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Two presidents of University of Texas institutions in the Rio Grande Valley testified with some passion for a bill to create a new umbrella university there, after which the Senate Higher Education Committee voted Wednesday morning to move the bill forward.
Senate Bill 24, and the companion House Bill 1000, both voted out of their respective committees Wednesday, would consolidate UT-Pan American, UT Brownsville and the regional campus of the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Once in a while we get a chance to be part of some historical moment personally and more importantly collectively, and I think thats what we have the chance to do today, said UT Brownsville President Juliet Garcia, adding that the Valley universities have been dreaming of having access to public endowment money, called the Permanent University Fund, for years.
If two-thirds of both chambers approve the proposal, that could become a reality.
UT-Pan American President Robert Nelsen told senators that his university has far fewer square feet per student than other state schools because it has not had access to PUF money.
He added that the need for the consolidated Valley university goes beyond bricks-and-mortar to address the education and healthcare needs of the region, saying his wife had waited more than six hours to see a doctor at one point.
Nelsen played off the fast-growing regions nickname, the Magic Valley, saying, the magic in the Valley is the people and we have a chance to make a difference in their lives.
If we dont get it right in South Texas, we dont get it right in the nation and we certainly dont get it right in the state, he said.
- Jennifer R. L
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The majority of students in computer science department graduate programs are from overseas, a percentage that is rising, according to the latest data from the Computing Research Association (CRA).
Of all the students enrolled in computer science Ph.D. programs in the 2011-12 academic year, 60% are nonresident aliens, a new high, the CRA said.
Overall, there were 1,929 Ph.D. degrees granted last year, also the highest level ever, an 8.2% increase over 2010-11.
The Ph.D. data covers enrollments. But for master’s programs, the CRA reports the number of computer science department graduates. Fforeign students made up 53.8% of those graduates last year. That figure was was at 51.8% in 2009-10, and slightly lower, 47.8%, in 2010-11.
But in undergraduate programs, the number of foreign students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree is just a fraction of the overall class.
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Taking another plunge, this past week I threw myself into trying to read “real” Swedish poetry again. By “real,” I mean poems that were written in Swedish by native speakers for an audience of native speakers. In other words, not poems that are simplified to help me pick up Swedish faster. I broke out a book of poems by Edith Södergran, curled up with a good cup of kaffe, and went to town. It probably helped that I had read these poems sparingly in college, but nonetheless I fell right back into the rhythm of her poetry and did not struggle to understand everything. It was a
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If you know someone between the ages of 6 and 18 who has made a difference in your community, then you can nominate them for the Kohls Cares Scholarship Program. People making the nominations must be at least 21 years of age. Nominations have to be in before March 15, 2013.
This contest is sponsored by Kohls department stores. They give away $10,000 every year in scholarships to young community service activists.
When you fill out the nomination form, describe in full the young persons community service efforts. What kind of volunteer work have they done and how has it benefited the community or the recipients of the volunteerism? The only stipulation is that the volunteer work must have taken place within the last year.
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Bills blog, The Literacy Adviser, points teachers to the amazing free resources which are out there on the on the web. It is also a place where Bill shares his personal views on education. He taught secondary English for a number of years but for the past four years has been working as an independent Literacy consultant. Bi
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You want the inside of your head to be an interesting place to spend the rest of your life. That marvelous quote is meant to explain the purpose of college. Its from Judith Shapiro, former president of Barnard, but it comes to me from Diana Senechal, my go-to person for the beauty of an intellectual life. Just three months ago, I had the privilege of publishing Senechal (and that quote) in American Educator, the quarterly journal of educational research and ideas from the American Federation of Teachers. As the editor, I had a terrific job: I listened to teachers and did my best to express their questions, concerns, and ideas to some of the nation’s top scholars. Most of those scholars then agreed to write for American Educator—and what a wonderful array of generous people they were.
But one stood out: E. D. Hirs
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