the BOR. The ability to partner with Emory or something similar to broaden the student/alumni base and curriculum. The ability to partner with private or publicly held businesses without interference along with the ability to make decision that benefit TECH long term. Those are just a few off the top of my head.

 

[65Jacket]

Who's to say that would help athletics anyway. If the current leadership and the younger alums had control, I would hate to see what might happen to athletics.

 

[GTL]

Who's going to pony up the cash to purchase from the state 400 acres of prime real estate in downtown Atlanta?

 

[OldJacketFan]

Who's going to pony up the cash to purchase from the state 400 acres of prime real estate in downtown Atlanta?

Do we know for certain the property ownership? If it is owned by the State no doubt it would be a huge hurdle. But then perhaps a long term lease would the answer.

 

[iceeater1969]

I have not voted as of yet, but I would be inclined to vote no. What would the advantages/disadvantages be? I would like to know what everyone believes the change would accomplish. As I see it:

Advantages:
Freedom to add Colleges and degree programs without interference.
Ability to terminate ineffective employees more easily.

Disadvantages:
No in-State tuition.
Most likely higher tuition for all students.

Even if the Trustees were free to make any decisions, there is no guarantee that they would make changes to help the athletics programs. Mr. Brock donated a lot of money to build the indoor practice facility, but is that a guarantee that he would vote to potentially dilute the academic reputation of the school to help the football program? I believe the calculus requirement is set by the school, and not by the Regents, so Ga Tech could change that now if it wished. I see the two being almost equal: A Board of Regents that I have little ability to persuade or a Board of Trustees that I have little ability to persuade.

Not able to agree with your thinking unless I missed something

We now have two groups that ( BOR and BOT) which have control over us.

Imo
BOR , dominated by uga grads and has strickly limited the interpretation of gt is a research institute. BOR has just started an engrs school at ---guess where --for in state students that " cant get into " gt. Can we guess where this leaves gt during the next budget crunch. The assumption of low in state tution at gt will be raised by BOR as gt focuses on its core responsibility of research and to help our state as a whole the uga engr will be expanded and tution left the same.

BOT - made up of gt grads - one even gave us in door practice facility has been tough on calculus and you say "there is no guarantee that BOT will make changes that will help gtaa". I trust them if they are tech men.

There is an old saying = never travel in 3's. The hill, being absent of the BOR excuse, would be greatly influenced by a newly energized and donating gt alumni.
The change on the field could be swift = I saw it at Baylor and gave to help it happen.

As coach said when the Syracuse coach got fired= Most fans try to fix a long term problem with a short term solution and then get same results a few years later. Big money flees uncertainty. Without BOR uncertainty. Decreases.

1. Wonder if our masters at BOR would free us without a fight? NO
2. Years of lossing to uga and 2015 actually happened in the mind of those who would fight for a big change. It is just a bad dream for those who will settle for coastal champs every few years. They therefore will not fight for a big change
Are there enough who would love to say they were a part of a big change at gtaa back to Hiesman, Dodd, Broyles, Rice ( national football awards named in honor of these gt men) ??? I fear the answer is no.

There are no garentees in life. I would support anything that gets uga on there own. Private deserves study.

 

[RonJohn]

Advantages? No interference from the political hacks on the BOR. The ability to partner with Emory or something similar to broaden the student/alumni base and curriculum. The ability to partner with private or publicly held businesses without interference along with the ability to make decision that benefit TECH long term. Those are just a few off the top of my head.

The only recent interference that I recall was the denial to add degree programs that already exist at GSU. I do know that there is history from the 30s that the Regents removed the Evening School of Commerce from Ga Tech and put it underneath UGA.(It later split from UGA and formed GSU) If the desire is to have lighter programs of study, Ga Tech currently has: Intercultural Studies, Modern Languages, Literature Media & Communications. The school still requires that those programs be academically challenging. The school doesn't need permission from the BOR to reduce the academic requirements of those existing fields of study.

If Ga Tech were private, I don't know that Emory would want to merge. I don't know of any reason that BOR would object if Tech and Emory wanted to enter into research partnerships or allow cross-enrollment.

The GTRI already has contracts with many businesses. The BOR might have interfered with some, or explicitly rejected some partnerships, but I am not aware that they have.

I believe that Tech is in very good shape as an academic institution. It is ranked as a top 40 National University, and a top 10 Engineering University. That is higher than UGA.

There might be more interference from the BOR than I am aware of. I could be convinced that going private is the best thing for Tech. However, I think going private is a sledgehammer approach, and I haven't yet seen anything that makes me believe things are so broken as to need it.

 

[RonJohn]

BOT - made up of gt grads - one even gave us in door practice facility has been tough on calculus and you say "there is no guarantee that BOT will make changes that will help gtaa". I trust them if they are tech men.

I trust Tech men to uphold the academic integrity of the Institute first. I am passionate about the athletics, but it is secondary to academics.

 

[jwsavhGT]

I trust Tech men AND women to uphold the academic integrity of the Institute first.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Do we know for certain the property ownership? If it is owned by the State no doubt it would be a huge hurdle. But then perhaps a long term lease would the answer.

It's a public university owned by the state and located on state land. While this post is a fun place to discuss hypotheticals, the reality is that the state of Georgia will never allow GT to "go private." Nor, IMO, should they.

 

[OldJacketFan]

It's a public university owned by the state and located on state land. While this post is a fun place to discuss hypotheticals, the reality is that the state of Georgia will never allow GT to "go private." Nor, IMO, should they.

It's an interesting discussion though

 

[iceeater1969]

The only recent interference that I recall was the denial to add degree programs that already exist at GSU. I do know that there is history from the 30s that the Regents removed the Evening School of Commerce from Ga Tech and put it underneath UGA.(It later split from UGA and formed GSU) If the desire is to have lighter programs of study, Ga Tech currently has: Intercultural Studies, Modern Languages, Literature Media & Communications. The school still requires that those programs be academically challenging. The school doesn't need permission from the BOR to reduce the academic requirements of those existing fields of study.

If Ga Tech were private, I don't know that Emory would want to merge. I don't know of any reason that BOR would object if Tech and Emory wanted to enter into research partnerships or allow cross-enrollment.

The GTRI already has contracts with many businesses. The BOR might have interfered with some, or explicitly rejected some partnerships, but I am not aware that they have.

I believe that Tech is in very good shape as an academic institution. It is ranked as a top 40 National University, and a top 10 Engineering University. That is higher than UGA.

There might be more interference from the BOR than I am aware of. I could be convinced that going private is the best thing for Tech. However, I think going private is a sledgehammer approach, and I haven't yet seen anything that makes me believe things are so broken as to need it.

Please help me find the record between gt and uga for the last 20 years. Its not T HECK WG . Its T HELL WG and thats broken.
14 we have miracle scramble, miracle kick, and miracle interception to win. Thats not a long term plan.

I would look at this exit strongly as I demanded state help in getting gt students access to emory classes. The path to "much better" is not what we are taking.
We were once great.

 

[Cam]

I'm failing to see the benefits of going private. The lifeblood of the institute is bright students from middle class families. Going private would likely lead to much higher tuition, which kills the most important statistic on GT: one of the highest (if not the highest) returns on investment. For instance, I had a $20k scholarship to play tennis for Mercer coming out of high school. That lowers it to about $15k per year for attendance. GT was $7k a year for in state tuition with an immensely better engineering program, so there wasn't any real decision to make. It was obvious to go with GT. If GT were private and not offering me any kind of scholarship, then I probably would have taken that Mercer offer. Or, more likely, I would have taken my UGA offer since I'd be able to walk out of there without any student loan debt. I wouldn't be writing this message, I'd be over at the UGA board talking about how great Jacob Eason is going to be for us next year.

As for a partnership with Emory, we worked very, very closely with them in the BME department. A lot of professors meet over there on a daily basis. My own research required us having access to Emory's hospital so we could gather data on ALS patients. We also used their medical databases for literature reviews. We also had classes offered over there and used shuttles to get back and forth. The two schools already have a very strong partnership already. As for merging, I'm not sure what people are implying with that. Because if it's like KSU merging with Southern Poly, well... there goes Georgia Tech.

 

[RonJohn]

Please help me find the record between gt and uga for the last 20 years.

If the only reason to go private is to help athletics, then the answer is an overwhelming NO. IF the Institute wanted to reduce the academic prestige, it already can with majors such as Intercultural Studies. The BOR does not prevent GT from taking away the calculus requirement. The BOR does not prevent GT from reducing the academic load of any of its degree programs. GT could already make such degrees easy and recruit people who could not really do any of the course work, but they choose not to. The BOR is not stopping them, GT has more pride in its academics than the majority of SEC schools.

The entire purpose of Intercollegiate Athletics should be for schools to compete against each other. What really should happen is that the NFL should form developmental leagues. Any athletes that only want an opportunity to play professionally should not attend or be required to attend college. No school should lower its standards in order to compete in athletics. Unfortunately many, if not the vast majority of Div 1 programs do.

 

[iceeater1969]

If the only reason to go private is to help athletics, then the answer is an overwhelming NO. IF the Institute wanted to reduce the academic prestige, it already can with majors such as Intercultural Studies. The BOR does not prevent GT from taking away the calculus requirement. The BOR does not prevent GT from reducing the academic load of any of its degree programs. GT could already make such degrees easy and recruit people who could not really do any of the course work, but they choose not to. The BOR is not stopping them, GT has more pride in its academics than the majority of SEC schools.

The entire purpose of Intercollegiate Athletics should be for schools to compete against each other. What really should happen is that the NFL should form developmental leagues. Any athletes that only want an opportunity to play professionally should not attend or be required to attend college. No school should lower its standards in order to compete in athletics. Unfortunately many, if not the vast majority of Div 1 programs do.

By way this is a blog about sports, gt sports, gt football.
Not sure how I got lumped into pro nfl football on campus. Also if u have looked at my postings - I am the pro GT should be the Stanford of the south. That means to get in the SAT s need to go up. Back a few years back I posted that we need to have a stports managent degree that is built on the principals of Hiesman, Dodd, Broyles, Rice while having high academics and a strong technology setting.
Since u didn't find it, I guess I will find the uga and gt record and post it. Hard to think that does not need fixing.
In 65_68 we lost every damn time and I am still mad.