What to Make of the New Medical School and the Tuition Freeze
Thursday was a big day for The University of Texas at Austin. The UT System Board of Regents met and made some decisions that will have lasting effects on our alma mater, the value of our degrees, and the state of Texas.
In short, the regents approved funding to go toward building a medical school in Austin. They also froze undergraduate tuition for in-state students. Every other UT System institution that asked to raise in-state undergrad tuition got to raise it. Only UT-Austin did not.
I’d like to draw your attention to President Powers’ thoughtful and measured response to their decisions. Please read it.
I also urge you to educate yourself on how the University is funded. The University’s ability to deliver excellence depends on a sustainable funding model. Short-term funding, while nice, won’t help UT achieve its mission of becoming the top public teaching and research university in the country.
Here is President Powers’ reaction:
Regents act on medical school funding and UT Austin tuition
As you may have now heard, today the UT Board of Regents took actions that will have profound effects on our university.
The Board voted to allocate $25 million recurring, with an additional $5 million for eight years, to fund a medical school in Austin. This allocation — along with a pending $250 million commitment from the Seton Healthcare Family for a new teaching hospital — moves us closer than ever to bringing a medical school to UT Austin. The founding of a medical school at UT would be an enormous event in the life of the University, would offer dramatic new opportunities for our students and our faculty, and would advance health care in Central Texas.
Nevertheless, I’m disappointed to report that the Board declined to adopt our tuition recommendation. Instead it voted to freeze undergraduate tuition at its current level for Texas residents at UT Austin for the next two years. It did allocate $6.6 million of non-recurring money from the Available University Fund (the endowment from the West Texas oil lands) for those same two years. It adopted our request for a 3.6 percent increase for graduate students but declined to adopt it for the second year. Tuition for out-of-state undergraduates will increase by 2.1 percent for two years rather than 3.6 percent as we requested. The tuition freeze was not applied to any other UT System school.
While many students naturally will welcome the news of a tuition freeze, we should understand the serious consequences for UT Austin and for the ability of Texans to benefit from strong public universities.
Our university is supported financially by four pillars: state funding, tuition, research grants, and philanthropy. State support in constant dollars per UT student has fallen for more than a quarter century. With a multi-year tuition freeze, the second pillar of our funding structure effectively will be cut each year by the rate of inflation. While we appreciate the AUF allocation, it will provide less than half of the increase we had planned for. Moreover, a one-time allocation, however much it might mitigate short-term problems, cannot substitute for stable, recurring, sustainable funding needed to support long-term efforts aimed at student success.
This action inevitably will affect our ability to teach our students and make new discoveries. Our tuition proposal, which was unanimously recommended by the students on UT’s Tuition Policy Advisory Committee, was dedicated to fund initiatives to enhance student success, improve four-year graduation rates, and increase scholarships.
As we prepare for next year’s budget, I will work with faculty, students, staff, and our administrative leadership to address how we use our resources to protect the quality of education here at UT.
The University of Texas has pursued excellence and has steadily grown stronger for 129 years. I am committed to protecting the quality of a UT education for Texans, for our children, and for our grandchildren.
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For the BCS, “Playoff” No Longer a Dirty Word
For years, fans—right up to the president of the United States—have been arguing about the justice (and injustice) of the Bowl Championship Series.
Playoff was the forbidden “p” word. Well, now commissioners say they’ve agreed to start using it.
Eleven conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director want to limit the playoff to four teams starting in the 2014 season.
Sports Illustrated says falling back to the old way is a long shot. Rick Reilly of ESPN rejoices.
There will be kinks to be worked out, of course. The power brokers have to figure out how to pick the teams, where and when to play the games, and how bowls might or might not fit in.
We bet Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds, a longtime playoff proponent, is excited. But what could this mean for the Longhorns in your humble opinion? Let the discussion commence.
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Everything’s Hotter in LA, Including the Texas Chili
Last Saturday President Powers and I had the honor of being guest judges at the Texas Exes Los Angeles Chapter’s fifth annual chili cook-off. Chili is a food type I enjoy sparingly, so to speak. But spending a day with a bunch of Texas Ex-patriots to celebrate our University and Texas culture, all for the higher good of raising money for students—now that was something I could get into by the heaping spoonful.
Our task was to judge 13 chilis, eight traditional and five “non-traditional.” While there were many delectable entries, I’m pleased to report that a traditional Texas chili prevailed. President Powers took his judging very seriously, considering each thoughtfully, and employing a detailed analysis to rate the submissions. The picture above also shows chili extraordinaire and fellow judge James “Big Boy” Medlin, who helped us pick the winner.
More than 150 Texas Exes attended and helped raise more than $1,500 for the LA Chapter Scholarship fund. All in all, the event was a Texas-sized success and showed our purpose of championing the University as a formidable network of good-hearted people in action.
Less than two weeks from today, on May 12, it will be chili once more, this time at the Texas Exes New York Chapter cook-off. I’m sure the competition will be equally as fierce and the company just as passionate about The University of Texas. I only hope my stomach has recovered by then.
I’d like to thank the LA Chapter for hosting the event. I’m so pleased to know that such a proud group of alumni are representing us well on the West Coast. You do Texas and the University proud!
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Creepy Crawlers Draw Crowd to Insecta Fiesta
Can’t see this slideshow? Click here.
How would you react if a 6-inch bug, (an Australian Spiny Walking Stick, to be exact) with antennae spinning calculatedly through the air, crawled across your fingers?
“Whooaaa!” was the reaction from a mesmerized group of children, colliding into each other’s tiny bodies for a chance to touch the harmless but rather intimidating specimen. Behind the horde of youngsters, parents clasped their faces in shock at their children’s bravery.
But the Australian Spiny Walking Stick was only one of the 40 live species of insects at the first annual Insecta Fiesta, hosted by UT’s Texas Natural Science Center at the Brackenridge Field Laboratory.
Saturday’s family-friendly event featured a wide range of activities for both kids and adults, including a butterfly garden, an arts and crafts tent, bug-shaped bicycles fitted with giant butterfly wings, informative talks about insect species and preservations, and even a cricket-spitting contest.
Among the event-goers were 150 teachers from across the state of Texas picking up tips and information about incorporating insects into their classroom lessons.
“We want to educate, excite, and inform about insects,” said Dr. John Abbott, the center’s curator of entomology. “We want people to know what we’re all about.”
Though this was the lab’s biggest annual event, it also offers training workshops throughout the year to K-12 teachers in Texas. The Natural Science Center also boasts some of the most expansive paleontology collections in the nation.
On Saturday, though, the bugs were the main attraction. After the kids excitedly observed the Australian Walking Stick, African Emperor scorpions, and gargantuan Southeast Asian grasshoppers, the parents appeared slightly relieved to head over to the butterfly garden, a flowery haven of bugs a little more familiar, and a lot easier on the eyes.
Photos by Jeff Heimsath.
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See Gulf Seafloor Live Through Longhorn-Led Expedition [Watch]
If you’re reading this, that means you’re not doing any kind of crazy fast from media today. And that means there’s at least a 98 percent probability that you’ve heard that today marks exactly two years since the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill began.
You’ve no doubt heard sound bites from scientists, fishermen, and natives around the Gulf of Mexico weighing in on whether things seem back to normal.
But have you seen what it really looks like underwater now?
Well, check it out. Jamie Austin, a senior research scientist at UT’s Institute for Geophysics, is leading the third leg of the 56-day expedition by the ship Okeanos Explorer.
The expedition’s aims include charting swaths of the Gulf seafloor, surveying diverse deep-sea habitats and marine life, studying natural oil and gas seeps, and even visiting shipwrecks.
With regard to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the team is testing a new technique using sound to measure the flow of naturally occurring oil and gas seeps not far from where the namesake oil rig exploded in 2010, killing 11.
Watch live streams here. Read more on UT’s Know website.
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Fun Times at Forty Acres Fest
Finals stress is starting to crescendo, but UT students took time out this weekend to relax and celebrate the good life as Longhorns.
Forty Acres Fest brought hundreds of revelers to the heart of campus for a games extravaganza, organizational fair, and indie rock concert. About 100 student groups participated in the fully student-run event, and rockers Minus the Bear closed things out with a show.
We’ll let the visuals speak for themselves. If you’re not a student, they’ll make you wish you still were!
Can’t see this slideshow? Click here.
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On Losing B Rapoport
Last Thursday, The University of Texas lost another great legend. Bernie Rapoport, known to many as “B”, was an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, a community leader, a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a Longhorn.
Rapoport received a bachelor’s degree in economics from The University of Texas at Austin in 1939. He chaired the University of Texas Board of Regents, and served on many more university advisory boards. Mr. Rapoport gave endless amounts of time and dedication to this great University. He was honored in 1997 with the Distinguished Alumni Award.
He will be missed, but his legacy lives on in scholarships and multiple endowed chairs and professorships, as well as through the educations he enabled and the minds he helped equip. He personified the lifetime of service for which we hope all our alumni strive.
To his wife Audre and his family: On behalf of 400,000 alumni and 94,000 members of the Texas Exes, thank you for sharing Bernie Rapoport with the University of Texas at Austin. The blessing of his life and service lives on at the Forty Acres forever.
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UT Gets First in String of Longhorn Network’s Academic Benefits
The University has received its first academic benefit provided by earnings from the Longhorn Network.
Professor Andrea Giunta has been appointed to the new Endowed Chair in Latin American Art History and Criticism in the College of Fine Arts’ Department of Art and Art History, which was funded by an allocated $1 million from the network.
“Professor Giunta is one of the world’s leading authorities on modern and contemporary Latin American art,” said Douglas Dempster, dean of the College of Fine Arts. “She brings great distinction to the University’s extensive faculty and special collections in Latin American Studies.”
The Longhorn Network proceeds will also go toward academic chairs in philosophy, physics, the Texas Program in Sports and Media, African and African Diaspora Studies, and mathematics.
Andrea Giunta. Photo courtesy the College of Fine Arts.
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Farewell to a UT Trailblazer
Last Thursday the University of Texas family lost a true pioneer on this campus, and a giant among Texas Exes.
John Chase was not only the first African American to attend graduate school at the University of Texas—he was also the first African-American president of the Texas Exes.
In 1992, he was named a Distinguished Alumnus for his significant contributions to our University as well as to the field of architecture, including work on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.
John was known around the Texas Exes as humble, graceful, and a great family man. For his leadership and contributions, the Texas Exes are extremely grateful for his dedication and service to our organization.
Our sincere condolences go out to John’s entire family—I know he will be sorely missed not only by you, but also by many members of his UT family.
John Chase enrolls at UT on June 7, 1950. Read more about John’s life and work here.
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Scenes From the Texas Relays, Star-Studded Symposium
Thousands of visitors have hit Austin this weekend for the 85th annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays. Hundreds more are competing.
And stars like India Arie, Aaron Ross, and and Keisha Knight Pulliam are in town for the Minority Mentorship Symposium that women’s track and field coach Bev Kearney put on for the sixth year.
What can we say in the face of such a dynamic event? We’ll let the visuals speak for themselves. (Can’t see the slideshow? Click here.)
Photos by Jeff Heimsath
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