December 09, 2004
Let's try an open thread
By Nathan Nance
Guest post by Nate Nance
It seems to me a lot what I've spent my time doing today is explaining my dislike for the DLC. I don't see why anyone would really care why or if I dislike the DLC. I'm just a guy with a blog that maybe 10 people a day read. Byron and the guys have been nice enough to let me fill some space and some time here at Burnt Orange, that's all.
Then I ran across this piece at DailyKos about the waning influence of the DLC within the party to people like Simon Rosenberg at the NDN. Once the NDN was just a clone, but Simon has taken it in a different direction and, I think, in a better one. Not to mention the Hispanic-targeted ads that I think are more of a help than some realize.
So I want you guys to read that and tell me your opinions. Leave a comment, say whatever and I'll do another post discussing it and we'll all have gotten a say so that we can move on to other things, like protecting Social Security.
This is a guest post by Nate Nance. Nate is a sports/news clerk at the Waco Tribune-Herald and writer/editor of Common Sense at Texas-based Democratic Web log. He can be reached at nate_nance@yahoo.com
Posted by Nathan Nance at December 9, 2004 10:43 PM
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This only directly affects UT students, but I think it has some significance for the state, and perhaps country, as a whole. UT is planning to cut all of its degree programs that are not ranked in the top 20 nationwide. The story does not explain what rankings will be used to determine this, nor how long programs have to improve their stature.
I wonder if this is a good thing for a public university? UT is already one of the best public schools out there, but should it try to become higher ranked (whatever that even means) at the cost of fewer available classes and majors? As the flagship university for the state (sorry A&M, you know it's true), UT should have the widest possible curriculum. To this point the school has been able to maintain this wide range of courses, and still be one of the best. At what point do we reach the point of diminishing returns and cut programs just to increase our rankings, and end up as a one trick pony (though a really good one trick pony)?
A side not about rankings: UT law professor Brian Leiter has some useful thoughts about university rankings. I should also note that at least one publication has rated UT as one of the top universities in the world. So do "rankings" really have any meaning?
More commentary on that and other similar posts coming up today on my site, where I can stretch my legs a little more than in the comments section.
