Do you have any idea how public universities are funded in the state of Texas?
Texas basically ONLY funds two school systems (UT and TAMU) and the rest either fund themselves or have to go to Austin and beg for funding on an as-needed basis.
This type of protected funding is called the
Permanent University Fund, and it is written into the Texas Constitution.
That pot of $17.5 BILLION ONLY goes to those two systems...not UH, not TT, or the dozens of other state schools outside of the UT or TAMU systems.
Read more about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_University_Fund
The University of Houston has been grossly underfunded for their whole life by the state and, despite that, have created a Tier One research Public University. So....justifiably so, they are going to push back on a state, and a UT system, that is NOT an ally and is a threat to the school they built themselves.
Furthermore, if you go back and watch the congressional hearings over this specific project, you will find out that the University of Texas broke a number of laws in acquiring the land and revealing the campus. UH merely had to point out the rules that were broken or ignored. It was a slam dunk case for UH.
There is a reason why Texas A& M isn't proposing a Texas A&M-Austin (which is more of a need in fast growing Austin than a new campus in Houston BTW) or Texas proposing a University of Texas-college Station miles away from the main campuses in both cities. It's a crappy thing to do to other state systems WITHOUIT taking the proper channels to do so. UT planned this all on their own..and were called out for it.
UH's stance to the state of Texas is to HELP US, an already 100 year old State School, become another prestigious public school in a top metro, another UCLA, INSTEAD of using those resources create yet another a mediocre start-up campus a few miles away.
The fact is that states like California produce way more AAU public Universities than the state of Texas.
In my opinion, the state of Texas should focus on helping the University of Houston and then Texas Tech improve to be in contention for that coveted AAU status.