Time For A Total Evaluation Of KSU

[WildcatEngineer]

Hype, I worked in Ag Chemicals for some time and you should have a deep deep respect for the security of NBAF. With that said it was going to be built somewhere and Manhattan, Kansas was chosen. We should understand the dangers and work to keep that lab secure and to keep all animals and plants safe. It is going to change KSU and Manhattan. We need to be ready for that change.

Yes, but we also have Lime disease because of a leak at the plumb island lab that is literally on an island, and a million deaths from the leak at Wuhon from a secure NIH funded project. Leaks do happen, and we’ve been dealing with one for the last 20 months. If we have one from NBAF it will be right smack dab in the heart of America. That scares me, I just can’t help it. Of course I don’t work in that field so it could just be my ignorance talking.

Hype, the NBAF Lab is DEADLY DEADLY DEADLY serious, but the research and storage of the various pathogens will be and has to be done. I repeat it is going to change Manhattan and KSU.

[stlcatfan]

Yes, but we also have Lime disease because of a leak at the plumb island lab that is literally on an island, and a million deaths from the leak at Wuhon from a secure NIH funded project. Leaks do happen, and we’ve been dealing with one for the last 20 months. If we have one from NBAF it will be right smack dab in the heart of America. That scares me, I just can’t help it. Of course I don’t work in that field so it could just be my ignorance talking.

Hype, the NBAF Lab is DEADLY DEADLY DEADLY serious, but the research and storage of the various pathogens will be and has to be done. I repeat it is going to change Manhattan and KSU.

How so? Just curious to get your take on how the NBAF will change Manhattan and K-State. Thanks.

[ToledoCat#3]

Since we're talking about KSU enrollment decline, I suggest that KSU has nobody to blame but itself. Historically, KSU recruited a bulk of its students from small rural communities across the state. The population of those towns depended largely, sometimes solely, upon the profitability of the surrounding farms.

When KSU hopped enthusiastically onto the "most-efficient mega-farm" concept of agriculture, starting in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it precipitated the slow decline in the economic viability of small rural towns, which in turn led to the slow decline in population, which in turn, led to the decline in enrollment at KSU.

Had KSU and the land-grant universities across the U.S. opted instead on researching for ways to making small family farms more profitable, including research on reforming ag markets, the rural population decline wouldn't have happened.

Rural American should have received an economic boost from the advent of the internet for the use of "merchandising" ag commodities via E-bay-like commodity auctions and online futures contracting between farmer and buyer. But, alas, that has not happened because no-entity -- especially commodity organizations -- wants to put farmers and ranchers first. They opt instead to cow-tow to corporate suppliers.

It's an easy, discouraging time-line to trace to where KSU finds itself today. Sad!

[AJcat7755]

I have to imagine the last 1+ year and the shift to virtual learning has changed the way some students treat college. If you want to still stay close to home, you no longer have to pick a college nearby, you can just pick a university online to get your degree.

[ChemicalKat]

Regarding the duplication of degrees, college students pick their university based on more than just the degrees offered. If K-State didn't offer the degree I wanted and Emporia State was the only state school where I could get that education, I could guarantee you I would go out of state. No way would I spend my college years in Emporia.

[Hypeman]

Regarding the duplication of degrees, college students pick their university based on more than just the degrees offered. If K-State didn't offer the degree I wanted and Emporia State was the only state school where I could get that education, I could guarantee you I would go out of state. No way would I spend my college years in Emporia.

The reasons for college choice are well documented in research. The primary factors are:

1. Availability of degree program
2. Location, location, location
3. Cost

For students that are economically challenged, these are the ‘only’ factors that matter. If the student is affluent, then other factors like campus activities, co-curriculars etc. come into play.

What’s the issue with Emporia? The school doesn’t have a bad reputation that I’m aware of.

[MGPcat]

I apologize if I already posted this somewhere- I was on my phone and sometimes when I post on my phone the posts don't take, but I don't see the post now!

With the talk of downsizing ESU, this would actually cost more money in the short term, but the big hole in state schools is SW Kansas- the Liberal-DC-GC triangle. Teaching at a low SES school in Phoenix, I can see where students often need a university that is close to home. I would like to see K-State potentially developing one of those three community colleges into a KSU Southwest and tapping into that community more than we already have and use that to become the school of choice for the Kansas Latino population as well. This (and other minority populations) is where, I think, the value of ethnic studies programs comes in- not necessarily for their majors, but for the other classes and programs that we can make available. Ethnic studies programs should also integrate themselves into the other programs on campus- how much stronger would our marketing program be, for example, if it works directly with the ethnic studies programs? Growth in Kansas (especially in rural communities) is Hispanic. If K-State is going to grow, it is going to need to aggressively recruit the Hispanic community throughout Kansas- in the Southwest as well as in the cities.

[ChemicalKat]

Regarding the duplication of degrees, college students pick their university based on more than just the degrees offered. If K-State didn't offer the degree I wanted and Emporia State was the only state school where I could get that education, I could guarantee you I would go out of state. No way would I spend my college years in Emporia.

The reasons for college choice are well documented in research. The primary factors are:

1. Availability of degree program
2. Location, location, location
3. Cost

For students that are economically challenged, these are the ‘only’ factors that matter. If the student is affluent, then other factors like campus activities, co-curriculars etc. come into play.

What’s the issue with Emporia? The school doesn’t have a bad reputation that I’m aware of.

College kids aren’t falling over themselves to go live in Emporia. That’s just the truth. By your own rankings there, if the degrees aren’t available and the only spot they can go in the state is emporia (as an example) then those students will go elsewhere. Some will stay. Many will go.

[Hypeman]

The reasons for college choice are well documented in research. The primary factors are:

1. Availability of degree program
2. Location, location, location
3. Cost

For students that are economically challenged, these are the ‘only’ factors that matter. If the student is affluent, then other factors like campus activities, co-curriculars etc. come into play.

What’s the issue with Emporia? The school doesn’t have a bad reputation that I’m aware of.

College kids aren’t falling over themselves to go live in Emporia. That’s just the truth. By your own rankings there, if the degrees aren’t available and the only spot they can go in the state is emporia (as an example) then those students will go elsewhere. Some will stay. Many will go.

I’m just curious, what are the negatives about Emporia that make it such a bad place to go to school? It’s a college town in the flint hills about an hour and a half from KC an hour from Wichita, and home to a state university and a technical college. I’ve never spent time there so I’m wondering what’s so bad?

[ToledoCat#3]

I know a number of students who are or have attended ESU. The current students are happy with the school. The ESU grads are all successful in their careers. I think Emporia is growing like all other college towns.