Texas Tech-Keeping Lubbock Lame

By now you've all heard that Texas Tech may have to lay off as many as 800 people due to funding cuts by the Texas Legislature. What bothers me is that an institute of "higher learning" was so ill prepared for the cuts. If you can just make 800 jobs go away by "waving your hand" then how necessary were the jobs to begin with? Is this going to effect the education or quality of life of the students who go to Texas Tech? If so, can they transfer to another school because they are no longer getting what they paid for?

Then there's my main point-each year Texas Tech graduates a ton of the best and brightest, but virtually nothing is done to keep them in Lubbock. Now with job cuts, even less will stick around. Lubbock should be smarter, better and more progressive having a university like Texas Tech around, but all it seems to mean is more restaurants to serve their visiting families in. It's a lot like Texas Tech having a school of engineering but not being able to plan for enough parking for football games. Why hasn't someone in economics sounded a warning bell to Texas Tech that they were getting a little "top heavy" and they needed to prepare for a rainy day?

So anyways, my headline is a little too harsh. Retention of these graduates should also be a priority for our city and county leaders, it's just we know they're not that smart and we should hope for better

And yes, all of this ties in with Texas Tech's goals. The first step in becoming something greater is acting like you are; I don't believe that Texas Tech "acts" like a tier one school