by Peggy Fikac
UT Law Foundation prez: ‘We were wrong, and we’ve stopped it’.
The president of the University of Texas Law School Foundation — taken to task by a state lawmaker over millions of dollars in forgivable loans given to attract faculty — said flatly Tuesday that the action was wrong and won’t happen again. Read More
Hey, Texplainer: I hear Texas has a $10,000 degree. How can I get one?
Early this month, Texas A&M University-San Antonio President Maria Ferrier and Alamo Colleges Chancellor Bruce Leslie announced that they had devised a bachelor’s degree that costs roughly $9,700. Read More
Speaking today on a SXSWEdu panel in Austin, officials from a few Texas community colleges and universities said that $10,000 bachelor’s degrees are available now — and more will be within the year.
Gov. Rick Perry famously called on the development of a $10,000 degree in his State of the State address in 2011. Read More
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz – AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
University of Texas System regents have firmed up rules on reviewing the performance of tenured faculty members at the system’s nine academic and six health campuses. Read More
by Reeve Hamilton and Paul Theobald
When the University of Texas System regents meet in San Antonio this week, they’ll have accountability on the agenda — everything from professor performance reviews to criminal record checks. Read More
By Reeve Hamilton.
In a Friday morning speech at the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, President Obama addressed college affordability and higher education reforms, which have been hot topics in Texas throughout the last year. Read More
Not long ago, Bill Kerrigan toured Eagle Ford Shale, a string of oil and natural gas fields south of San Antonio, Texas, that stretches across 24 counties and has yielded just shy of five million barrels of oil between January and July of this year. In that time, Eagle Ford has brought tens of thousands of workers to south Texas and turned tiny desert communities into boomtowns.
“That’s one thing about oil,” say Kerrigan, who heads Arkose Energy, an oil exploration firm based in Nashville, It’s good at creating jobs, and it does it quickly. And I don’t know of a minimum-paying job in the oil industry.”
Looking at the activity at Eagle Ford Shale, Kerrigan remembers thinking, “I wish someone from Washington would come see this.” Read More
When Chancellor Bruce Leslie implemented a new progressive discipline procedure for tenured faculty at San Antonio’s Alamo Colleges in August, it was not well received.
Among the unacceptable behavior listed: “loitering and loafing during work hours” and “disrespectful attitude towards a supervisor such as back-talk or ‘grumbling.’”
“I hate to say this,” said Dawn Elmore-McCrary, an English professor at San Antonio College and chairwoman of the faculty senate, “but there was some grumbling about the language.”
Faculty did not disagree with the sentiment that they should be held accountable, Elmore-McCrary insisted. Department chairs had been asking for a discipline policy for tenured faculty some time. It was the tone they found demeaning. “It sounded like you were dealing with people you didn’t consider to be on the same level as yourself professionally,” she said.
There has been much hand-wringing across Texas about changes being considered at the state’s flagship four-year institutions in response to a public perception that college and university faculty need to be more productive. Tuition at public institutions around the state has risen, and students are amassing significant debt. Yet graduation rates in the state remain low, causing some students, parents and the politicians who represent them — and control the state’s higher ed funding — to wonder if they’re getting their money’s worth from the faculty. Read More
By Melissa Ludwig
The University of Texas Board of Regents on Thursday approved an action plan to raise quality and productivity at its 15 institutions in an era of declining revenues, fortifying the effort with $243 million in strategic investments.
After months of public squabbling over how best to reform academia, regents unanimously backed the framework created by Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa and said they would give him latitude to work.
“Chancellor, I think the ball is yours,” said Gene Powell, chairman of the board of regents and a San Antonio businessman.
The plan pleased higher education boosters and critics alike, including Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative Austin think tank that’s served as a brain trust for those seeking radical changes in Texas higher education.
“The plan unveiled today reflects important steps toward both increasing productivity and improving academic quality in The University of Texas System, and I applaud Chancellor Cigarroa and everyone involved for their hard work in this effort,” Perry said in a statement. Read More
By Melissa Ludwig
SAN ANTONIO — Texas is mostly on track to hit higher education goals set for 2015, but the state must shift its focus from recruiting students to helping them finish their degrees, Raymund Paredes, Texas commissioner of higher education, said Tuesday.
“We have spent an awful lot of time over the past 25 years emphasizing access,” Paredes said at a news conference. “We have come to the sometimes painful realization that access is not enough.”
Paredes said the state’s colleges and universities are largely on track to meet enrollment and completion goals laid out in Closing the Gaps, the 2000 strategic plan for higher education.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board meets Thursday in Austin to approve the progress report.
However, Hispanics still lag behind other groups when it comes to participation and completion, and the number of degrees produced in science and math fields are still woefully short, Paredes said. Read More
By PAUL WEBER
SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the rising Democratic star whose White House potential is already the stuff of political forecasting, co-headlined a recent gathering of Hispanic leaders and blasted the immigration agenda of Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Republicans as the most “anti-Latino” in a generation.
Shortly after, the event’s other headliner took the stage: Perry himself.
“That was me basically saying, `Look, you’re not going to do all these things and act as though everything’s fine,’” said Castro, days after his June address to the National Association of Latino and Elected Appointed Officials.
Having already climbed among the country’s most prominent Latino politicians, the 36-year-old Castro is starting his second terms as mayor of the nation’s seventh-largest city more at ease with both his celebrity and speaking out. His NALEO appearance railed against Perry-backed efforts to target so-called “sanctuary cities” of illegal immigrants and GOP lawmakers prioritizing new voter ID laws, and was a possible glimpse of speeches to come if Perry enters the race for president.
Since taking office in June 2009, Castro has made more than a dozen trips to Washington. Not all have been for meetings with President Barack Obama’s administration, but the third-year mayor has nonetheless talked immigration and energy policy in the White House, alongside other invites such as former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Castro backed Obama’s fiscal policy speech in April and joined a presidential delegation to Mexico City. First lady Michelle Obama even lauded Castro and fitness initiatives in San Antonio — despite about two-thirds of the city being obese or overweight, which ranks the area among the nation’s fattest.
The exposure has driven speculation about Castro’s political future; the governor’s mansion, Congress or a cabinet-level post swirling as the usual rumors. In San Antonio, a mayor can serve four two-year terms.
Castro said he’s likely not going anywhere until 2017.
“This was a job I really did look forward to growing up, when I thought about politics,” Castro said. “So I’m not in a hurry to leave.”
His identical twin brother, on the other hand, is already making his next move. Texas state Rep. Joaquin Castro will challenge nine-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett in 2012 for his congressional seat, which the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature redrew this past session. Read More
AUSTIN — Making it through some medical schools in Texas could take less time and be cheaper for future doctors.
Six University of Texas campuses are partnering on plans to shorten the time it takes to earn a bachelor’s degree, a medical degree or both.
A pilot program for select freshmen could begin in 2013 at UT-Austin, plus at campuses in Dallas, San Antonio, Brownsville, El Paso and Edinburg, the Austin American-Statesman reported Tuesday. The Transformation in Medical Education program, or TIME, has been seeded with $4 million from UT regents.
The goal is to link undergraduate schooling to physician education to make medical school more efficient and increase the number of Texas doctors, said Dr. Kenneth Shine, the UT System‘s executive vice chancellor for health affairs. Read More
By Melissa Ludwig
A group of more than 200 powerful philanthropists, business leaders and other stakeholders have formed a grassroots coalition to push back against dramatic changes sought for Texas colleges and universities by Gov. Rick Perry and a group of university regents.
Called the Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education, members’ names grace campus buildings across the state and include former university regents, chancellors and presidents.
Most are connected to the University of Texas at Austin, the epicenter of the battle. But many hold ties to other university systems.
“This is not a liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, it is a unified group in support of higher education,” said H. Scott Caven, a former UT regent from Houston.
The group coalesced in response to changes being pursued by regents at the A&M and UT systems, including San Antonio developer Gene Powell, chairman of the UT board. Read More
By Ari Auber
Public education in Texas is now the top concern — surpassing immigration and even the economy — for many Texans, according to poll results released today by the Texas Lyceum, a nonprofit, non-partisan group of civic leaders.
The poll concluded that 23 percent of Texas residents and 33 percent of likely voters — those who vote regularly — are worried most about the state of education in Texas. On the national front, 32 percent of Texans and 35 percent of likely voters felt that the economy was the most significant issue facing the United States.
University of Texas Professor Daron Shaw, who conducted the poll along with University of Texas – San Antonio Professor Amy Jasperson, said education was at the forefront of Texans’ minds because of the high-profile legislative debate over spending cuts for public schools. “This poll came at a time when education was front page, above the fold every day almost,” Shaw said. “Spending cuts became synonymous with K-12, higher education cuts.” Read More
A pilot program scheduled to begin in fall 2013 in San Antonio will allow students to earn a bachelor’s degree and a medical degree in seven years instead of the traditional eight.
The combined degree program is intended to permit biology students at UT-San Antonio to transfer to the UT Health Science Center in that city after three years, provided they score at least 27 on the Medical College Admission Test; 45 is a perfect score. The program has been approved by the Board of Regents and is expected to be approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, said Christi Fish, a spokeswoman for UT-San Antonio. Read More
To Faculty and Staff of The Texas A&M University System:
I want to personally thank each of you for your ongoing commitment to the highest educational standards and your passion for the mission of The Texas A&M University System. Your service to both our students and the state of Texas is much appreciated.
I have been a member of the Board of Regents of the Texas A&M System for more than two years, and in March I was honored to become the chairman. As chairman, I intend to communicate directly to you from time to time and keep you informed about system initiatives, goals and changes.
As most of you are aware, Chancellor Mike McKinney has announced his retirement from the Texas A&M System, effective July 1. All of us on the board are very proud of the work Chancellor McKinney has done and for all the accomplishments achieved during his tenure. Both research expenditures and enrollment increased significantly under his leadership, and many outstanding scholars have joined our prestigious faculty. Additionally, the A&M System opened two new campuses in San Antonio and Killeen during his tenure – an accomplishment that cannot be overstated. We thank Chancellor McKinney for his dedication to our students, faculty and staff across our 19 member institutions. The most important next step now will be to find our next chancellor – a person who will continue to lead our great system to even greater heights. Read More
Gene Powell has had a few trying months. First, the formation of two task forces, one on excellence and productivity and the other on blended and online learning were established to give the Regents information and data on methods to improve and innovate, helping to create a benchmark to move the UT system forward.
Secondly, in an attempt to instill positive academic change and facilitate the process for educated decision-making within the task forces, Rick O’Donnell was hired as an adviser. Although there were no improprieties in this process, a fury of condemnation from all sides attacked Powell for doing what was in the best interest of the UT System. Read More
SAN ANTONIO — Smile, Texas schoolchildren. You’re on calorie camera.
That’s the idea behind a $2 million project being unveiled Wednesday in the lunchroom of a San Antonio elementary school, where high-tech cameras installed in the cafeteria will begin photographing what foods children pile onto their trays — and later capture what they don’t finish eating.
Digital imaging analysis of the snapshots will then calculate how many calories each student scarfed down. Local health officials said the program, funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, is the first of its kind in a U.S. school, and will be so precise that the technology can identify a half-eaten pear left on a lunch tray. Read More
By Mike Ward | Monday, May 9, 2011, 02:07 PM
A proposed amendment to a higher-education bill that would prohibit non-U.S. citizens from getting in-state tuition rates at Texas colleges and universities touched off an acrimonious debate and confusion this afternoon in the Texas Senate.
Opponents questioned why Texas, at a time when census figures show it is becoming more and more Hispanic, would want to penalize a group that includes mostly Hispanics. They called it unfair and insulting.
But Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, the author, defended the amendment as an attempt to protect the rights of Texas taxpayers, who he said are footing the bill for education for more than 16,000 noncitizens. Read More
Image via Wikipedia
Joseph Salamone, an adjunct professor in biomedical engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio, has been elected by his peers to join the National Academy of Engineering, a member of the prestigious National Academies.
Mauli Agrawal, dean of the UTSA College of Engineering, said the invitation is “one of the highest honors an engineer can receive.
The election is also good for UTSA, which is striving to become a national research university. Most Tier One institutions boast several members of the National Academies.
Throughout his career, Salamone has developed more than 40 products in eye and wound care. That intellectual property has led to more than 200 U.S. patents, including those pending, for products that have generated more than $1 billion in commercial sales.
Salamone is the co-founder of Polymer Technology Corp., which commercialized the world’s first high oxygen-permeable rigid contact lenses and was eventually sold to Bausch + Lomb. In 1986, Salamone co-founded Rochal Industries, a San Antonio biomedical research company that has invented and licensed a number of useful wound and burn care products.
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Published: 8:56 p.m. Friday, March 18, 2011
As the University of Texas System grapples with tighter budgets and expected losses in state aid, UT regents agreed Friday to raise tuition at its medical, dental and nursing health campuses this fall.
The increases at UT’s four medical schools would range from $1,000 to $2,000 a year, with students at the Health Science Center at Houston seeing the highest increase, 16 percent .
That school’s tuition is the lowest among UT’s medical schools at $12,509 a year. Raising it to $14,509 would gradually close the gap with the other medical schools where tuition now ranges from $14,875 at the Medical Branch at Galveston to $15,793 at the Health Science Center at San Antonio.
System officials said the increases are needed in part to help the system’s campuses remain competitive. Several presidents of the health campuses said in letters to the regents that raising tuition also would help mitigate anticipated losses in state money.
In March 2010, before a state shortfall of $23 billion over the next two years came into focus, UT officials asked the health campus presidents to recommend tuition and fees for the 2011-12 academic year. The presidents recommended the increases after meeting with faculty and students.
The UT System board approved their proposals with just one “no” vote: Regent Wallace Hall Jr. of Dallas, who said he was worried about the impact on students.
“I’m concerned about our access to underrepresented groups,” such as low-income students and minorities, Hall said. “To the extent that we can keep a lid on it, that would be my goal.”
UT Executive Vice Chancellor Kenneth Shine said tuition was relatively low at UT medical schools in comparison with their peers nationally. For instance, at Ohio State University, it’s $30,948 a year, and at the University of California, Los Angeles, it’s $28,162 a year, documents UT provided show.
“This (increase) still leaves us well below the national averages for medical schools,” Shine told the regents.
Tuition at the UT System schools will range from 47 to 62 percent of the average cost at U.S. public medical schools, UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa said in a written statement.
Student Regent Kyle Kalkwarf, a fourth-year medical student at the Health Science Center at San Antonio, said that he spoke with medical students at the various campuses. They supported the increases and understood that they were needed to maintain quality and hold onto faculty, Kalkwarf said. “The students know what a deal we’re getting.”
Regent Alex Cranberg of Austin said he wanted the board to come up with a more systematic way to assess student feedback. He also said he wanted campuses to devise more detailed plans on spending tuition increases, rather than presenting broad outlines, as most campuses did this time.
At UT’s two dental schools, where tuition is higher than at the medical schools, regents approved increases of about $1,500, raising tuition to $19,571 a year at the Houston school and to $22,575 at the San Antonio school.
In the nursing and health professions programs attached to health science centers, tuition increases ranged from 3.6 percent at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where the undergraduate health professions program would cost $4,623 a year starting in the fall, to 33.4 percent at Houston, where the master’s-level nursing program will cost $2,729 a semester.
In addition to approving the tuition increases, the board approved two appointments to its investment arm, the University of Texas Investment Management Co. It reappointed Charles W. Tate to another three-year term, which ends April 1,
2014, and named James P. Wilson, vice chairman of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, to a three-year term.
The regents postponed scheduled presentations from special committees on online learning and productivity and excellence.
maroser@statesman.com; 445-3619
University of Texas System annual tuition and fees
UT System regents voted Friday on tuition and fee increases at its medical campuses that are effective in the fall for new students. Existing students at some campuses would see lesser increases.
2010-11 2011-12 % change
Southwestern $15,640 $16,640 6.4%
Medical Branch $14,875 $15,875 6.7%
Health Science-Houston $12,509 $14,509 16%
Health Science-San Antonio $15,793 $16,855 6.7%
Dental schools
Health Science-Houston $18,071 $19,571 8.3%
Health Science-San Antonio $21,013 $22,575 7.4%
Health professions programs
Southwestern $4,985 $5,225 4.8%
Medical Branch $5,463 $5,913 8.2%
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center $4,462 $4,623 3.6%
Health Science-San Antonio varies
Nursing schools*
Medical Branch $3,184/$3,646 $3,422/$3,893 7.5% /6.8%
Health Science-Houston $3,082/$2,045 $3,322/$2,729 7.8%/33.4%
Health Science-San Antonio $3,430/$3,316 $3,680/$3,719 7.3%/12.2%
*Per-semester costs; 15-credit hour undergraduate/12-credit hour master’s programs
Source: University of Texas System
Find this article at: http://www.statesman.com/news/local/tuition-going-up-this-fall-for-ut-medical-1331673.htm
