Content about National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
Graduation is here and, like most seniors will say, my four years flew by. They were marked by incredible experiences and lessons inside and outside of the classroom. And that is what my column is about — lessons. Those pieces of wisdom you gather through experience and store safely in your memory. It is now, at only three weeks until I walk the stage, that I pull them out and reflect upon them. Here is a lesson for each year at UT:
1. Study what you love or at least something you find interesting .
Texas’ offensive woes continued Sunday afternoon but, unlike their last game, the Longhorns couldn’t produce the extra-inning runs to pull out a win.
Sophomore pitcher Nathan Thornhill threw 7.1 scoreless innings but got no run support as Loyola Marymount (5-7) squeaked past Texas (5-8), 1-0, in the first game of a doubleheader at UFCU Disch-Falk Field Sunday afternoon.
In January of 2011, the University of Chicago Press published a startling account of the state of higher education. The book, “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses,” by Richard Arum and Josipa Rosksa, concludes that “American higher education is characterized by limited or no learning for a large proportion of students.” Through research that draws from student survey responses, transcript data and the Collegiate Learning Assessment, the pair of sociologists show that the model underlying higher education needs to be rethought.
As Fisher v. Texas — the affirmative action case involving a Caucasian female denied admission to UT — makes its way to the Supreme Court and gains prominence in the media, other similar university admission policies are being criticized. A different demographic, Asian-Americans, are challenging the status quo of legacy admissions policies at institutions including Harvard University and Princeton University.
New facilities for the College of Communication, the Department of Computer Science and the College of Liberal Arts will provide advanced technology resources as well as department-unified locations for students and faculty by the end of the next academic year.
On Monday, I’ll be sitting in a classroom looking over course expectations and a slew of carefully constructed readings as I review my last syllabus as an undergraduate. The only difference? This one was created by me.
Lanya Olmstead was born in Florida to a mother who immigrated from Taiwan and an American father of Norwegian ancestry. Ethnically, she considers herself half Taiwanese and half Norwegian. But when applying to Harvard, Olmstead checked only one box for her race: white.
“I didn’t want to put ‘Asian’ down,” Olmstead said. “Because my mom told me there’s discrimination against Asians in the application process.”
Competitive tuition and faculty accomplishments within the School of Architecture were likely factors in the school’s undergraduate program being ranked second in the nation for 2012. Budget cuts could threaten to bring that ranking down in the future, architecture dean Frederick Steiner said.
Members of three student committees submitted recommendations to their deans to suggest ways to best spend their colleges’ budgets for this semester.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Yale sophomore Andrew Hendricks has gotten used to receiving strange looks when he crosses the Ivy League campus in his Air Force uniform.
Hendricks, the only Air Force cadet at Yale, wears the uniform on days he drives to the University of Connecticut to train with the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, a program that had been barred from his university until faculty agreed to welcome it back beginning next fall.
Over the past decade, the amount of money given to UT as a percent of the state budget has decreased. Meanwhile, tuition has done just the opposite and has increased by thousands of dollars. The time has again come to reconsider tuition, and this time, students have a more significant voice than ever before.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin-based conservative think tank, hired Tom Lindsay as director for their Center for Higher Education.
The think tank has suggested that public universities measure teaching efficiency more systematically and has published policy statements that support splitting research and teaching budgets in order to place more scrutiny on research funding.
TCU athletic officials announced Monday night the Horned Frogs will fill an open slot in the Big 12 Conference.
The TCU Board of Trustees unanimously approved the invitation to join the conference, and the Horned Frogs will be reunited with the Longhorns on July 1, 2012, as both teams formerly played in the Southwest Conference from 1923 to 1996.
The economy remains at the forefront of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. A recent jobs report released by U.S. Department of Labor showed that zero net jobs were created in August, with unemployment riding at 9.1 percent. Where do college graduates stand in all of this?
Although computer and information technology careers have not always been considered popular for women, School of Information associate professor Lecia Barker is working to change that preconception.
Barker received a $442,000 grant in order to identify new teaching methods for recruiting and retaining women in technological fields.
At the BYU game this Saturday, the Texas fans were the most polite, fun and classy group I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching a football game with. They were knowledgeable about the game and were there for one reason: to support their team. Of course, they did boo when Garrett Gilbert kept coming in as quarterback, so they’re not a bunch of Pollyanna’s either.
But the UT band played the BYU Alma Mater before the game, and the fans all remained standing and quiet during it. They applauded the BYU team as they left the field, and it wasn’t sarcastic.
Texas higher education is looking at its first core curriculum reform in more than a decade. A proposal, agreed upon by the Undergraduate Education Advisory Committee of the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board, is open for public comment until Sept. 26, after which it will be put to the board for approval at their October meeting.
All undergraduates in the state are required to undergo a 42-hour core curriculum. At UT, in addition to math, science, history, government and more, this includes a signature course.
Texas is playing BYU this Saturday and will do so again in 2013. But if conferences in college football realign a certain way, the Longhorns and Cougars might be playing more often than the home-and-home arrangement says they will.
Patrick Oborn was a walk-on wide receiver at BYU in the early ’90s. He wore blue and cheered for the Cougars then, just as he does now as an alumnus.
“The fan base is really strong and BYU fans travel really well,” Oborn said. “You’ll see a lot of BYU fans all the way down in Austin just like you saw at Ole Miss last weekend.”
Oborn has traveled to see the Cougars play Oklahoma at Dallas Cowboys Stadium, San Diego State and Wyoming. In addition, he has seen the team play multiple times at Utah because of how close it is to him.
Patrick Oborn was a walk-on wide receiver at BYU in the early ’90s. He wore blue and cheered for the Cougars then, just as he does now as an alumnus.
“The fan base is really strong and BYU fans travel really well,” Oborn said. “You’ll see a lot of BYU fans all the way down in Austin just like you saw at Ole Miss last weekend.”
Oborn has traveled to see the Cougars play Oklahoma at Dallas Cowboys Stadium, San Diego State and Wyoming. In addition, he has seen the team play multiple times at Utah because of how close it is to him.
There have been some great quarterbacks in BYU’s storied football history, including NFL legends Steve Young and Jim McMahon, which lends itself well to the school’s unofficial nickname “Quarterback U.”
The latest in the line of succession of Cougar quarterbacks is Jake Heaps. Coming out of high school in Washington, Heaps was the No. 1-rated quarterback in the country and chose BYU in part because of its rich history of producing signal callers.
Mack Brown says Texas vs. BYU will be “street fight”
Sameer:
Hello Double Coverage readers! We are pumped for our third live chat of the year! I’m Sameer Bhuchar, Double Coverage editor, and joining us are football beat writers, Austin Laymance and Christian Corona. They’ll be taking all of your question regarding the upcoming Texas vs BYU game, as well as conference realignment issues. Ready? Set? Go!
Question from Trevor:
What do you think Texas’ biggest challenge will be on Saturday?
We set out to make Student Government a more relevant, transparent and impactful organization under the collaborative philosophy of “together students can.” On the campaign trail, we promised to advocate for affordability, reform Student Government, improve legislative accessibility, promote social justice, improve city relations, increase freshmen representation and pursue environmental sustainability. With the help of the hardworking student leaders in SG this year, we accomplished all of our goals and then some.
The Longhorns travel to Illinois this weekend to face off against Northwestern University and the University of Illinois.
They look to sustain momentum they garnered at home, as they defeated both of their last two opponents, South Florida and Arizona State in Austin.
At No. 24, Texas (4-3) is slowly gaining recognition by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. They have been on a roll since their 6-1 loss to Southern California in early February.
