Three Tiers

Tier One
One of the reasons being tossed around that the University of Houston wants to buy KTRU’s license and transmitter is that having two radio stations will strengthen UH’s bid to be a Tier One university.

Over at the KUHF website, this is what they have to say about it:

“As part of the University of Houston’s commitment to Tier One status, KUHF and KUHC together will provide a comprehensive Tier One level of public radio service that greater Houston deserves.”

And at the UH website, they also mention it:

“This new programming direction dramatically delivers on the University of Houston’s Tier One promise to Houston. We are going to provide 24-hour NPR news and public affairs programming and 24-hour classical programming to all of Houston’s radio listeners.”

Well, just what is all this Tier One business anyway? I’m glad you asked. UH has set up a webpage and a FAQ to answer all your questions about why being a Tier One university is so important. And what would they have to do to become one of these elite universities? Here are their criteria:

Excellence in research
The threshold for top-tier university status is annual research expenditures of $150 million or more. UH currently has $81 million in research expenditures.

Excellence in student preparation
Top-tier universities award 100 or more doctoral degrees annually in programs that span at least 15 disciplines. In 2007, UH conferred 248 doctoral degrees in 51 disciplines.

Excellence among faculty
A top-tier university has distinguished faculty invited for prestigious membership in the National Academies. In rankings of the Top American Research Universities, the top 50 have at least five members. UH currently has eight members.

Excellence in community support to the university
A top-tier university has community support as evidenced by its endowment and annual giving, as well as broad alumni support. UH’s endowment value was $598 million for FY 2008, and philanthropic support was more than $80 million.

How does acquiring another radio station fit these criteria? Let’s go point-by-point.

Excellence in research. Not applicable.

Excellence in student preparation. If students actually participated in programming and content at KUHF and the proposed KUHC, they might be able to make a case with this one. As it is, with a professionally run station which has no real connection to the University? Not applicable.

Excellence among faculty. Not applicable.

Excellence in community support to the university. Community support for KUHF benefits KUHF, not UH. I suppose you could make a case that having a radio station makes it more likely that people will donate to the University in addition to what they presumably already give to the radio station. This seems like a weak argument. Probably not applicable.

In other words, despite claims to the contrary, acquiring another radio station is unlikely to affect UH’s Tier status. And, in fact, when University President, Renu Khator, talks about it, this is what she has to say:

“The acquisition of a second public radio station delivers on our promise to keep the University of Houston at the forefront of creating strong cultural, educational and artistic opportunities that benefit students and the city of Houston. We now have the cultural assets to deliver NPR news, public affairs and classical programming to Houston 24 hours a day, placing the University of Houston in the company of an elite group of Tier One universities.”

Note that she doesn’t say that acquiring another radio station will affect UH’s status; she says that some other Tier One universities have two radio stations. Subtle. We all know about the relationship between correlation and causation, so if you stop to think about what she’s saying, you realize she’s saying nothing. And even if others say that there is a causal relationship between having two radio stations and becoming Tier One, you can’t pin any of that flawed logic on Dr. Khator, because she doesn’t directly say a new radio station will make any difference.

Don’t be fooled. They’ve given you their criteria for being Tier One. A new radio station has nothing to do with those criteria.

Tier Two
This week, our own Danny Thursday tweeted this:

“‘The Big Country’ by Talking Heads. Byrne’s negative thoughts about middle america as he literally flies over it. Screw you pal #shuffle”

Despite this being only one of many of Thurday’s Tweets and my blindingly negative feelings about all things Twitter, I still latched onto to it and started thinking about Byrne’s attitude about place, some of which I’ve covered here before. Here’s Byrne from “The Big Country,” which appears on Talking Heads’ second album and which Thursday found offensive:

I see the shoreline.
I see the whitecaps.
A baseball diamond, nice weather down there.
I see the school and the houses where the kids are.
Places to park by the fac’tries and buildings.
Restaunts and bar for later in the evening.
Then we come to the farmlands, and the undeveloped areas.
And I have learned how these things work together.
I see the parkway that passes through them all.
And I have learned how to look at these things and I say,

I wouldn’t live there if you paid me.
I couldn’t live like that, no siree!
I couldn’t do the things the way those people do.

Then on “Cities” from Talking Heads’ third album, Byrne is suddenly looking for a new city to live in, even if it’s one of those flyover ones:

Find a city
Find myself a city to live in.

There are a lot of rich people in Birmingham
A lot of ghosts in a lot of houses
Look over there!…a dry ice factory
A good place to get some thinking done

This time, the factory has the positive connotation of a place to get thinking done. It appears that Byrne’s attitude toward unfamiliar places softened between albums two and three. My guess is that Byrne’s experience touring in support of album two forced him to deal with the actual people in those places that he had previously never visited and that experience spilled over into the lyrics of album three. It’s also possible that “The Big Country” and “Cities” are written from the point of view of two different characters.

Byrne signs many his promotional emails with his current location, so he’s still interested in place. Here is a list of dates from emails that I didn’t delete and his location when he sent them:

8/18/08 Midtown
9/19/08 On Tour
11/3/08 NYC
5/13/09 Midtown
4/6/2010 Midtown
6/11/2010 Soho
9/21/2010 Soho

He also has an audiobook of his bicycle diaries, where he talks about the various cities he’s been to. Or I assume he does, I haven’t listened to it. His cities include: American Cities, Berlin, Istanbul, Buenos Aires, Manila, Sydney, London, San Francisco, and New York. Apparently those last two aren’t American cities.

I don’t know where I’m going with this, other than to say that Byrne is thinking about places and seems to be doing cursory research, but then makes broad conclusions, based more on his agenda than the facts. He’s allowed to do that, I guess, but I’ll respect him less.

Tier Three
The internet brought me this video of Katy Perry going back to her high school (which she never graduated from) to perform. The song is “Ur So Gay” (which she might have spelled correctly if she had only stayed in school) and she dedicates it to the popular guy from high school who showed up to her gig.

“I got mine.”