GRID wrote:
First, change the name back to the university of kansas city. I have said all along that this is one of KC's biggest drawbacks. Not having a "major" urban university.
I think KC needs a medium sized (i.e 6-9000 student body), selective, top notch private university. It's also important to have a state school in the area. It would be cool if UMKC could be converted into the University of Kansas City (and possibly privatized again), but if that happened I would hope the University of MO school system would open another school in the area (maybe the city could help the state beef one of its community colleges into the new state school). But yeah, either way KC is missing a piece of the higher education puzzle (namely a top notch urban private university IMO).
KC Region is all part of the same animal regardless of state and county lines.
Think on the Regional scale.
GRID wrote:
First, change the name back to the university of kansas city. I have said all along that this is one of KC's biggest drawbacks. Not having a "major" urban university.
We do not have a major urban university like Norwestern in Chicago but I think people really underestimate the impact of KU on Kansas City. A lot of people that go to KU (and KU actually has a large out-of-state contingency)end up in KC, it brings people to KC from all over the country. Lawrence is just as much a part of KC's metro as Norman is of OKC's and Boulder is of Denver's it's just not included in the KC SMSA. KU Medical Center is also a huge urban university albeit a specialized one.
But, by all means, change the name back to University of Kansas City.
I agree Highlander and we are lucky to have such a school so close to KC (even though I hate KU ). But I still think we need a high profile urban university as well.
KCMax wrote:
Well we do need one downtown. I'd like to see UMKC have more a presence downtown. They're in a suburban location. Just open a few classrooms there.
Didn't they recently reject the opportunity to move the Law school DT? I think the professors balked at being away from the main campus and the commute.
As much as I love to see downtown development, there are a lot of reasons for keeping various academic disciplines on one campus. The relationship and collaboration can be very important. MU is a prime example. They are starting to reap a lot of benefit from having Medical School, Law School, Vet, Ag, Engineering... all on one campus.
Highlander wrote:
Didn't they recently reject the opportunity to move the Law school DT? I think the professors balked at being away from the main campus and the commute.