Temple's Multi-Million Dollar Library is amazing

[thoth]

I agree that $13K is too much for one year of undergraduate education. But relatively speaking that's unbelievably low by today's standards. Drexel is now $41K, and it's not like Drexel is an elite school.

Agreed.

[mixiboi]

Goes to show that one person's low is another person's burden...

[thoth]

Goes to show that one person's low is another person's burden...

It's all burdensome. But suggesting that Temple's unusually low tuition is some step by them to grab for Ivy League pricing is an exaggeration.

[Jtom]

It's all burdensome. But suggesting that Temple's unusually low tuition is some step by them to grab for Ivy League pricing is an exaggeration.

I guess we'll just have to agree with to disagree. Temple's tuition has increased faster than inflation over the years; I know that for a fact. I'm just hoping that the library will not lead to future increases in tuition. I realize Temple is freezing tuition rates for the upcoming school year, so that's a good sign.

[billy ross]

I guess we'll just have to agree with to disagree. Temple's tuition has increased faster than inflation over the years; I know that for a fact. I'm just hoping that the library will not lead to future increases in tuition. I realize Temple is freezing tuition rates for the upcoming school year, so that's a good sign.

We don't live in a Communist system. It's all about supply and demand. If they price themselves out of the market (as the housing industry did), they'll pay a terrible price at some point. Until then it seems to me that the market is speaking. People are willing to pay for education anymore, and pay alot. The idea that education should somehow be cheap or free strikes me as peculiar. I am all about people paying for what they use. Otherwise you get things like our pathetic road system, where it's 'free' to use, but it's awful - dilapidated, beat up, obsolete, ugly, crappy, horribly congested, and generally Third World. That's how the Europeans run their universities, and that's why they went down the toilet.

[Jtom]

We don't live in a Communist system. It's all about supply and demand. If they price themselves out of the market (as the housing industry did), they'll pay a terrible price at some point. Until then it seems to me that the market is speaking. People are willing to pay for education anymore, and pay alot. The idea that education should somehow be cheap or free strikes me as peculiar. I am all about people paying for what they use. Otherwise you get things like our pathetic road system, where it's 'free' to use, but it's awful - dilapidated, beat up, obsolete, ugly, crappy, horribly congested, and generally Third World. That's how the Europeans run their universities, and that's why they went down the toilet.

The "college bubble" could burst very soon because of inflated tuition rates and excess borrowing by students and their parents. College education is not in the "free market." The government loans money--and lots of it--to students (fannie and freddie anyone?). Just another example of crony capitalism. I just hope the rest of us don't have to bail out college students.

[Naveen]

The "college bubble" could burst very soon because of inflated tuition rates and excess borrowing by students and their parents. College education is not in the "free market." The government loans money--and lots of it--to students (fannie and freddie anyone?). Just another example of crony capitalism. I just hope the rest of us don't have to bail out college students.

That's true, but Temple is probably not contributing to that bubble very much.

[NickFromGtown]

That's true, but Temple is probably not contributing to that bubble very much.

I agree with this. Large research universities will not be paying the price as much. It'll be schools that graduate large numbers of liberal arts students with degrees that do not lend themselves to obtaining a job that will pay back those loans. Also, for-profit colleges will be hit especially hard.

It would be nice if those who applied for loans had to do some sort of analysis to project their income so that they understand the implication of taking out so many loans. That should really be a requirement.

[Kukla65th]

Not to get off the off semi-off topic trend here, but it's fun to imagine Temple making some of these changes. After two higher degrees from Temple, and now as an instructor there, I can attest that many of the changes taking place there are integral to the school's move into the current century. So much of the place is mired in the 60s and 70s through white elephant architecture and obsolete facilities that at this point Temple is still very much in the right to continue it's construction projects.

Until another sector once again supersedes ed/meds as our primary employment sector in the city, we have to offer some support to continue expansion and construction at the colleges and universities in the city. It's just as much about the city's well-being as any of those institutions'.

Paley Library is a disgrace; this is particularly obvious when one looks at the awkward use of the ground floor for computers, with circulation hiding in Tuttleman, and then legions of underutilized study rooms, furniture that is in various states of decay, etc. It's just simply time for a new library - that's it. It will still be a number of years before, I believe, Temple can be accused rightly for "gilding the lily" in terms of its campus.

What kills me in the renderings in this thread is that I still see that POS "bell" tower outside Paley, even though a new green and library will be bulit. I hope this is more a reflection of not knowing what will replace Paley and the current plaza in front of it than a desire to keep that plaza as is. That belltower looks like it's on loan from the Fulton Street ped. mall in Fresno (look it up if that was too obscure). Victor Gruen's ghost would love to get his hands on that belltower.

I like the new library on Broad Street, and the small plaza in front of it, but I was hoping there would be more of a link between any new/expanded central green space and the library. I would never want to see the few historic (or at least handsome) buildings on Broad across from the new library demolished, so I understand this lack of connection, but something about the green in that spot misses the mark for me.

No matter...this is a fun time to see Temple's campus, and it seems we're in for more interesting changes in the years to come.