Redefining UT for the Better
My daughter is in her first year at UT and I wanted to respond to the article referring to the Urban Dictionary definition of University of Tampa.
It’s kind of sad that UT has a party school reputation and that its good features aren’t promoted more. I hope this article inspires some discussion about why UT has that reputation and what can be done about it.
I read some of the internet web sites when my daughter applied to UT that it had the reputation as a party school but I read negative comments about every school (even Harvard).
Some people party and some don’t but no one at UT parties all the time. I’m appalled that this web site would post a comment from someone saying that UT girls are sluts.I think my daughter is getting a good education at UT just from some of the papers she wrote that she sent me and the books she has had to read her first semester: Man’s Search for Meaning and Persepolis just to name two. Since coming to UT she articulates her thoughts and ideas in a more sophisticated and meaningful way when we communicate.
UT is not Harvard; that doesn’t mean the kids who go there are dumb or party animals.
I’m willing to bet that most state schools, including USF, and private schools are at the same caliber. The students at some of these schools may or may not have a lower ACT score or lower high school GPA but that doesn’t mean they don’t do as well in college or that they don’t work as hard.
UT is a smaller school and I think that has given my daughter more individual attention than a large university where she would get lost in the crowd. I feel that she’s getting a college education that will prepare her for a job and life in general which is really what college is all about.
-Karen Nolan, UT Mom
It’s a Traffic Signal, Not a Stop Light
Thank you for your informative article “Black History Tidbits to Help You Start the Month.” Please allow me to clarify one point of fact that was misspoken in your article. Garret Morgan did not invent the “stop light.” This idea of Morgan inventing the stop light is a factoid and also a widespread myth in the African American communities. Indeed, Mr. Morgan invented the “traffic signal.” This is the traffic control device that was precursor to the stop light. The traffic signal Morgan invented was the device with the arms that went up and down showing either stop/go printed on a flag-like plate. We see these devices in very old movies.
The traffic signals we call stop lights were not Morgan’s invention. These came later. Morgan’s traffic signal was, nonetheless, the first traffic management device. This is reason enough to celebrate his accomplishment because Garret Morgan’s traffic signal inspired the invention of the stop light.
-James J. Martin, UT Government and World Affairs (Adjunct)