Gov. Rick Perry announced the appointment of Jeff Hildebrand and Ernest Aliseda, along with the re-appointment of Paul Foster of El Paso, to the University of Texas System Board of Regents on Thursday.

With a number of university system regents coming to the end of their terms, the Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education issued a call for the timely appointment of "well-prepared, devoted, and conflict-free" replacements.

Texas State University in San Marcos on Friday will announce a major gift from the Meadows Foundation. The $1 million donation will help launch the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment.

According to news reports, former U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, on leave from his position as dean of Texas A&M University's Bush School of Government and Public Service, is facing charges for drunken driving and a hit and run.

Sam Houston State University administrators credit a nationally recognized advising center for moving their graduation rates in the right direction.

Texas Southern University has the state's lowest graduation rate, but TSU President John Rudley says that steps are being taken to put the university on the right track.

The four-year graduation rates at Texas' public universities are staggeringly low. State officials acknowledge the numbers are dismal and are working to improve them. But not all higher ed leaders buy into the notion that such metrics matter.

Texas State University President Denise Trauth expects the institution's new emerging research classification to enhance its reputation and help in the recruitment of students and faculty.

At this week's TribLive conversation, Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall — a former state lawmaker — reflected on his first legislative session out of office in two decades.

At this week's TribLive conversation, Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall argued for revisiting the formula that determines per-student appropriations in higher ed.

Why do Texas colleges hire former lawmakers to run the show? It's because the key trait for a new chancellor is the ability to attract money, both from donors and from the Legislature.

A mountainous tract of West Texas land that has been a point of contention between the General Land Office and environmental groups will serve a new purpose — a research and educational area for university students.

When UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa unveiled his action plan last week, it was national news. Not so when Brian McCall, chancellor of the Texas State University System, did the exact same thing — a week earlier.

In the wake of well-documented budget woes, the state Legislature took a more than 9 percent chunk out of higher education in the recent session. Some institutions have now raised tuition, and others may soon do the same.

With multiple third-party organizations cropping up, along with a new Legislature-created oversight committee, expect a protracted debate about how best to tackle the state's higher ed problems. 

The B-On-Time Loan Program offers sweet savings if you are a student. But if you are an institution of higher education, the program might be costing you anywhere from a few thousand to millions of dollars.

Every chancellor of a university system in Texas knows — down to the exact, excruciatingly precise percentage point — how much worse higher education fared than other agencies when their current budgets were cut. With the state facing a massive budget shortfall in the next biennium, the chancellors know they're in for another round. But this time they're adamant that they not bear a disproportionate share of the pain.

State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, wasn’t expected back at the Capitol this session after seeking two high-profile higher education jobs over the summer. But both opportunities fizzled, and now the 70-year-old says he’s “gunned up and ready to go” for his seventh term in the Senate — even if he'll return with clout resembling that of a freshman. He’s without the aides who knew him best and stripped of the Jurisprudence Committee he used to chair. Still, his insistence on putting his own political views ahead of his party's could make him a key player at a time when Senate Republicans are a few votes short of a two-thirds majority.