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Kate McGee covers higher education for The Texas Tribune. She joins after nearly a decade as a reporter at public radio stations across the country. She most recently covered higher ed at WBEZ in Chicago, but started on the education beat in 2013 at KUT in Austin. She has also worked at NPR affiliates in Washington D.C., New York City and Reno, Nevada. Kate was born in New York City and primarily raised in New Jersey. She graduated from Fordham University. Her work has appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Here and Now, and The Takeaway.
University officials said Wednesday that the decision to keep the Ross statue in place is not a new one, and that the diversity committee that has been studying the issue for the past three months was never considering removing the statue. Full Story
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“While some universities have attempted to ignore demands surrounding symbols, names and iconography, in the majority of cases, they have been unsuccessful, and by inadequately addressing the issue, increased reputational damage,” a committee report says referring to the debate about the Confederate monument. Full Story
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Students of color said they feel most of their calls to eliminate racist symbols from campuses have been ignored or intentionally mired in lengthy, bureaucratic processes intended to delay answers to difficult questions. Full Story
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The new weekly test requirement is possible with the help of a new multimillion-dollar, on-campus lab that produces test results in less than 24 hours. Full Story
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The former state senator, speaking publicly for the first time about the October incident, said she was not surprised by last week's insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, criticizing Republicans for emboldening Trump supporters to act lawlessly. Full Story
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The flagship university in Austin is urging students to space out their return to campus for spring semester to reduce the spread of COVID-19 as cases in Travis County reach record highs. Full Story
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Texas lawmakers and other officials have taken the lead on baseless lawsuits that sought to dismiss the results of the presidential election and have tried to rally Trump supporters to protest his loss. Full Story
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“We are unable to pinpoint our initial exposure, as we ... made the difficult decision to celebrate Christmas with just our own household this year,” Bonnen, who is retiring from the House, wrote on his Facebook page. Full Story
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The move comes after Congress passed a stimulus bill Monday extending the federal moratorium on evictions through the end of January. The moratorium order was set to expire at the end of the year. Full Story
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Universities across Texas and nationwide are seeing an increase in online cheating since the start of the pandemic, as students take more virtual courses and test remotely with less supervision. Full Story
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The gifts to Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M International University are the largest in history for each school. Full Story
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“We are pausing all football team activities and shutting down football training facilities to get a COVID-19 spread among our football program under control,” Chris Del Conte, UT-Austin athletic director, said in a statement. Full Story
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Texas Tech and UT-El Paso ended up on opposite ends of the spectrum in how they approached the fall semester, facing the unprecedented educational and safety challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Both universities are planning more of the same in the spring. Full Story
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National data shows just 24% of Texas high school seniors have filled out federal financial aid forms, a nearly 15% decline from the same time last year. Full Story
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System Chancellor John Sharp is recommending John L. Junkins, distinguished professor of Aerospace Engineering, as interim president. Full Story
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The salary is still pending final approval by the UT System Board of Regents, who meet this week. Full Story
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Few Texas universities — some of which have been identified as coronavirus hot spots — have explicitly encouraged students to quarantine for 14 days before Thanksgiving or required exit testing, despite staggering rises in case counts across the state and country. Full Story
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Multiple Texas universities are planning in-person graduation ceremonies this December, despite the fact that the state’s daily COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations are higher today than they were in May when most universities first scrambled to cancel the celebratory events. Full Story
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Texas A&M confirmed the new cases as football programs across the country continue to face postponements and cancellations while trying to finish the season during a pandemic. Full Story
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After a tense four days of vote-counting in battleground states, all of the country's major networks called the race Saturday after declaring that the two-term former vice president had won Pennsylvania. Full Story
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