The Pecan Park Eagle

Elvin Hayes & Bill McCurdy

Easier said than done.

The University of Houston has served this community well since 1927. For thousands of  students like me, the presence of UH and the opportunity to work our ways through school because of all the job availabilites in Houston were what made college possible. These UH gifts put me in position for an academic  scholarship to Tulane, where I did my master’s degree work, and later, for the chance to do my doctoral work at the University of Texas.

The differences between UH, Tulane, and Texas back then were quite interesting. UH was an “opportunity” school that made college possibile for a lot of us young Houstonians in the post World War II years. Tulane and Texas, on the other hand were both what I would call “destination” schools, academically. You only went to either of those schools if you could afford it, had some kind of scholarship, or, in the case of Tulane, if you could pass the entrance exam.

As a student, I can tell you now that the academic differences betweeen UH and Tulane/Texas back in the day were more reputational than actual. In all three places, you had to be able to handle the work or you weren’t going to be around very long.

Today it occurs to me that those academic differences between all three of my universities are probably even smaller in 2009. As an adjunct faculty member for several special courses offered in the past through the Department of Continuing Education, it’s been my impression that UH has steadily raised its standards and expectations over the years, while Tulane and UT have certainly maintained theirs, at least.

One thing hasn’t changed reputationally. UT and Tulane are still viewed strongly as “destination” schools, acdemically, and UH still seems to hang under the old “opportunity” school label that it has flown since inception. That’s not bad; it simply isn’t the whole truth. UH is a fine school academically, one that is now old enough and good enough to viewed as a destination school in its own right.

Some obstacles impede the path to new perceptions of UH. First all, young Houstonians may be the last to ever view UH that way because the university rests in the same town where their parents live. A big part of seeking a destination for college involves picking a school that is away from mom and dad in another city. On that level, UT and A&M will undoubtedly remain the top choices for Houstonians, but there’s no unmovable reason that UH couldn’t became more competitive for students from Dallas. San Antonio, and elsewhere in the nation and world.

One thing that needs to be changed is the perception and reality of crime in the surrounding UH campus area. UH and nearby TSU both are aware of the problem and seem to be making some progress. If you haven’t been to the UH campus area in recent years, go take a look some time. The physical and architectural change in the area is everything from pleasant to artistic to beautiful.

The “opportunity/destination” distinction still applies vividly to the UH NCAA atheltic program. UH is still an opportunity school, sort of performing with all the respect once attributed in baseball to clubs like the old St. Louis Browns and Kansas City Athletics. Those clubs didn’t sign many good players and, when they did, they soon enough lost them to “destination” teams like the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals.

At UH, the danger is in losing good coaches like current football mentor Kevin Sumlin to a destination school like Notre Dame, or even to a lesser destination site like Kansas or Louisville. Heck! Two years ago, UH couldn’t even hold onto one of its own, losing former Cougar Art Briles to the football program at Baylor, of all places. The good news there was that “we” got a better coach in Kevin Sumlin as his replacement in the process. The bad news is that, as long as we continue to play and pay as a lesser respected “opportunity” school, it’s just a matter of time before we lose Sumlin to one of the bigger fish in the sea.

I talked at length the other night with former UH great Elvin Hayes about our university’s need to become a “destination” school and he totally agrees.

The problem is always the same. UH has to go out there and gather all the power and money it can muster and round up and get it behind the goal of becoming an academic and athletic “destination school,” or else, stop complaining about losses that emanate from a basic lack of respect. I just think we, as a UH community, first need to do a better job of defining the goal for those whose help we seek. Donors need to understand that we aren’t trying to simply become a richer “opportunity” school. We are out to become a well-endowed “destination” school with some very clear academic and athletic goals in mind.

UH doesn’t have to give up all of the “opportunity” it historically has provided to local students, however, it most definitely will need to toughen admissions standards in some agreed-upon, most fair way. Change, even essential change, rarely comes easy, but you don’t become a desirable “destination” school by wishing yourself there. You have to do some things to make yourself desirable as such. That always involves breaking the strings on some old ways of doing things.

Will UH have the will to take on this challenge? As always, time will tell.

Tags: UH Cougars

This entry was posted on December 7, 2009 at 1:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.