UH often gets a bad rap for being a commuter school. Many of its students live and work off-campus, and some attending the University don’t have the luxury of living a traditional college lifestyle.
Houston is the fourth largest city in the nation. Including the surrounding areas, almost 4 million people live in the Houston area; it doesn’t fit the profile of a typical small college town.
With the hassle of freeway traffic and the high costs of toll roads, driving to the campus for a football game or a club meeting isn’t an option for everyone. Despite the challenges some students deal with in becoming involved in campus activities, UH has managed to become a major influence on the Houston community.
Evan Dobelle, president of Westfield State College in Massachusetts, ranked UH 14th on his annual list, ‘Saviors of Our Cities: A Survey of Best College and University Civic Partnerships.’ The list recognizes the 25 universities in the country that have the largest positive overall impacts on their respective surrounding urban communities.
This comes as a delightful reminder of our University’s continued involvement in the community. In December, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching honored UH as one of the top ‘community engaged’ universities in the nation.
The quality of a higher education institution directly affects the prosperity of the city it’s in. Houston is home to 15 colleges and universities, but UH stands out from the rest as having the highest total enrollment, and is possibly the most influential.
Philanthropy is prevalent around the campus. Members of Greek societies take part in activities to improve the community every year. The UH Small Business Development Center helps market local small businesses, while the University Speech, Language, and Hearing Clinic and the University Eye Institute offer help to the Third Ward community by providing low-cost services.
In addition, there are many programs around campus that will allow students to help the community, giving them hands-on experience while they perform public services.
UH gets a bad reputation for everything from the disastrous parking situation to the sea of red tape students have to swim through in order to enroll or receive financial aid.
Yes, the University has major issues it needs to fix, but to say our school lacks the zest of some other Texas institutions, to act as though we’re debilitated by our so-called commuter school status, is wrong.
If recent press coverage has proven anything, it’s that UH students are offering their talents and free time to the community. They are making Houston a better place to live.
Liz Price is a communication junior and may be reached at [email protected]
