Semi-OT: Duke gets its own 28-3

[TommyD4207]

The only thing that is more than a little depressing is just how fast UConn's tuition & housing costs went up.

This is true of any college, over the last decade especially.

 

[BennyBledsoe]

Two of my cousins work in higher education. There became a kind of arms race that developed among the universities over the last few decades. They all convinced themselves that once one university went upscale they had to go upscale to stay in the game. Why sell a Toyota if you can change the trimmings a bit and sell it as a Lexus? This is why you see new dorms that have private rooms, campuses that have a lot more leisure facilities for students, and even basic things like better landscaping.

I know we don't need another "back in my day" story...

Yep, same for me. UConn of 1998-2004 was barely better. We had just got the new Chem building. Part of my first semester was spent moving lab equipment from the old chem building to the new one.

The old angular, single story Co-Op of my day (used to be right near the library), replaced with a more corporate experience near Gampel.

Hell, Gampel isn't used as much. Most games are played down in Hartford now. The football team is out at Rentschler. I shudder to think what even student pricing is like for games. I had season tickets to the women's basketball team because they were only 2 bucks a game!

Now there's ever more modern apartment style housing, nicer stores (no more Store 24 and little hole in the wall businesses). A fully legit supermarket just down the road from East Campus/Towers.

You can tell where the money is, though. Huge new buildings for business, pharmacy, improvements for education....aaaaaaaaaaand the same old Arjona and Monteith for us lousy history and political science majors. Figures

 

[Bill Lee]

Yep, same for me. UConn of 1998-2004 was barely better. We had just got the new Chem building. Part of my first semester was spent moving lab equipment from the old chem building to the new one.

I'm having a hard time remembering anything new getting built while I was there. Keep in mind this was before Calhoun. I remember returning to my home town and seeing people wearing UConn gear and thinking that was odd since in my day the only people who wore UConn gear was actual UConn students.

In my day we weren't too far removed from the end of the Vietnam War which kinda crushed CT's economy. The library was built just before I got there, and of course, had to be totally rebuilt because the architects were too stupid to consider minor details like libraries have lots of books and books are heavy.

As much as people hate to think about it, being successful in sports changes a lot of things. Once we were winning championships the "average guy" became interested in UConn, which in turn meant politicians became OK with funding things for UConn, especially as more UConn grads entered politics. We had our own "mafia". Even the Waterbury Branch of UConn got a new campus. That would have been unthinkable before Calhoun, IMO.

The old angular, single story Co-Op of my day (used to be right near the library), replaced with a more corporate experience near Gampel.

Yes, and there used to be a big parking lot by the Co-op and roads by the library that are now gone. Indeed the Co-op is run by some corporation instead of it being its own thing.

Hell, Gampel isn't used as much. Most games are played down in Hartford now. The football team is out at Rentschler. I shudder to think what even student pricing is like for games. I had season tickets to the women's basketball team because they were only 2 bucks a game!

That's kind of a shame. It'd be nice if they kept things local. In my day the Homecoming football game featured a refrigerated beer truck that had four taps on either side of the truck. You'd pay for the beer, be handed a plastic cup and pour your own beer from the spigot of your choice. I've never seen anything like that ever since.

Now there's ever more modern apartment style housing, nicer stores (no more Store 24 and little hole in the wall businesses). A fully legit supermarket just down the road from East Campus/Towers.

I guess that's a sign of even more affluence. We couldn't generate enough cash flow for such things back in the day.

You can tell where the money is, though. Huge new buildings for business, pharmacy, improvements for education....aaaaaaaaaaand the same old Arjona and Monteith for us lousy history and political science majors. Figures

Sorry, man. Those were not even in decent shape in my day, can't imagine them now. I used to have to walk across the whole campus from the Frats (now Northwest Campus) to Arjona for 8 AM classes. Given winter break ended in late January and that campus can be a really windy place, man some of those mornings were brutal!

I guess another sign of gentrification is students no longer refer to The Frats or The Jungle. There were no frats in those dorms when I was there. They were already long gone, but we felt we needed to keep the tradition going. Now, guess not...

 

[TommyD4207]

Yeah, I was definitely rocking UConn gear when I moved back to MA, and nobody else had it, or even knew what it was.