Can’t read? Can’t Write? Kent State! [chortle]
From what I understand it is a pretty good school, however. Just a favorite saying of mine.
Private school operated by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
No, Stephen F. Austin State is part of the Texas State University System (TSUS), which also includes Southwest Texas State University (San Marcos), Lamar State University (Beaumont), San Angelo State University (San Angelo), Sam Houston State University (Huntsville), and my alma mater (and current place of employment), Sul Ross State University (Alpine). That’s just off the top of my head; there may be another.
So, for all of our systems, there is no clear hierarchy. The “flagship” schools for each system (that have a flagship school; the TSUS, for example, has no such school) are at the top of the heap, then probably several of the UT system schools (UT Arlington, UT Dallas) would be considered more prestigous than the any of the other system schools (e.g., West Texas A&M–Canyon, East Texas A&M–Commerce). But even this generalization is pretty lousy: people aren’t exactly beating down the door to get into UT Permian Basin (Odessa) or UT Tyler and UT El Paso has seen more than its share of problems. Most of the run-of-the-mill system schools like UTPB, WTA&M, etc., are probably on the same tier as the TSUS schools, which don’t really vary much in terms of prestige. The Texas Tech and U. Houston systems aren’t really much of systems at all, really; the flagship schools for these are probably just a notch below UT Austin and TAMU in prestige, along with UNT.
Sorry, Pantellerite, but my 1995 edition of the Texas Almanac does not list Stephen F. Austin as part of the Texas State University System. Nor is it listed on any of the member schools’ web sites as being part of the system: Lamar University, Southwest Texas State University, Angelo State University, Sam Houston State University, andSul Ross State University.
And for the record, it’s Lamar University (not Lamar State University) and Angelo State University (not San Angelo State).
Aw, shucks… I just work here, and I try like hell to avoid Administrators and Regents!
Thanks for the correction, though–maybe SFASU used to be in the TSUS; they shake it up every now and then. Or maybe I just mix it up with Sam Houston State U. (both named for the two most famous Texas heroes, both in the extreme East). Lamar University is the most recent addition to the TSUS, having formerly been either independent or part of some other system. (But I really did know that it’s Lamar U. and Angelo State… honest, I just slipped up!)
quote:
Originally posted by Chronos
There’s also Cleveland State, Kent State…
Can’t read? Can’t Write? Kent State! [chortle]
From what I understand it is a pretty good school, however. Just a favorite saying of mine.
BBBWWWWAAAAHHHHH!!! I’m from Ohio as well and that was something my mother always said in regards to Kent. There is a regional campus in Ashtabula, where I am from, and we always called it UCLA… University on the Corner of Lake Ave.
I ended up at OSU for some reason… The biggest difference with the schools here is the use of semesters and quarters. Makes trnsfering a pain the rump. Actually Kent is a pretty decent school though. Can’t say anything bad about it.
Pratt
*Originally posted by The Mighty Tiki God *
Tiki,
Do the state schools in Indiana still specialize? For example, it’s my understanding that if you want to earn an advanced degree in engineering, you have to go to Purdue - you can’t get one from, say, Indiana State.
Also, what’s up with IU-PU in Indianapolis? Is this some kind of exception to the specialization found in the Indiana system?
just curious…you “Hoosiers” facinate me endlessly 
It’s pretty much that way. You can go to a school like say Ball State (which I happen to attend) and go 2 years for Pre-Engineering and then transfer to a school like Purdue for engineering. And IUPU- Indianapolis is a combo of IU and Purdue. Thats not the only one though they have another IUPU in Columbus which is pretty much like the one in Indy. Those schools don’t have as many majors to pick from though. I’m not 100% but it’s just like getting a degree from either IU or Purdue I think. And any other questions about fascination hoosiers anyone wants answered 
A lot of this dates back to the 19th Century. As cornflakes noted, you had your classic institutions (The University of X) which engaged in research and produced “professionals” (e.g., law, medicine… and the next generation of university professors). Then you had the land-grant institutions (X State University) which focused on “practical” education: agriculture, engineering, etc. The third layer included the “Normal” schools which produced teachers, nurses and others who needed advanced training beyond high school.
Some states also had a separate system for Negroes. Those schools can sometimes be identified with names like “A&T” and emphasized practical training, although perhaps not as highly skilled as their land-grant siblings. Tuskegee Institute is perhaps the most famous of those schools.
However, over the last hundred years, those neat dividing lines have become blurred. You can get a Bachelor’s degree in English damn near anywhere.
Here in Missouri, the University of Missouri accepts classes at any of their four campuses as exactly equal. You can take your freshman classes at one and transfer to another as a sophomore with no loss of credit, no retaking of prerequisites, etc. The “regional” universities (Southeast, Southwest, Central, Truman and Northwest) are descendents of the Normal schools, considered to be a level below the UM system, and differ somewhat in the programs they offer.
Of course there are also the community (i.e., 2-year colleges) which have their own administration. Here in Missouri, thank God, the community colleges have been working with the UM system to make sure their entry level academic courses are accepted by the University, although their vocational courses may not be.
‘campus’ (a level space, a field) is a regular first-declension noun, so its Latin nominative plural really is ‘campi’. It sounded wrong to me, too, but there you have it. As an English word, however, the plural is definitely ‘campuses’. So you’re both right.
I apologize for appearing to be insensitive. These schools usually were chartered to educate “Negroes” and that’s why I wrote it that way. I believe the proper term is “historically Black colleges.”
The state A&M universities tend to be land grant schools.
Currently, Arkansas has the two “systems”: the “University of” system and the “State University” system, as well as four independent institutions that are state-supported but not part of either system.
The University of Arkansas System consists of the main University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (in Little Rock), the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR), the University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM), and community colleges in Helena, Hope, and Batesville, along with a handful of other institutes, etc.
UA-Fayetteville is the traditional land grant state university, established in 1871 and opened in 1873 (as Arkansas Industrial University). It remains “the” university in the state, and has the strongest academic reputation of any public institution in the state (for what that’s worth). Almost all of the other schools in the state were originally founded as agricultural high schools with two-year college courses, and they remain a pretty undistinguished lot, capable of providing an education (or in perhaps most cases, training), but not much more. Henderson State considers itself the state’s public liberal arts college, and the University of Central Arkansas has a passable honors program, and the others each have areas in which they have special or unique programs.
In 1873, the legislature approved the creation of Branch Normal College in Pine Bluff, a branch campus of the University of Arkansas for “the poorer classes” (i.e., blacks). The second Morrill Act of 1890 provided the occasion for rechartering the school as Arkansas’s “separate but equal” land grant institution for blacks. Until the late twenties, it granted only two-year degrees, and at about this time it was detached from the University of Arkansas. The name was changed to Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical, and Normal College, or Arkansas AM&N. In 1972, Arkansas AM&N was re-absorbed into the UofA System as the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences was originally founded as a private, not-for-profit medical school. The University of Arkansas took over in 1879, formally merging it with the University System in 1911.
The University of Arkansas at Monticello opened as the Fourth District Agricultural School in 1910. In 1925, the name was changed to Fourth District Agricultural and Mechanical College, and it was accredited as a junior college in 1928. Sometime in the 1930s it was renamed Arkansas Agricultural and Mechanical College (Arkansas A & M), and was accredited as a four-year college in 1940. It was merged into the University System in 1971 under its current name. At least one can give them credit for not presuming above their station – the motto on the main page of the web site is “Making College Possible”.
UALR was Little Rock University until 1969, when it joined the U of A system. I have hazy recollections that it was a municipal institution before that, but can’t find any confirmation of that.
Then there’s the Arkansas State University system, with its main campus in Jonesboro. Its early history mimics that of Arkansas A & M – created in 1909 and opened in 1910 as First District Agricultural School, renamed First District Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1925. After that, it hit the fast track to greater prestige: four-year programs were instituted in 1930, and in 1933 the name changed again to Arkansas State College. In 1955, a branch campus in Beebe was created, followed by branches in Mountain Home and Newport many years later. In 1967, Arkansas State College became Arkansas State University.
Then we have the four independents: Henderson State University, University of Central Arkansas, Southern Arkansas University, and Arkansas Tech University. Henderson was founded in 1890 as Arkadelphia Methodist College, a private Methodist-affiliated liberal arts college, after local leaders failed to persuade the state’s existing Methodist college, Hendrix College (my alma mater), to relocate to Arkadelphia from Altus (Hendrix moved to Conway). The name was changed to Henderson College in 1904 and Henderson-Brown College in 1911. In 1929, the Methodist Church decided that they had one college more than they needed in Arkansas, and determined to merge Hendrix and Henderson-Brown and move them to Little Rock. Local resistance to this succeeded and the church offered Henderson-Brown to the State. Thus Henderson-Brown College became Henderson State Teacher’s College, and eventually Henderson State University.
UCA, located in Conway, was founded in 1907 as Arkansas State Normal School, changed to Arkansas State Teachers College in 1925, to State College of Arkansas in 1967 and to University of Central Arkansas in 1975.
SAU and Arkansas Tech, like ASU and UAM, were originally founded in 1909 and opened in 1910-1911 as agricultural schools. The Second District Agricultural School in Russellville eventually ramped up to offering a full four-year college program, starting in 1925, and in that year the name was changed to Arkansas Polytechnic College. By 1927, however, the four-year program collapsed and Arkansas Polytechnic returned to junior college status until 1948, when higher-level courses were reinstituted, and bachelor’s degrees were again conferred beginning in 1950. In 1976, the name was changed to Arkansas Tech University.
The Third District Agricultural School in Magnolia opened as a secondary school only in 1911. In 1925, the legislature authorized the addition of college courses to the curriculum, and changed the name to Agricultural and Mechanical College, Third District. In 1937, the secondary school courses were dropped. In 1949, higher-level courses were instituted, and in 1951 the first four-year degrees were conferred. In that year, the name was changed to Southern State College. Finally, in 1976, the name was again changed to Southern Arkansas University.
Of course, anyone who’s serious about getting an education either goes out of state or to Hendrix [ducking and running].
Sit back and pop a cold one. I’m from Mississippi, so here’s how it works here. Well, “works” might be too strong a word…
In the beginning, was Mississippi College. Founded in 1817, it’s the oldest college in Miss. But being private, it doesn’t really fall into this discussion.
We don’t have a system of Universities and Colleges. We have 8 Major colleges, and about 9 Community Colleges.
Alcorn is the oldest “historically Black University” in the US, founded in 1830. Then comes the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) founded in 1844, it’s a mainly liberal arts college, with a great Law school. UM also runs the University Medical Center, the only place to go in Miss. if you want to become a Doctor or Nurse. Then Mississipppi State University, founded in 1862. It is one of the largest land-grant instutions in the US, and also a “A&M”. This is where you go for Engineering degrees.
Next is Jackson State University, historically Black and the only Urban University in Mississippi, mainly focuses on programs for Urban areas. Next is the “W”, Mississippi University for Women, the first public school for Women in America. Now open to both genders, it’s still a good Liberal arts college. University of Southern Mississippi comes next, in 1910. It’s for teachers, liberal arts, and international business types. Delta State, founded in 1914 in Cleveland, MS in the Delta, was another teachers college (Like Southern started out). It’s the smallest of the Universities, but has a great Athletics program.
And at the end of our little historical tour, we have Miss. Valley State University. Started life as a teacher’s college, it’s become a general college, and also one of the “historically Black Universities” in Mississippi.
We don’t have a system, just Universities that focus on different areas.
The Kent State joke is a lot funnier when you do it in a rural Midwest accent. It comes out like this:
Ken’t write, ken’t spell, Kent State.
I was a little surprised to read the Mississippi State U. was founded in 1862. That is in the middle of the Civil War. It doesn’t make sense that the State would be setting up new universities then. One possibility is that MSU represented a relocated Ol’ Miss when the Yankees got too close.
Well, you might be a little less surprised to read that Mississippi State U. was founded in 1878.
The nation’s first public university was the University of North Carolina, chartered in 1789 in Chapel Hill, NC. It was the only publicly funded university in the state until 1877. Then other publicly funded colleges were added to the list. In 1977, the NC General Assembly passed a bill bringing together all of the publicly funded campuses together as the University of North Carolina. “University of North Carolina” actually is the title of the 16 campus system, although that campus in Chapel Hill likes to usurp the title for itself at times.
For a while there, I think my alma mater had the unwieldy title “North Carolina State University of the University of North Carolina,” but I think it’s official name is now "North Carolina State University at Raleigh.
There are still sort of “haves” and “have nots” within the system, however. NCSU and UNC could be considered world class universities; some of the others are excellent, though smaller schools, and a few of the others don’t have terribly impressive programs, IMO.
This is one thing that makes it confusing. If I’m not mistaken, some or all of the University of California campuses are “land grant” colleges, and two of our campuses started out with a heavy focus on agriculture.