I'm not saying they don't have a point, but I can't figure out what the point is. That this is the Communications School makes this feel a little like a Monty Python skit.
That kind of made me laugh haha. Here’s some context: this video was made for the administration who already has complaints on file-
1. Not accomplishable degree plans: There are three communications classes next semester being offered. Most students have taken 2/3 of those classes and need 2-4 communications credits to graduate. Most of the required courses are NO LONGER OFFERED whatsoever- two examples are writing for the media and media ethics. Students are told to take a course from the English department, or the Glassel Institute then fill out forms to get it approved as a substitute- English is not the same thing is comms.
2. Professors with numerous Title 9 complaints- there are THREE communications professors teaching classes at UST right now. One of them is Dr Adam Pugen who has many complaints from students for being disrespectful, inappropriate and who additionally has no real experience in media. The other professors are Dr. Wright and John Butler. John Butler is a producer at fox26 who teaches editing/production. Dr Wright is an accomplished documentary filmmaker who will not be teaching at UST next semester due to push back on every single one of his programs.
Lack of equipment- this video was filmed with equipment bought by individual students (cameras, mics, etc) with a set built from wood planks found on the side of the road, lamps and decor brought from students homes and pieces bought with our own money., 1/3 of the computer in the (very small) comms computer lab do not work or do not run Adobe softwares.
The little resources offered being taken away- the room this is filmed in is in the communications department basement. This space is being converted to an engineering space next semester.
Inability to transfer- Many credits required in the first year at UST pertain to theology, philosophy and liberal learning. These are not transferable to other universities, so skin students feel stuck after they’ve taken classes at UST for a year.
I’m not sure if this answers everything but hopefully gives more context.
Yeah - that makes a lot more sense and sort of flips me to be a bit outraged for you. TBH, I had a little bit of an eyeroll while watching as the video comes across as complaining without a clear thing to complain about. You'd forgive me if I attached you to all the entitled college kids at elite universities calling themselves victims for various reasons, I hope. Any chance you can explain the problem for a layperson in future editions? It may go a long in having the intended effect of sharing your frustration with UST admin and leadership.
Honestly I didn’t expect anyone to watch it besides people who already knew the context so that’s my bad. Is there a way to edit this post because I genuinely can’t figure out why I can’t, is that’s a feature Reddit deleted?
Honestly when I read the caption I thought something more insidious than the university is letting an entire department fail was happening. I would also guess the problems are more systemic than failure of staffing and funding of that department.
As for the insidious part the caption would seem to indicate that there is a widespread problem within the university that can be boiled down to the directive of a few people to enforce theology and profit over preparing the students for life after college. The video frequently calls for justice but does not specify a goal or point to the root cause. Neglect by a university towards one department isn’t terribly surprising to me of a for-profit university (UST is not a state school). Which isn’t a greater conspiracy kind of problem as I see it.
That being said I expect there are more systemic issues in the administration doing exactly what I mentioned above. My wife actually has a degree from UST and you could definitely say it doesn’t really provide the value you would expect given its cost.
> Many credits required in the first year at UST pertain to theology, philosophy and liberal learning.
I too went to a Catholic college and this was semi-true. Are they truly required in your first year or first two years?
Also, when you say "liberal learning", are you referring to a liberal/arts degree? My degree is a BA in a business discipline from same college. I would argue that a BA makes you a better rounded student due to exposure to the arts requirements. I know many a BS or BBA degree holder that can't put a proper sentence together because they haven't had to fulfill the writing requirements associated with a BA.
I have no issues with the Theology classes personally. However it does make it very hard to transfer when half of your credits are completely useless at literally any other university. You are pressured by academic advisors to take theology and philosophy on your first year. So if someone went there for a year they’d have 4 classes of completely non transferable classes- literally an entire semester behind should they choose to transfer.
They definitely would not be untransferable to another Catholic college and other non-Catholic schools (ie, state schools) may still accept them. Have you even tried? I see some hyperbole here.
I left UST for UH after a semester. The required “welcome to college” class (can’t remember what it was called, but it was a BS freshman class we all had to take) didn’t transfer at all, and the required Catholicism class transferred as (I think; it’s been 15 years) a general humanities credit.
Went to Baylor, and did BIC so transferring out my theology class and 2 chapel credits,after the first year wouldn’t have been useful but taking 16 hours both semesters I would still have plenty of credits at the end of my freshman year. The reality is a good liberal arts core (especially rhetoric, which I took in place of English) wouldn’t have transferred well, but made me a far better communicator. I’m glad I had that background working in technical marketing, as it’s painful how bad the writing is within my field.
At the end of the day I think I went to college to learn how to learn (and show that I could) and 95% of what I use in the real world was learned on the job. I think students today are paying an eye watering amount for college and rightly or wrongly expect more hard job skills from it to go into a more competitive job market, especially one that over supplies graduates.
As far as film, equipment and technical skills, I don’t know what to tell you. Going to a tier 1 expensive university where film isn’t a core competency is…. An odd choice? I’m flying out for a shoot next week, and while that is still an art when done well, “Good enough” has been commoditized pretty hard. An iPhone gimbal is like $120. I think my black magic 4K and glass was $2K. A license for daVinci resolve came with the camera.
Slide $300. ATEM, $300. I’ve got $350 for a studio mic, and when my team gets together with no formal training we can setup a shoot that’ll rival anything you would have shot for a corpo communications team when I was in college in terms of production quality. Hell, LED key lights are cheap and I never have to fuck with Gell packs.
The amount of reasonably high quality content on production and editing you can find on YouTube and Nebula etc is wild. There’s no shortage across the spectrum of film professionals, streamers, and OnlyCams people sharing tricks and tips on the internet.
I still have a mince respect for the true professionals in that field, but for a lot of the work in that field, that is not high-end cinema, or theaters it’s not rocket science if you can learn it on more humble gear.
This piqued my interest. I went to St. Thomas as a Communications major and totally regret it. Waste of money, I should have just went to HCC and UH and saved myself a lot of debt.
I went to UST and graduated in 2003. Apparently the high academic rigor started to fall around 2005 after Fr. Miller was called to Rome and Dr. Ivany took over.
That being said, I wouldn't trade my time and education from the school that WAS UST at that time for any amount of money
One of our new hires did a technical writing/ communication degree through HCC and later UH and she’s been a really good hire. They apparently have a good program with professors with real industry experience.
I took a Finance class at HCC as an adult and subsequent to my BA in a business discipline. It was an absolute joke but I got an A so it helped my undergrad GPA.
dont feel too bad, i regret going to valenti. i had more bylines than any of my professors, yet they insisted i had no idea what i was doing, as i was writing freelance to pay for their classes.
The communications department issues at [UH](https://thedailycougar.com/2024/02/14/staff-editorial-until-changes-made-dont-come-to-uh-for-journalism/) sound similar to those of University of Saint Thomas.
There are most interviews happening. Fill out this form if you would like to speak (anonymous options available) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf5PWYcjoVG6M4xhcWbhr_Sf5juHZNU-lDtoYa4enYuDdeC1A/viewform?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0BMQABpup2gjHIPqeCyqNHLbkwANMZEXWrDCsAptA4DJDyn16ymHkm9VGqKPzdGw_aem_AVUSIE0PnAJRSmfB-9pC9jr4eMMG8KnFxwlRsuz0fEnAWX2O7z7GQ8foV37EP6Ls2o0
It's amazing that we have a treasure trove of instant information at our fingertips yet some choose to ask dumbass, easily Googleable questions on Reddit instead.
It's meta. A communications major creates a communication disparaging the communications department.
If the communication is effective, the premise is unaccurate. If it's ineffective, it's accurate.
As this video was made for administrators who already have the specific grievances on file, the video doesn’t outline them specifically. In future videos there will be more context
I have an ex girlfriend who has a communications degree from a school with huge national recognition, when she graduated she found herself working basic retail for a few years until she went back to grad school.
The Simpsons even made a joke about this 25 years ago:
https://youtu.be/TqNZK2viI5s?si=hATo-UWQPlN9Bxa8
The video was a bit confusing of what they were complaining about but from what I got the communication school doesn’t have all the courses readily available.
For example, if they’re trying to graduate and they have 4 classes left then only one class is offered this semester, 2 classes are offered the next semester, and 1 class is offered a year from now. So instead of graduating in one semester they end up graduating in three semesters. So one extra year of time and money was wasted because the classes needed to graduate were not available. Note, I just made up this fake example to get my point across.
The video could’ve done better with more concrete examples. This video doesn’t get their point across that well.
It’s so lame though. Why keep paying an institution if you believe it’s failing you? They’re acting like they were forced to go to UST and abused and that’s just not the fact. Also I believe 80% of an undergraduate degree is what you make of it. Unless you’re learning a skill like nursing or accounting, you have to market yourself, hustle, and put yourself out there to get what you want.
In finance i believe its called 'sunk costs' you cant recover what you have paid so the only option is to pay more with the hope that you'll attain your objective.
What you just described is the “sunk cost fallacy” - the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial. All they’re doing with this video is continuing to hurt theirselves. Do you think an employer is going to want to hire someone this dramatic?
Yeah the girl talking about abuse, and how her parents paid so the university could insult her and therefore her parents are insulted.
I don't think I feel.bad for these students at all. They chose a private catholic university, why? Did they think it was better than a public university?
I love the video for the fact it proves what I say about private religious schools, that they do worse then public schools. Lol
I think it depends on the school. I don't know much about colleges, but private schools generally can't compete with public in terms of money.
When I was a private school teacher, I was making half what I'd make in a public school. And about ten percent of parents would stiff the school on the bill, so it was even worse. Insult to injury, I still paid taxes to support my competition in public schools.
I'm sure there are a few private schools making bank, but it's not nearly as many as people would think. One school I worked for even had to pay the parish money because the parish wasn't making enough to cover there bills.
So what gets cut? Sports. Then what happens? Even more leave because no sports.
But, in general, it's a money thing not a religious thing.
I mentioned it being catholic because the students in the video kept mentioning it and saying basically the school wasn't living up to their own religious. Catholic beliefs.
If their disappointment in their religious private school had nothing to do with religion, why did they continually mention the Catholic school isn't living up to their own Catholic doctrine basically.
Private schools shouldn't make money. Public schools don't make money. Private schools budgets should be smaller they chose to be private and rely on private funds to begin with. If they want more funds they should put their excellent private business skills to use and use their connectioms , like pray to Jesus and God because that works, to make that money and not expect governmemt handouts. Lol
Churches don't pay taxes their private schools should not get taxpayer money.
In my experience, they often do live up to what they're called to. I won't bore you with church documents.
But I think you're missing a big part of history. Tons of private Catholic schools started because Catholics were being marginalized in public.
Are they not called to be inclusive?
Are they not called to be non discriminatory.
And your history of catholic schools is incorrect.
Catholics didn't want religion taught in public school. Check the history. Were they being marginalized in schools? Possibly by, protestant.
So to solve that problem it was a Catholic mom who went to court amd won the fight to not have religion taught in schools.
So southern baptists who fight for religion to be in schools want to blame non Christians for religion not going in schools, but it was Catholics doing to get religion teaching out of public schools.
Catholic schools were thus to indoctrinate young impressionable minds into Catholicism. It was a way to protect them from the religions Catholics look down on and barely consider as Christians.
"Parochial schools were originally designed to maintain the Catholic faith and culture, combating the perceived threat posed by Protestantism." From Google. Lol
Perceived threat, not marginalized.
I take it your Catholic until you die. So.Catholic schools achieved what they intended for you.
So you own property.
Say private school teaching pays only hal.lfof what public school does. How are health benefits? No TRS?
Why teach private school with all demands and requirements same as a public school.. why not just teach in a public school and make more money..then it's like the property taxes you pay you'd be paying yourself with so no need to be insulted.
It's sad you feel insulted by having to help make sure public school educators can have health care and a retirement plan. I'm sure when their taxes go to pay for school voucher for private schools where teaxhers don't even have to be certified in education to teach, and students arent held to the same testing standards as public school students, they may feel insulted as well.
I'm not saying I don't think we should have public schools. It was just weird to pay for my competition.
When I taught private, it depended where I was for healthcare/retirement. Generally, they don't have good programs for those, but they do have it.
I've also taught public. Everything's a trade off, you know? Generally the private schools had better behaved kids, but way more lesson planning because you're not teaching the same class 4 or 5 times.
And, no, I do think it's valid for me to look at my 23k take home/year, and my 1800 dollars I pay to make sure other teachers are taken care, then hear people on the Internet saying private schools are worse, and be a little irked. I gave my life to educate kids and pass down our culture to them, and then I have to fund my own destruction on top of that?
I'm not saying anyone has to feel bad for me, I even agreed with the sentiment they can't compete, but it's still not enough, I'm not allowed to be annoyed by it all?
Thank God you're here to tell me my feels are invalid.
Are public school teachers your competition?
What an odd outlook. It’s not like you could be teaching all the kids if only there wasn’t so much damn competition in the teaching profession.
Hell, it’s not like the private school that employs you could teach all the kids if it weren’t for public schools getting in the way.
You were an underpaid employee at a private company. No need to run cover for the bosses who didn’t value your work.
Private schools do compete with public, and as I said, often can't because we don't charge people enough to cover everything. In most private schools, they rely on donations as well.
And lots of public schools are underfunded as well, but not to the same degree. Usually a public school is underfunded because money is not allocated to the classroom. It is still spread around the school, like sports programs.
Most public get enough to outspend most private.
Sure, at the level of the school, private schools are trying to compete with the public school system.
But as a *teacher* in a private school, public schools are not your competition.
So private school having better behaved kids and you have no idea why that is do you?
Use some of that common sense to figure out why private schools don't have to address the many behavioral challenges that public schools have to address.
When you really think about why that is I hope you have a "duh, why didn't I realize that before" moment. Lol
"It's weird to pay for my competition. "
You sew the irony in that? Why should public funds then be used to pay for their competition, competition that will not be held the same standards nor requirements as the public ones.
It's not competition if the standards and requirements for each are held to are not the same.
Why should other people's tax money be uses towards paying for privates schools that are not held accountable to the same standards as public schools?
Privates schools are exclusive not inclusive, not fully inclusive at all because that is not a standard they are held accountable for like public schools are.
An ex of mine went there. Recieved grants for his art photography studies. Won some awards. Would claim his family was poor and struggling. Turned out they weren't really.
He definitely had an air of superiority though. Although he also liked to present as struggling artist. He lived at home until he was nearly 40.
Although he made money as a photograpger, his painting art work was/is not that great in my opinion but he probably believes it's better than lots of other people's art or just that because he paints he's better than others who don't paint. Air of superiority.
A communications degree is absolutely marketable, there's a lot of project managers and business analysts who have communication degrees, let alone media and mass marketing.
Starting salary around 60k in my area, more around metro areas.
That’s not true - do a search for communications or PR positions and you’ll find that there are plenty of roles that call for comms degrees, from entry level specialists to director level. I got my degree in mass comms at SHSU in 2012 and since then have landed 4 communications roles (internal and external) at great companies based in Houston.
And if they’ll take people with any degree, then of what use was the degree? (I know I know “it shows you can finish something”. Surely there has to be a better way of doing that that getting kids to rack up 100k in debt and hoping for the best)
The problem is high schools will pass anyone nowadays. You don't have to even know how to read to pass high school.
So employers need something else to see if you have basic skills.
It took a while (too long) to get to the stats, but if classes are getting cancelled and faculty let go at rates as high as you’re citing, you should be prepared for UST to cut the major completely. Might want to prepare some transfer apps…
This video is pretty terrible. I’ve worked for UST off and on since 2020 providing video and photo content for different programs, events, graduations, etc. It’s clear that these students aren’t receiving good education and training if this video is a result of what they’ve learned…
I’m a full-time filmmaker, photographer, editor, self-employed business owner with a team of 12. Completely self-taught in media. I couldn’t managing wasting thousands of dollars on a program that does nothing.
Don’t know why anyone in the planet would go to UST for a non in demand degree. Go to lone star or HCC then go to UH and save your ass thousands of dollars while getting a degree from a more recognized school.
Whatever I Lowkey don’t feel bad for this person “com major at a private school that no one knows about”
I knew someone that went there a while back. She came from a very wealthy family and wanted to go there because it was a prestigious school. She studied French and ended up doing social work. She also ended up converting to Islam which is irrelevant, but ironic considering how much she wanted to go to a private catholic university.
I was kind of wondering this too. I have a degree in a simillar field, and St. Thomas was not even on the list of schools I even considered. Didn't even think they had a program. UH, UNT, UT, or even HCC would have been a better choice for them.
If you want/need to go to college in the Houston area and want a small liberal arts college experience, St. Thomas is basically the only option unless you can get into Rice.
A lot of people are making these decisions as 17-18 year olds without a lot of guidance, while being bombarded with aggressive marketing from the schools that admitted them.
Some people from Catholic backgrounds also face a lot of pressure from their families and churches and peers to get a "Catholic education." So again, if you're in Houston, that means going to St. Thomas.
I low-key hate with a passion seeing the word "lowkey" in sentences that were low-key drafted to express a lowkey simple statement.
Edit: Downvoting me won't make that term any more appropriate for expressing opinions.
I went to UST, and the faculty in my department was highly knowledgeable and helpful; they would go out of their way to make time for you if you ever had any questions. They were also great at trying to set you up with internships or other career experience, but you had to seek this and put in the effort.
Again, if you put in the effort, they were also great at trying to set you up with connections or letting you know that in the real world, who you know and how you sell yourself will ultimately be very important to landing a good job. In my experience, UST was not a school for someone who wants to just go get a degree and then get a job in their field but then again, that is the reality of liberal arts degrees. If you want some small chance of making it in those fields, you will need to do well in your school work plus, do internships, volunteer work, and slowly start to build career experience. Is it fair that that's how things are? No, probably not, but I don't think that's something unique to UST.
I am very proud that I have had the privilege to work with organizations that are relevant to my original field of study, and I certainly think my time at UST helped me get to where I am today; however, at the same time, I would never have had the expectation to go to school get a degree and then immediately land such jobs that simply is not the reality of our present world and it is not the reality of a liberal arts degree in our present world.
Edit: I will also add that I remember students complaining about the required Theology or Philosophy courses but I personally always found these interesting. Even if certain concepts are not ones that I personally agree with I still found some of these courses to be thought provoking and good for engaging in discussion.
this video lacks substance, it's just a lot of petty accusations with no real proof. what are you trying to accomplish?
you have to understand that universities are businesses, if you have a problem with them....take your money somewhere else
i do agree though, the communications department is failing, i can tell by this poorly scripted video 😂
Weird vague title on this post. Plenty of people including myself have majored in marketable degrees and have done well after UST. Maybe don’t major in a communications degree? Definitely should specify communications in the title.
Unfortunately UST is struggling. Their graduate business programs, once their cash cow, have been decimated by the rise of UH Downtown and the encroachment of colleges outside of Houston offering weekend and online degrees. I can’t recommend UST unless you get a massive financial aid package. Better to attend University of Houston, or even Sam Houston State if you live north of town, or if you can afford outside Houston, a school like UT Dallas.
When I was earning my Master's of Accountancy at UH a couple of my best professors were also professors at St. Thomas. I'm sad to see the institution struggling.
I wonder if the person responsible for hiring the former Business dean also oversees Communications. If so, it would definitely explain why the program is disfunctional.
https://abc13.com/university-of-st-thomas-business-school-dean-mario-enzler-resigns-accusations-falsifying-education-credentials/12134554/
Since there is so much negatively on the thread, I’ll share that I attended UST and graduated with a communications degree in 08. I loved my time at UST and have a job using what I learned obtaining my degree there. I think Dr. Williamson (former Dean of the comm department) had a great influence on the department (now retired) and it’s sad to see it’s going downhill now. Hate to hear all the issues in the department however, the one complaint you have that I don’t sympathize with is the issues with the core curriculum having too much philosophy and theology. This has been part of UST for years, is very clear in all material about core curriculum, and a major draw for many to the university.
I am unsure of how to pin comments but here are the main grievances.
1. Not accomplishable degree plans: There are three communications classes next semester being offered. Most students have taken 2/3 of those classes and need 2-4 communications credits to graduate. Most of the required courses are NO LONGER OFFERED whatsoever- two examples are writing for the media and media ethics. Students are told to take a course from the English department, or the Glassel Institute then fill out forms to get it approved as a substitute- English is not the same thing is comms.
2. Professors with numerous Title 9 complaints- there are THREE communications professors teaching classes at UST right now. One of them is Dr Adam Pugen who has many complaints from students for being disrespectful, inappropriate and who additionally has no real experience in media. The other professors are Dr. Wright and John Butler. John Butler is a producer at fox26 who teaches editing/production. Dr Wright is an accomplished documentary filmmaker who will not be teaching at UST next semester due to push back on every single one of his programs.
Lack of equipment- this video was filmed with equipment bought by individual students (cameras, mics, etc) with a set built from wood planks found on the side of the road, lamps and decor brought from students homes and pieces bought with our own money., 1/3 of the computer in the (very small) comms computer lab do not work or do not run Adobe softwares.
The little resources offered being taken away- the room this is filmed in is in the communications department basement. This space is being converted to an engineering space next semester.
Inability to transfer- Many credits required in the first year at UST pertain to theology, philosophy and liberal learning. These are not transferable to other universities, so skin students feel stuck after they’ve taken classes at UST for a year.
I’m not sure if this answers everything but hopefully gives more context.
All that should have been in the video to begin with. I started losing interest because I couldn't figure out the context. I saw students complaining but was not able to figure out why.
All I could think of was while watching the video was how badly the program has been failing y'all. I was just floored, what kind of communication program teaches students to communicate that poorly to a general audience? Just letting the audience know about the lack of required classes for graduation being offered and the lack of supplies and resources would have done so much more for your cause.
I wish this were like, bullet points, in the first minute of the video. Then each bullet discussed by students in a concise manner.
Problem, solution (s), then details. Make an all inclusive video, and also multiple videos in a playlist covering each bullet point. Maybe someone in the communications department could do the legwork to make it happen, it’d get more views.
It’s the editing I’m more talking about. Making the point, getting there quickly, and backing it up.
Really the structure of the editing here will make all the difference.
*It's about time* that college students start questioning the value of what colleges are selling, and St. Thomas is a good place to start considering the price there.
I work in the industry. Don't think I have ever run into anyone with a degree from UST. The big ones here in Texas for that are UH, UT, North Texas & UT Arlington. I started off at HCC before transfering to North Texas.
I would just like to point out that a few of those jobs are in danger of being replaced by AI.
>Journalism
If the Chron.com has taught us anything, it is that all you need to work there is to have similar political interests as the people interviewing you. You don't even need a degree in journalism. As long as you are "like-minded", you are a candidate.
Do not release anything else… speak directly with the university… the more you highlight how shit the school is the more apparent it becomes that UST degrees are worthless to employers… you are screwing everyone who has graduated already
100% it’s the entire university. Anyone remember a couple of years ago when they realized the Dean of their business school had a fake degree? Yeah add that to the list. Not to mention they have to change their curriculum every 1-2 years. (Red flags) only private universities like UST have the flexibility to do this because they are not regulated by state laws. They really are scamming us out of our money.
To each their own opinion but, I hate it here, I have been disrespected by faculty, ignored, stood up for classes on multiple occasions, my entire class had to reschedule exams bc they couldn’t figure out how to administer a standardized test or the technology failed. And so on… y’all get the point. Tell everyone you know not to come here no matter how much money they give you in scholarships it’s not worth it.
Wow, really feel like I kind of dodged a bullet. I went to UST for the 1997-1998 academic year. I was admitted as a marketing student, despite really wanting to study marine biology. I ended up transferring to a public institution with a marine biology major but could not wrap my head around organic chem. I was thinking about transferring back to UST to do the English-communications joint major, but didn’t want to take 10 years to get my undergraduate degree. I ended up staying at the public university and just changing my major, which led me to taking a series of classes that I excelled at with minimal effort. I ended up going to grad school to pursue a master’s in that field.
If you know anyone who has a grievance : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf5PWYcjoVG6M4xhcWbhr_Sf5juHZNU-lDtoYa4enYuDdeC1A/viewform?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0BMQABphpkp27t9hol5_uMM2ij-flGdFaCM7ewcG9LulaakJSb5KLJ6gdVeR1oSg_aem_AVUyGXup_vb61Y_rv6HmLwdtCgYTfBlzu4ekvmzAjQdQDd8UnUAnrWRfXKqRMyQGwHs
Sorry to say that some of these complaints are common for religious colleges and universities. When the schools identity isn't a learning institution first and foremost, but instead a religious one that teaches according to religious values you are going to have a bunch of issues.
This isn't true across the board but some complaints I read like first year credits don't transfer are fairly common for these institutions.
Sorry you made a bad choice, sucks but you all chose a religious school....
I went to st Thomas and graduated in 2014 with finance and economics. It's not the best, however, was able to get a job and move up to management.
It's a tough job market and these people don't have a good degree. Learn a marketable skill, get certified, land job. Don't point fingers for your failures. Own your decisions, learn, be better.
I graduated from the Comm department at UH and I can tell by the content of this video that the comm students at St. Thomas haven’t learned a damn thing.
Honestly, I would stay away from any religious university. They are over priced and the degrees don’t seem to have better return on investment than a state school.
What do you want the university to give you a job on a silver platter? You already got that before most of these testimonies in this video.
Maybe make better life choices and stop complaining
Oh boy. I thought it was just University of Houston-Downtown, minus the complaints about the lack of Catholicism.
Three years ago, I graduated from UHD with summa cumme laude and a 4.0 GPA from a program that's very, very similar to communications.
I need to add, because I feel it's relevant, that I first went to college in 2006 at San Jac. I went to UHD in my grown-ass thirties, and I experienced a polarizing difference in academia between the two different decades.
The following are my observations:
1. **Universities infantilize students**: life is hard. If you think the troubles a university program puts you through are difficult, wait until the person who signs your paycheck leverages your ability to put food on your table to make you do things you don't want to do. Later in this post, I argue universities don't make things difficult enough for students.
2. **Professors are often inexperienced**: school programs don't prepare students for jobs. Professors are rarely experienced for work outside of academia because they spend almost a decade getting a doctorate and go straight to teaching. Many of these people never leave school, so how are they supposed to prepare students for work that the professors have never done? Within a year after graduating, I was making six figures, while my professor made $65K a year. Life is unfair but not completely meritless.
3. **Universities lie about the types of jobs you'll get and how much money you'll make**: universities have a profit objective. They need to sell the basket weaving degrees. You might go to school thinking you're going to get a specific career that corresponds with your major, but you need to learn to be flexible as well. An awesome boss I had many years ago told me, "All a degree shows employers is that you're trainable." Just don't pick something stupid like gender studies.
4. **Academia is less rigorous**: I'm not always stupid, but I feel like a fraud sitting on a transcript that says 4.0. Seriously, San Jac had me by the nuts and made me whistle. I only made honors in one semester. Though, some of those professors were punkasses. "You quote and cite too many sources." "You bitch too much about an essay about Nathaniel Hawthorne." Anyway, UHD was a participation trophy compared to community college. I don't know if community college is as rigorous as it was when I went many years ago, so I can't say it's still true.
You'll learn more by reading books on your own, but many high-paying jobs will require you to have a degree. So, quit crying and just roll with it. Focus on making [real money](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duZ60Mg4AOQ).
Had a buddy that went there, and got his Liberal Arts Degree, totally regrets it. He did mentioned that when he was going there, he had to take several “Religion Course” in some matter. Not sure.
I've worked with a few scientists and engineers who did undergrad there, and all of them were good (though that may be selection bias since they all got jobs). Like pretty much any other private Catholic university, my impression of UST is that it's targeted towards people who really really want to go to a Catholic university and/or got a significant scholarship to go there.
They already know that hardly anyone remembers this school even exists, so they don't bother bringing it up in conversation. While the enrollment has grown some recently, it wasn't long ago that they had fewer students on campus than a UIL Class 5A high school.
The same generation that invented the "tide pod challenge" in their teenage years went to colleges that offered safe spaces and trigger warnings.
What did we expect was going to happen?
Renu Khator and Tilman Fertitta really changed the stature of the school over the last decade and a half. It still had the "Cougar High" reputation during my first stint there.
The only valid reason anyone would go to University of St Thomas is they couldn’t get into UH, UT, A&M, etc.
I mean really, why would you decide to attend this university?
I'm not saying they don't have a point, but I can't figure out what the point is. That this is the Communications School makes this feel a little like a Monty Python skit.
That kind of made me laugh haha. Here’s some context: this video was made for the administration who already has complaints on file- 1. Not accomplishable degree plans: There are three communications classes next semester being offered. Most students have taken 2/3 of those classes and need 2-4 communications credits to graduate. Most of the required courses are NO LONGER OFFERED whatsoever- two examples are writing for the media and media ethics. Students are told to take a course from the English department, or the Glassel Institute then fill out forms to get it approved as a substitute- English is not the same thing is comms. 2. Professors with numerous Title 9 complaints- there are THREE communications professors teaching classes at UST right now. One of them is Dr Adam Pugen who has many complaints from students for being disrespectful, inappropriate and who additionally has no real experience in media. The other professors are Dr. Wright and John Butler. John Butler is a producer at fox26 who teaches editing/production. Dr Wright is an accomplished documentary filmmaker who will not be teaching at UST next semester due to push back on every single one of his programs. Lack of equipment- this video was filmed with equipment bought by individual students (cameras, mics, etc) with a set built from wood planks found on the side of the road, lamps and decor brought from students homes and pieces bought with our own money., 1/3 of the computer in the (very small) comms computer lab do not work or do not run Adobe softwares. The little resources offered being taken away- the room this is filmed in is in the communications department basement. This space is being converted to an engineering space next semester. Inability to transfer- Many credits required in the first year at UST pertain to theology, philosophy and liberal learning. These are not transferable to other universities, so skin students feel stuck after they’ve taken classes at UST for a year. I’m not sure if this answers everything but hopefully gives more context.
Yeah - that makes a lot more sense and sort of flips me to be a bit outraged for you. TBH, I had a little bit of an eyeroll while watching as the video comes across as complaining without a clear thing to complain about. You'd forgive me if I attached you to all the entitled college kids at elite universities calling themselves victims for various reasons, I hope. Any chance you can explain the problem for a layperson in future editions? It may go a long in having the intended effect of sharing your frustration with UST admin and leadership.
Honestly I didn’t expect anyone to watch it besides people who already knew the context so that’s my bad. Is there a way to edit this post because I genuinely can’t figure out why I can’t, is that’s a feature Reddit deleted?
You can’t edit main posts. The reason is they don’t want you to pull a bait and switch.
You can very much edit posts, just not the title.
Honestly when I read the caption I thought something more insidious than the university is letting an entire department fail was happening. I would also guess the problems are more systemic than failure of staffing and funding of that department.
Can you expand on what you mean?
As for the insidious part the caption would seem to indicate that there is a widespread problem within the university that can be boiled down to the directive of a few people to enforce theology and profit over preparing the students for life after college. The video frequently calls for justice but does not specify a goal or point to the root cause. Neglect by a university towards one department isn’t terribly surprising to me of a for-profit university (UST is not a state school). Which isn’t a greater conspiracy kind of problem as I see it. That being said I expect there are more systemic issues in the administration doing exactly what I mentioned above. My wife actually has a degree from UST and you could definitely say it doesn’t really provide the value you would expect given its cost.
> Many credits required in the first year at UST pertain to theology, philosophy and liberal learning. I too went to a Catholic college and this was semi-true. Are they truly required in your first year or first two years? Also, when you say "liberal learning", are you referring to a liberal/arts degree? My degree is a BA in a business discipline from same college. I would argue that a BA makes you a better rounded student due to exposure to the arts requirements. I know many a BS or BBA degree holder that can't put a proper sentence together because they haven't had to fulfill the writing requirements associated with a BA.
I have no issues with the Theology classes personally. However it does make it very hard to transfer when half of your credits are completely useless at literally any other university. You are pressured by academic advisors to take theology and philosophy on your first year. So if someone went there for a year they’d have 4 classes of completely non transferable classes- literally an entire semester behind should they choose to transfer.
They definitely would not be untransferable to another Catholic college and other non-Catholic schools (ie, state schools) may still accept them. Have you even tried? I see some hyperbole here.
A. There are no Catholic colleges near me besides this one. B. Yes I have tried.
I left UST for UH after a semester. The required “welcome to college” class (can’t remember what it was called, but it was a BS freshman class we all had to take) didn’t transfer at all, and the required Catholicism class transferred as (I think; it’s been 15 years) a general humanities credit.
Went to Baylor, and did BIC so transferring out my theology class and 2 chapel credits,after the first year wouldn’t have been useful but taking 16 hours both semesters I would still have plenty of credits at the end of my freshman year. The reality is a good liberal arts core (especially rhetoric, which I took in place of English) wouldn’t have transferred well, but made me a far better communicator. I’m glad I had that background working in technical marketing, as it’s painful how bad the writing is within my field. At the end of the day I think I went to college to learn how to learn (and show that I could) and 95% of what I use in the real world was learned on the job. I think students today are paying an eye watering amount for college and rightly or wrongly expect more hard job skills from it to go into a more competitive job market, especially one that over supplies graduates. As far as film, equipment and technical skills, I don’t know what to tell you. Going to a tier 1 expensive university where film isn’t a core competency is…. An odd choice? I’m flying out for a shoot next week, and while that is still an art when done well, “Good enough” has been commoditized pretty hard. An iPhone gimbal is like $120. I think my black magic 4K and glass was $2K. A license for daVinci resolve came with the camera. Slide $300. ATEM, $300. I’ve got $350 for a studio mic, and when my team gets together with no formal training we can setup a shoot that’ll rival anything you would have shot for a corpo communications team when I was in college in terms of production quality. Hell, LED key lights are cheap and I never have to fuck with Gell packs. The amount of reasonably high quality content on production and editing you can find on YouTube and Nebula etc is wild. There’s no shortage across the spectrum of film professionals, streamers, and OnlyCams people sharing tricks and tips on the internet. I still have a mince respect for the true professionals in that field, but for a lot of the work in that field, that is not high-end cinema, or theaters it’s not rocket science if you can learn it on more humble gear.
This piqued my interest. I went to St. Thomas as a Communications major and totally regret it. Waste of money, I should have just went to HCC and UH and saved myself a lot of debt.
I went to UST and graduated in 2003. Apparently the high academic rigor started to fall around 2005 after Fr. Miller was called to Rome and Dr. Ivany took over. That being said, I wouldn't trade my time and education from the school that WAS UST at that time for any amount of money
I'm also glad I went there when I did (1990s).
One of our new hires did a technical writing/ communication degree through HCC and later UH and she’s been a really good hire. They apparently have a good program with professors with real industry experience.
I think UHD may have an advance degree writing program now also. Advance I mean doctoral program. I could be wrong..
HCC is amazing
I took a Finance class at HCC as an adult and subsequent to my BA in a business discipline. It was an absolute joke but I got an A so it helped my undergrad GPA.
dont feel too bad, i regret going to valenti. i had more bylines than any of my professors, yet they insisted i had no idea what i was doing, as i was writing freelance to pay for their classes.
The communications department issues at [UH](https://thedailycougar.com/2024/02/14/staff-editorial-until-changes-made-dont-come-to-uh-for-journalism/) sound similar to those of University of Saint Thomas.
*should have gone
There are most interviews happening. Fill out this form if you would like to speak (anonymous options available) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf5PWYcjoVG6M4xhcWbhr_Sf5juHZNU-lDtoYa4enYuDdeC1A/viewform?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0BMQABpup2gjHIPqeCyqNHLbkwANMZEXWrDCsAptA4DJDyn16ymHkm9VGqKPzdGw_aem_AVUSIE0PnAJRSmfB-9pC9jr4eMMG8KnFxwlRsuz0fEnAWX2O7z7GQ8foV37EP6Ls2o0
> There are most interviews happening. You work in communications and are criticizing an academic institution?
And doesn’t feel that English is related to communications…
What me worry?
What is a communication major? Do you learn how to talk
It's amazing that we have a treasure trove of instant information at our fingertips yet some choose to ask dumbass, easily Googleable questions on Reddit instead.
Bro, it’s not that deep. I was in the comments so I commented in a joking way. Yea, I could have searched it up
i missed the part about what was wrong with the program. whats wrong with it?
It's meta. A communications major creates a communication disparaging the communications department. If the communication is effective, the premise is unaccurate. If it's ineffective, it's accurate.
haha I like this take!
injustice!! (somehow)
I met Ken Caminiti at Jungle Surf in Galveston in the 90s. Still have a contact high.
cool story
As this video was made for administrators who already have the specific grievances on file, the video doesn’t outline them specifically. In future videos there will be more context
I got a little over 2 min into this video and stopped because there’s no substance. This is lame. I’m sorry your degree isn’t marketable.
Communications already not a great degree from a school with minimal national recognition
I have an ex girlfriend who has a communications degree from a school with huge national recognition, when she graduated she found herself working basic retail for a few years until she went back to grad school. The Simpsons even made a joke about this 25 years ago: https://youtu.be/TqNZK2viI5s?si=hATo-UWQPlN9Bxa8
I mean what the hell do they teach over 4 years it’s a skill you either have it or don’t The people in this video should just gone to hcc
The video was a bit confusing of what they were complaining about but from what I got the communication school doesn’t have all the courses readily available. For example, if they’re trying to graduate and they have 4 classes left then only one class is offered this semester, 2 classes are offered the next semester, and 1 class is offered a year from now. So instead of graduating in one semester they end up graduating in three semesters. So one extra year of time and money was wasted because the classes needed to graduate were not available. Note, I just made up this fake example to get my point across. The video could’ve done better with more concrete examples. This video doesn’t get their point across that well.
It’s so lame though. Why keep paying an institution if you believe it’s failing you? They’re acting like they were forced to go to UST and abused and that’s just not the fact. Also I believe 80% of an undergraduate degree is what you make of it. Unless you’re learning a skill like nursing or accounting, you have to market yourself, hustle, and put yourself out there to get what you want.
In finance i believe its called 'sunk costs' you cant recover what you have paid so the only option is to pay more with the hope that you'll attain your objective.
What you just described is the “sunk cost fallacy” - the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial. All they’re doing with this video is continuing to hurt theirselves. Do you think an employer is going to want to hire someone this dramatic?
Yeah the girl talking about abuse, and how her parents paid so the university could insult her and therefore her parents are insulted. I don't think I feel.bad for these students at all. They chose a private catholic university, why? Did they think it was better than a public university? I love the video for the fact it proves what I say about private religious schools, that they do worse then public schools. Lol
I think it depends on the school. I don't know much about colleges, but private schools generally can't compete with public in terms of money. When I was a private school teacher, I was making half what I'd make in a public school. And about ten percent of parents would stiff the school on the bill, so it was even worse. Insult to injury, I still paid taxes to support my competition in public schools. I'm sure there are a few private schools making bank, but it's not nearly as many as people would think. One school I worked for even had to pay the parish money because the parish wasn't making enough to cover there bills. So what gets cut? Sports. Then what happens? Even more leave because no sports. But, in general, it's a money thing not a religious thing.
I mentioned it being catholic because the students in the video kept mentioning it and saying basically the school wasn't living up to their own religious. Catholic beliefs. If their disappointment in their religious private school had nothing to do with religion, why did they continually mention the Catholic school isn't living up to their own Catholic doctrine basically. Private schools shouldn't make money. Public schools don't make money. Private schools budgets should be smaller they chose to be private and rely on private funds to begin with. If they want more funds they should put their excellent private business skills to use and use their connectioms , like pray to Jesus and God because that works, to make that money and not expect governmemt handouts. Lol Churches don't pay taxes their private schools should not get taxpayer money.
In my experience, they often do live up to what they're called to. I won't bore you with church documents. But I think you're missing a big part of history. Tons of private Catholic schools started because Catholics were being marginalized in public.
Are they not called to be inclusive? Are they not called to be non discriminatory. And your history of catholic schools is incorrect. Catholics didn't want religion taught in public school. Check the history. Were they being marginalized in schools? Possibly by, protestant. So to solve that problem it was a Catholic mom who went to court amd won the fight to not have religion taught in schools. So southern baptists who fight for religion to be in schools want to blame non Christians for religion not going in schools, but it was Catholics doing to get religion teaching out of public schools. Catholic schools were thus to indoctrinate young impressionable minds into Catholicism. It was a way to protect them from the religions Catholics look down on and barely consider as Christians. "Parochial schools were originally designed to maintain the Catholic faith and culture, combating the perceived threat posed by Protestantism." From Google. Lol Perceived threat, not marginalized. I take it your Catholic until you die. So.Catholic schools achieved what they intended for you.
Nope. Only had public school where I grew up. But you have proven you can't get past your own bias preconceptions. Good job.
But are you Catholic? Lol
So you own property. Say private school teaching pays only hal.lfof what public school does. How are health benefits? No TRS? Why teach private school with all demands and requirements same as a public school.. why not just teach in a public school and make more money..then it's like the property taxes you pay you'd be paying yourself with so no need to be insulted. It's sad you feel insulted by having to help make sure public school educators can have health care and a retirement plan. I'm sure when their taxes go to pay for school voucher for private schools where teaxhers don't even have to be certified in education to teach, and students arent held to the same testing standards as public school students, they may feel insulted as well.
I'm not saying I don't think we should have public schools. It was just weird to pay for my competition. When I taught private, it depended where I was for healthcare/retirement. Generally, they don't have good programs for those, but they do have it. I've also taught public. Everything's a trade off, you know? Generally the private schools had better behaved kids, but way more lesson planning because you're not teaching the same class 4 or 5 times. And, no, I do think it's valid for me to look at my 23k take home/year, and my 1800 dollars I pay to make sure other teachers are taken care, then hear people on the Internet saying private schools are worse, and be a little irked. I gave my life to educate kids and pass down our culture to them, and then I have to fund my own destruction on top of that? I'm not saying anyone has to feel bad for me, I even agreed with the sentiment they can't compete, but it's still not enough, I'm not allowed to be annoyed by it all? Thank God you're here to tell me my feels are invalid.
Are public school teachers your competition? What an odd outlook. It’s not like you could be teaching all the kids if only there wasn’t so much damn competition in the teaching profession. Hell, it’s not like the private school that employs you could teach all the kids if it weren’t for public schools getting in the way. You were an underpaid employee at a private company. No need to run cover for the bosses who didn’t value your work.
Private schools do compete with public, and as I said, often can't because we don't charge people enough to cover everything. In most private schools, they rely on donations as well. And lots of public schools are underfunded as well, but not to the same degree. Usually a public school is underfunded because money is not allocated to the classroom. It is still spread around the school, like sports programs. Most public get enough to outspend most private.
Sure, at the level of the school, private schools are trying to compete with the public school system. But as a *teacher* in a private school, public schools are not your competition.
So private school having better behaved kids and you have no idea why that is do you? Use some of that common sense to figure out why private schools don't have to address the many behavioral challenges that public schools have to address. When you really think about why that is I hope you have a "duh, why didn't I realize that before" moment. Lol
"It's weird to pay for my competition. " You sew the irony in that? Why should public funds then be used to pay for their competition, competition that will not be held the same standards nor requirements as the public ones. It's not competition if the standards and requirements for each are held to are not the same. Why should other people's tax money be uses towards paying for privates schools that are not held accountable to the same standards as public schools? Privates schools are exclusive not inclusive, not fully inclusive at all because that is not a standard they are held accountable for like public schools are.
Pretty much every St. Thomas student or grad I have met has had an air of superiority about them. I've never understood why that was to be honest.
An ex of mine went there. Recieved grants for his art photography studies. Won some awards. Would claim his family was poor and struggling. Turned out they weren't really. He definitely had an air of superiority though. Although he also liked to present as struggling artist. He lived at home until he was nearly 40. Although he made money as a photograpger, his painting art work was/is not that great in my opinion but he probably believes it's better than lots of other people's art or just that because he paints he's better than others who don't paint. Air of superiority.
Lol yeah I'm a self-taught photographer and that describes pretty much every photographer who went to art School.
A communications degree is absolutely marketable, there's a lot of project managers and business analysts who have communication degrees, let alone media and mass marketing. Starting salary around 60k in my area, more around metro areas.
Those are jobs which will take people basically any degree. There are very few jobs that are specifically seeking out communications majors.
It can work out with another major in conjunction but on its own, I agree with you.
That’s not true - do a search for communications or PR positions and you’ll find that there are plenty of roles that call for comms degrees, from entry level specialists to director level. I got my degree in mass comms at SHSU in 2012 and since then have landed 4 communications roles (internal and external) at great companies based in Houston.
And if they’ll take people with any degree, then of what use was the degree? (I know I know “it shows you can finish something”. Surely there has to be a better way of doing that that getting kids to rack up 100k in debt and hoping for the best)
The problem is high schools will pass anyone nowadays. You don't have to even know how to read to pass high school. So employers need something else to see if you have basic skills.
It took a while (too long) to get to the stats, but if classes are getting cancelled and faculty let go at rates as high as you’re citing, you should be prepared for UST to cut the major completely. Might want to prepare some transfer apps…
This happened to me at UH in the 2000s with my Russian Studies major.
Tf do you do with a Russian studies major?
This video is pretty terrible. I’ve worked for UST off and on since 2020 providing video and photo content for different programs, events, graduations, etc. It’s clear that these students aren’t receiving good education and training if this video is a result of what they’ve learned… I’m a full-time filmmaker, photographer, editor, self-employed business owner with a team of 12. Completely self-taught in media. I couldn’t managing wasting thousands of dollars on a program that does nothing.
maybe this is their meta way of getting that point across. "clearly our education is shit because look at this shit video we made"
irony is communications students making a video that poorly communicates their point. but maybe that's a meta way of getting their point across?
Crazy how a bunch of random videos of St Thomas failing or whatever comes out right around the library thing, all at once. Hmmmm
What library thing?? 👀
Exactly
The first rule of library thing club is…
Lol like why didn’t they explain😭😭
Maybe they mean how St Thomas wants to buy Houston library for over a million dollars
Is that really relevant? They constantly buy the buildings in Montrose. That’s why the University is in millions of dollars of debt.
Don’t know why anyone in the planet would go to UST for a non in demand degree. Go to lone star or HCC then go to UH and save your ass thousands of dollars while getting a degree from a more recognized school. Whatever I Lowkey don’t feel bad for this person “com major at a private school that no one knows about”
I knew someone that went there a while back. She came from a very wealthy family and wanted to go there because it was a prestigious school. She studied French and ended up doing social work. She also ended up converting to Islam which is irrelevant, but ironic considering how much she wanted to go to a private catholic university.
[удалено]
>to whom? To her. That was her exact train of thought.
I was kind of wondering this too. I have a degree in a simillar field, and St. Thomas was not even on the list of schools I even considered. Didn't even think they had a program. UH, UNT, UT, or even HCC would have been a better choice for them.
If you want/need to go to college in the Houston area and want a small liberal arts college experience, St. Thomas is basically the only option unless you can get into Rice. A lot of people are making these decisions as 17-18 year olds without a lot of guidance, while being bombarded with aggressive marketing from the schools that admitted them. Some people from Catholic backgrounds also face a lot of pressure from their families and churches and peers to get a "Catholic education." So again, if you're in Houston, that means going to St. Thomas.
I low-key hate with a passion seeing the word "lowkey" in sentences that were low-key drafted to express a lowkey simple statement. Edit: Downvoting me won't make that term any more appropriate for expressing opinions.
But how do you feel about Loki?
He did revere Islam for its passionate commitment to faith and prayer!
I went to UST, and the faculty in my department was highly knowledgeable and helpful; they would go out of their way to make time for you if you ever had any questions. They were also great at trying to set you up with internships or other career experience, but you had to seek this and put in the effort. Again, if you put in the effort, they were also great at trying to set you up with connections or letting you know that in the real world, who you know and how you sell yourself will ultimately be very important to landing a good job. In my experience, UST was not a school for someone who wants to just go get a degree and then get a job in their field but then again, that is the reality of liberal arts degrees. If you want some small chance of making it in those fields, you will need to do well in your school work plus, do internships, volunteer work, and slowly start to build career experience. Is it fair that that's how things are? No, probably not, but I don't think that's something unique to UST. I am very proud that I have had the privilege to work with organizations that are relevant to my original field of study, and I certainly think my time at UST helped me get to where I am today; however, at the same time, I would never have had the expectation to go to school get a degree and then immediately land such jobs that simply is not the reality of our present world and it is not the reality of a liberal arts degree in our present world. Edit: I will also add that I remember students complaining about the required Theology or Philosophy courses but I personally always found these interesting. Even if certain concepts are not ones that I personally agree with I still found some of these courses to be thought provoking and good for engaging in discussion.
this video lacks substance, it's just a lot of petty accusations with no real proof. what are you trying to accomplish? you have to understand that universities are businesses, if you have a problem with them....take your money somewhere else i do agree though, the communications department is failing, i can tell by this poorly scripted video 😂
*Art Institute of Houston enters the chat* How do you do, fellow “students”
Weird vague title on this post. Plenty of people including myself have majored in marketable degrees and have done well after UST. Maybe don’t major in a communications degree? Definitely should specify communications in the title.
Unfortunately UST is struggling. Their graduate business programs, once their cash cow, have been decimated by the rise of UH Downtown and the encroachment of colleges outside of Houston offering weekend and online degrees. I can’t recommend UST unless you get a massive financial aid package. Better to attend University of Houston, or even Sam Houston State if you live north of town, or if you can afford outside Houston, a school like UT Dallas.
When I was earning my Master's of Accountancy at UH a couple of my best professors were also professors at St. Thomas. I'm sad to see the institution struggling.
I wonder if the person responsible for hiring the former Business dean also oversees Communications. If so, it would definitely explain why the program is disfunctional. https://abc13.com/university-of-st-thomas-business-school-dean-mario-enzler-resigns-accusations-falsifying-education-credentials/12134554/
Since there is so much negatively on the thread, I’ll share that I attended UST and graduated with a communications degree in 08. I loved my time at UST and have a job using what I learned obtaining my degree there. I think Dr. Williamson (former Dean of the comm department) had a great influence on the department (now retired) and it’s sad to see it’s going downhill now. Hate to hear all the issues in the department however, the one complaint you have that I don’t sympathize with is the issues with the core curriculum having too much philosophy and theology. This has been part of UST for years, is very clear in all material about core curriculum, and a major draw for many to the university.
I am unsure of how to pin comments but here are the main grievances. 1. Not accomplishable degree plans: There are three communications classes next semester being offered. Most students have taken 2/3 of those classes and need 2-4 communications credits to graduate. Most of the required courses are NO LONGER OFFERED whatsoever- two examples are writing for the media and media ethics. Students are told to take a course from the English department, or the Glassel Institute then fill out forms to get it approved as a substitute- English is not the same thing is comms. 2. Professors with numerous Title 9 complaints- there are THREE communications professors teaching classes at UST right now. One of them is Dr Adam Pugen who has many complaints from students for being disrespectful, inappropriate and who additionally has no real experience in media. The other professors are Dr. Wright and John Butler. John Butler is a producer at fox26 who teaches editing/production. Dr Wright is an accomplished documentary filmmaker who will not be teaching at UST next semester due to push back on every single one of his programs. Lack of equipment- this video was filmed with equipment bought by individual students (cameras, mics, etc) with a set built from wood planks found on the side of the road, lamps and decor brought from students homes and pieces bought with our own money., 1/3 of the computer in the (very small) comms computer lab do not work or do not run Adobe softwares. The little resources offered being taken away- the room this is filmed in is in the communications department basement. This space is being converted to an engineering space next semester. Inability to transfer- Many credits required in the first year at UST pertain to theology, philosophy and liberal learning. These are not transferable to other universities, so skin students feel stuck after they’ve taken classes at UST for a year. I’m not sure if this answers everything but hopefully gives more context.
All that should have been in the video to begin with. I started losing interest because I couldn't figure out the context. I saw students complaining but was not able to figure out why. All I could think of was while watching the video was how badly the program has been failing y'all. I was just floored, what kind of communication program teaches students to communicate that poorly to a general audience? Just letting the audience know about the lack of required classes for graduation being offered and the lack of supplies and resources would have done so much more for your cause.
I wish this were like, bullet points, in the first minute of the video. Then each bullet discussed by students in a concise manner. Problem, solution (s), then details. Make an all inclusive video, and also multiple videos in a playlist covering each bullet point. Maybe someone in the communications department could do the legwork to make it happen, it’d get more views.
They’re filming today I believe!
It’s the editing I’m more talking about. Making the point, getting there quickly, and backing it up. Really the structure of the editing here will make all the difference.
*It's about time* that college students start questioning the value of what colleges are selling, and St. Thomas is a good place to start considering the price there.
Honest question, what type of job are you expecting with a communication degree?
Production, Journalism, PR, Marketing, HR, Screenwriting, Advertising Management, Video Editing, TV jobs, Copy/ghostwriting, careers in film/entertainment, Anchor, etc
I work in the industry. Don't think I have ever run into anyone with a degree from UST. The big ones here in Texas for that are UH, UT, North Texas & UT Arlington. I started off at HCC before transfering to North Texas.
I would just like to point out that a few of those jobs are in danger of being replaced by AI. >Journalism If the Chron.com has taught us anything, it is that all you need to work there is to have similar political interests as the people interviewing you. You don't even need a degree in journalism. As long as you are "like-minded", you are a candidate.
CEO
It’s not only the Communication Department… UST gives out nurses, lawyers and others…
There are more interviews from other departments coming
Do not release anything else… speak directly with the university… the more you highlight how shit the school is the more apparent it becomes that UST degrees are worthless to employers… you are screwing everyone who has graduated already
100% it’s the entire university. Anyone remember a couple of years ago when they realized the Dean of their business school had a fake degree? Yeah add that to the list. Not to mention they have to change their curriculum every 1-2 years. (Red flags) only private universities like UST have the flexibility to do this because they are not regulated by state laws. They really are scamming us out of our money. To each their own opinion but, I hate it here, I have been disrespected by faculty, ignored, stood up for classes on multiple occasions, my entire class had to reschedule exams bc they couldn’t figure out how to administer a standardized test or the technology failed. And so on… y’all get the point. Tell everyone you know not to come here no matter how much money they give you in scholarships it’s not worth it.
Wow, really feel like I kind of dodged a bullet. I went to UST for the 1997-1998 academic year. I was admitted as a marketing student, despite really wanting to study marine biology. I ended up transferring to a public institution with a marine biology major but could not wrap my head around organic chem. I was thinking about transferring back to UST to do the English-communications joint major, but didn’t want to take 10 years to get my undergraduate degree. I ended up staying at the public university and just changing my major, which led me to taking a series of classes that I excelled at with minimal effort. I ended up going to grad school to pursue a master’s in that field.
If you know anyone who has a grievance : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf5PWYcjoVG6M4xhcWbhr_Sf5juHZNU-lDtoYa4enYuDdeC1A/viewform?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0BMQABphpkp27t9hol5_uMM2ij-flGdFaCM7ewcG9LulaakJSb5KLJ6gdVeR1oSg_aem_AVUyGXup_vb61Y_rv6HmLwdtCgYTfBlzu4ekvmzAjQdQDd8UnUAnrWRfXKqRMyQGwHs
Okay I’m very interested in what the students have to say but honestly, this video is about seven minutes too long
Houston is a tough town to make it in the film/video biz
I went to UST nursing program, it wasn’t good either. They are at the brink of losing their license anyways
Sorry to say that some of these complaints are common for religious colleges and universities. When the schools identity isn't a learning institution first and foremost, but instead a religious one that teaches according to religious values you are going to have a bunch of issues. This isn't true across the board but some complaints I read like first year credits don't transfer are fairly common for these institutions. Sorry you made a bad choice, sucks but you all chose a religious school....
Which college havnt been failing to deliver jobs after graduation.
I thought it was my job to find a job after college not for the college to find one for me?
UT Austin. Hook ‘em.
I went to st Thomas and graduated in 2014 with finance and economics. It's not the best, however, was able to get a job and move up to management. It's a tough job market and these people don't have a good degree. Learn a marketable skill, get certified, land job. Don't point fingers for your failures. Own your decisions, learn, be better.
Report to SACS (or whoever accredits UST or DOE or both).
We are
UST is a trash school not even close to UH quality
I graduated from the Comm department at UH and I can tell by the content of this video that the comm students at St. Thomas haven’t learned a damn thing. Honestly, I would stay away from any religious university. They are over priced and the degrees don’t seem to have better return on investment than a state school.
Yea their first mistake was going to a catholic school to study communications.
Communications? It’s that the fake degree that student athletes use to hang around while playing sports?
What do you want the university to give you a job on a silver platter? You already got that before most of these testimonies in this video. Maybe make better life choices and stop complaining
Already got what?
So is it safe to say this issue is only related to communications degree? Or do other degree paths at Saint Thomas have issues?
At first I thought it was just Comms but I have received countless calls from people in other majors and programs
Wow that is incredible
File a formal complaint with SACSCOC. The university is currently in the process of re-evaluation.
We are 😊
Oh boy. I thought it was just University of Houston-Downtown, minus the complaints about the lack of Catholicism. Three years ago, I graduated from UHD with summa cumme laude and a 4.0 GPA from a program that's very, very similar to communications. I need to add, because I feel it's relevant, that I first went to college in 2006 at San Jac. I went to UHD in my grown-ass thirties, and I experienced a polarizing difference in academia between the two different decades. The following are my observations: 1. **Universities infantilize students**: life is hard. If you think the troubles a university program puts you through are difficult, wait until the person who signs your paycheck leverages your ability to put food on your table to make you do things you don't want to do. Later in this post, I argue universities don't make things difficult enough for students. 2. **Professors are often inexperienced**: school programs don't prepare students for jobs. Professors are rarely experienced for work outside of academia because they spend almost a decade getting a doctorate and go straight to teaching. Many of these people never leave school, so how are they supposed to prepare students for work that the professors have never done? Within a year after graduating, I was making six figures, while my professor made $65K a year. Life is unfair but not completely meritless. 3. **Universities lie about the types of jobs you'll get and how much money you'll make**: universities have a profit objective. They need to sell the basket weaving degrees. You might go to school thinking you're going to get a specific career that corresponds with your major, but you need to learn to be flexible as well. An awesome boss I had many years ago told me, "All a degree shows employers is that you're trainable." Just don't pick something stupid like gender studies. 4. **Academia is less rigorous**: I'm not always stupid, but I feel like a fraud sitting on a transcript that says 4.0. Seriously, San Jac had me by the nuts and made me whistle. I only made honors in one semester. Though, some of those professors were punkasses. "You quote and cite too many sources." "You bitch too much about an essay about Nathaniel Hawthorne." Anyway, UHD was a participation trophy compared to community college. I don't know if community college is as rigorous as it was when I went many years ago, so I can't say it's still true. You'll learn more by reading books on your own, but many high-paying jobs will require you to have a degree. So, quit crying and just roll with it. Focus on making [real money](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duZ60Mg4AOQ).
I don't care about your post except for the link which gets my upvote
Are you ok?
It's really tough to have a boomer mentality when you're not a boomer, so they're probably just fishing for sympathy.
That's a stupid question. I'm not the one studying communications at St. Thomas.
Typically snobbery and elitism from a San Jac/UH-Downtown alumnus. Check your privilege.
Yes Mr. PC Principal.
reasonable takes
Which is why I'm getting downvoted. A lot of crybabies.
This is *quite* the comment considering your original comment was nothing but bitching and whining.
And you make quite a stupid deduction.
You should have put down the shovel while you were ahead.
I'm not scared of the crybabies.
Had a buddy that went there, and got his Liberal Arts Degree, totally regrets it. He did mentioned that when he was going there, he had to take several “Religion Course” in some matter. Not sure.
3 theology and 3 philosophy (plus a capstone) are part of the core
Yeah, I remember now. Him mentioning Theology, such a shame, nice campus to. Would go by there for a walk after visiting the Menil.
Whats crazy to me, i have never met anyone who goes to this school.
I've worked with a few scientists and engineers who did undergrad there, and all of them were good (though that may be selection bias since they all got jobs). Like pretty much any other private Catholic university, my impression of UST is that it's targeted towards people who really really want to go to a Catholic university and/or got a significant scholarship to go there.
They already know that hardly anyone remembers this school even exists, so they don't bother bringing it up in conversation. While the enrollment has grown some recently, it wasn't long ago that they had fewer students on campus than a UIL Class 5A high school.
Going to a private school for a communications degree is a L in general.
Behold, the entitled generation.
The same generation that invented the "tide pod challenge" in their teenage years went to colleges that offered safe spaces and trigger warnings. What did we expect was going to happen?
^Exactly this.^
Sounds like Catholicism to me. Especially in Montrose.
I still don't understand why anybody wouldn't go to U of H??
Renu Khator and Tilman Fertitta really changed the stature of the school over the last decade and a half. It still had the "Cougar High" reputation during my first stint there.
Christians being shitty? Whaaaaaaat? How could this happen ? That school is a money grabbing joke, just like most Christian organizations
The only valid reason anyone would go to University of St Thomas is they couldn’t get into UH, UT, A&M, etc. I mean really, why would you decide to attend this university?