KHA, the "rules" for truckers have increased for no damn reason other than the feds controlling everything. When I had to start keeping a log book, after driving as much as I wanted, when I wanted, where I wanted to get the fluids hauled (by the way, I figured that the average speed in the gas fields was 46 mph over a 13,000 mile stretch. Most hauls were less than 20 miles) we were restricted to 10 hours per day, then a mandatory 8 hours IN THE SLEEPER! They really expected us to climb in the sleeper and not get out for anything for 8 straight hours. Absurd. We finally got an unofficial "clearance" that if our log books showed we spent 8 hours, out of 24, "sleeping," we were good. Many times, that "sleep" took place on a drilling location, waiting for a load, so we were getting paid for the "sleep." In short, creative writing and, in reality, very little of our routine changed.

Best wishes as you work through the issues with your parents. And thank you for teaching decent values at the university you are at. It is great to know there are some good schools but I think they are few and far between

I am going to hook you up. pm coming

At the risk of being un-Galt-like, I will accept donations and can arrange to provide the value later. Regarding her being a big lib, I have no aversion to absolving libs of their guilt in exchange for cash. Value for value ;)

well I looked her up. she is now special asst to the President. she came from Foundations. anyway, she was the alumni bringer-in. she still is. You'd love her, she is a BIG producer...she's also a lib

I am not sure what percentage administration is exactly, but there are almost as many administrators as faculty. Some wear two hats, but there are a lot of non-academic administrators.

I should have your friend contact me and our chief development officer. Most universities call their fundraising arm either "Development" or "Advancement". We have a pretty small endowment because of our youth, but it is increasing rapidly.

hello troll

as it should be. good points. but admin % what is that at FIT? I should add, a close friend of mine is a racehorse in bringing in private university donors for a top flight private college. I don't know what you call that. she and I have vigorous discussions.:) so I am well aware

"And as far as Financing, you pay for everything, even the education gained on the street, is paid for with blood, sweat, and occasionally tears. Nothing, absolutely nothing is free, and those who believe that 'Free' Bravo Sierra and stuff like that are Obama Voters." this is an excellent point.

On Edison, so what? genius who didn't go to college. if he had, quickly, he would have surpassed his professors. who should have paid whom? The point is revolutionary disruptors and geniuses, didn't seem to need college in many cases, and english lords just "learned" by taking a year on the continent. it is a rent seeking business for many degrees. For other degrees, it's completely valid. and guess what-the universities are ants treating those producers like aphids in the research biz. have you read Rand?

Dedicated Galtism remain intransient and incapable of intelligent thought.

PEW or KENNEDY SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT?
sit down son.

OK KHA, truckers have federal regulations that are pretty restrictive, way more than can be explained here. And many drivers and companies cheat. In NJ or CA they'd get shut down, in the Bad Lands they'd get a medal.
Now remember what happened when BLM tried to shoot it out with the rancher in Nevada. Well the Dakota, Montana & Wyoming 'Bad lands' are twice or three times as bad. That's why the Bikers go to Sturgis. The FBI and their HRT got chased off the Rose Bud Reservation when they went after Russell Meeks of AIM, and the Dakota National Guard, many of whom are Sioux, made an obscene suggestion when asked (Meeks gave himself up and I think, but I may be wrong, Dr. Alan M. Dershowitz got him off on time served. .

To be honest, the other buildings on campus are well utilized. If someone doesn't bring in research $, that person loses space. I can't get on campus space for review sessions before 8 PM. The only major improvement we could make with regard to space utilization is in the summertime. We're working on that.

Brick and mortar is expensive. There is a lot of competition for first-year courses with community colleges and online programs. While we have to offer those courses, we get a lot of transfer students who have already taken those courses at much lower cost before coming to FIT.

Well, you haven't looked too hard for those stats, try PEW or the Kennedy School of Government. And as far as Financing, you pay for everything, even the education gained on the street, is paid for with blood, sweat, and occasionally tears. Nothing, absolutely nothing is free, and those who believe that 'Free' Bravo Sierra and stuff like that are Obama Voters.
Your references to Edison are, at best, uninformed, no colleges or universities offer a degree in Engineering in 1867 when Edison would have been 20, except West Point and that was Civil Engineering Degree. Rensselaer Polytechnic (RPI) and Cooper Union were both founded in the late 1820's, but they were 'Trade Schools' not degree granting universities. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET) did not grant accreditation to the first University, RPI until four years after Edison's birth. Further it is likely that Edison, was a hyper-intelligent individual, kids like Gates and some others who were among the many who were too smart to benefit from standard public education when special education for gifted kids didn't exist.

I was an independent when I was in college. I bought into the Reagan hate fest, but I hadn't articulated my foundational principles yet, nor did my parents encourage me to do such, nor did they. They were both teachers and republican voters, but were disillusioned with Nixon. I think since Nixon they voted democrat for presidents, and republican for governors. I always found that odd. I can't win in discussions with my family because it goes to emotions quickly. I am kinda a dutiful daughter. I'm sure you will all find that amusing. I do say my peace, sometimes it's as I'm clearing a table of dishes to take to the kitchen

well you live in Madison...I have "community garden nazis" to quote in your town. Chomsky is most definitely agenda and politically driven. He is a master at re-purposing words. You are making excellent points and picking up on important themes.

excellent points. You say you need a new research facility. what other buildings on campus seem under-purposed? I am not suggesting that how it's outfitted is a significant cost in science research. but brick and mortar is expensive. kids can learn in houses :)

BTW, the most shocking part was Chomsky wanting to expand home to include a huge area. Might it eventually expand to the entire city, then state, and then country? We all have to agree, he says, on what's offensive, what words we etc, just residents of a household must agree on the rules of the home.

If I'm right, he's being tricky. "Campus is their *home*," he says. At first that sounds nice. But it's not technically true, and it's the starting point in his argument that we all have to agree on things.

I had one professor who was Marxist, but she didn't carry on about or assign papers to evaluate it. At the time I thought no system, not Marxism or pure capitalism, will take society where we want to go, so we need to pick elements that work. I don't agree anymore with the premise that we should pick a *system* to take *society* where *we* want it to go. I thought differently 20 years ago. Being more anti-Marx now, I might have a harder time if I were in school.

I do not understand what any of this means or the implications. Can someone sum this up for me in lay terms?

Tenure is an unreasonable concept, and one of the ways that FIT is different is the lack of a tenure system. That being said, we have lower turnover than tenure-granting institutions.

When I got here, the number of administrators was a lot lower than it is now. I think we have about 2000 employees on campus, of which about 350 are faculty. I would estimate that the ratio of administrators to faculty has doubled in my 16+ years, mostly to comply with lots of new government regulations. However, much of the increase is in our recruiting and fundraising efforts, both of which have more than recouped their costs.

We have a big online program at our off-campus sites (mostly military bases). I have no idea how many people are at those sites.

We run a pretty tight ship financially. The faculty would tell you pretty much unanimously that we would benefit substantially from at least one more building for experimental research. Space is pretty cramped. Part of the problem is that zoning laws have changed to eliminate construction of very tall buildings (due to hurricane risk). We have the tallest building in the county except for the Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral. It was built prior to the zoning changes.

Class size is typically 30-50. No class is allowed to be over 60 except for one of mine. I got an exemption after a few teaching awards because I teach the same students in a companion lab course. If we were to get much larger than that, we couldn't honor the "human touch" part of our motto and be sufficiently different from the state university factories to justify the additional cost.

yes, but these stats do NOT include the cost of financing said education. find me an independent source for those stats as well. I'm not saying they don't exist, but everything I found on the numbers were generated by organizations with a vested interest in getting you to attend university. Your example of Salk is taken, but raised by many others who are as important or more important to our quality of life (Thomas Edison) who did not get a degree.

it's a legal term. fraud in the inducement is simply about the promise to get you to pay. Your gullibility is not completely irrelevant, but it is about whether the purchaser relied on that (those) promises and the seller knows it's not really true

I don't have the financials in front of me, but I bet I could take a red pen and....$33K a year is competitive with other private schools, but I still say that is very high. I'd be curious alone to know the administrative percentage of the annual budget. I also wonder what the average class size is. Students are getting exposure to lots of talent, but I question it needs to cost that much. If those student loans didn't exist or were severely curbed, I bet lots of extraneous costs would be gone overnight if the university was running a good business model. It's somewhat difficult to discuss because we aren't working with the full information, but any reasonable person could look at any big state school and ask-do you need all those buildings? Is it worth it to provide this or that degree? Is tenure a reasonable concept?