Why are so many alums so vehemently down on the University Admin for just about anything? I know there is a natural tendency to be critical, and the place does seem like a reverse ATM, always trying to suck cash from students, alum and subs alike, but isn’t that any big time University?
I’ve been there a couple times recently after not having been out for awhile, and the place looks pretty good. I understand why they were trying to get more use out of the stadium and that area and it appears like they are. The University profile seems to be raised by the sporting and other events being brought there regularly. I know it may be different than when you went there in (inset year), but the entire world is. The stadium renovations look good, the turf is fine, and the Tron board doesn’t seem to be the end of the world that many predicted it would be. The hockey facility is also first rate. It looks like a well appointed, traditional campus with the right modern improvements. The endowment is more than healthy and the entering undergrad class profile also seems to be extremely competitive.
What am I missing?
There are lots of places one can go to grad school and do research. ND decided under Hesburgh to create a new ND. A place where working class students were no longer welcome unless they also had some unbelievable test scores and grades and sob stories (or connections).
Well OK.
I would never have been able to get into today’s ND. Nor could I afford it because I worked my way through school and took 6 years of school plus part time and full time work to get out with a STEM degree debt free. The cost to go to ND (tuition, room and board) now is at least 3X greater than the rate of inflation than when I went. The faculty is way more liberal. They offer courses that don’t have a chance of getting students a good paying job.
They continually beg for money. Big doners keep funding new buildings but they beg Alums for the money to keep them heated and lighted.
In other words, today’s ND is no longer a special place for common people to get a great Catholic education. It is hardly special at all. It is like every other University with pretensions of what they consider greatness.
Today’s ND is a place for undergrads to go and see shiny new buildings and spend their parents money or go into debt to get a degree which may well be worth less than what they could get at virtually any institution at half the cost. Or for grad students who could not get into Cal Tech, MIT, Wharton, Chicago or Stanford.
I agree with much of what you say, but I don’t think any of that indicates bad management by the current admin.
None of the better schools are cost effective to attend these days. Even some pretty average ones are the same. It’s not a good situation, but it’s hardly the schools fault for being caught in this shitty market.
It’s far from perfect, and there are better and more prestigious schools. I just think the current admin gets a bad rap well beyond what it deserves.
where the cost to attend has gone up at 3 times the rate of inflation. I did intimate that it has lost its primary reason to exist. If you want an example of a grossly mis-managed University that lost its reason to exist and priced itself out of existence by building unnecessary facilities it couldn’t afford to maintain and offering useless classes look toward Wheeling Jesuit University.
...but this persists at every University.
There is no way to justify the ever-increasing cost, particularly in light of the soaring endowment.
I love Notre Dame and believe the admin under Fr Jenkins has been strong.
Still hate Campus Crossroads, though.
Dudes, that place is CATHOLIC. I doubt there is a single school in the country (world?) where Catholicism infuses the whole experience like ND - with the exception (maybe) of Catholic U in DC.
ND can’t hold a candle to it. Ave Maria, Christendum. The list goes on.
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If you are willing to work for it. However, it is a little easier to do at a place like ND (for a variety of reasons).
the student and family wants.
ND is somewhere in the middle. Faith is still a huge component there as it isn’t at places like Gtown. It isn’t the only thing though as it is at some of the places you name.
They hated Hesburgh. Liberal!
But, I understand much of it s necessary. My gripes would have more to do with them allowing some of their values to slip (IMO). All in all, I think they are doing a fine job. I might not mind loosening restrictions on FB recruiting a tad. In a strange way I’m glad to know I would never be admitted today. That too though is both good and bad.
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Although I have one good friend (alum) from the left who will no longer set foot on the campus.
Of course my ego is bolstered by the fact that the school's academic reputation is seriously improved since I went there. I feel that Notre Dame still balances its somewhat conflicted roles of being a Catholic university fairly well.
Yet someone always seems to be shitting on Jenks, the BOT, or Lawyer Jack.