The latest higher education news from The Texas Tribune.
The Rick O'Donnell saga at the University of Texas System appears to have reached an end. Last week, under threat of a lawsuit, the system agreed to a settlement with the former adviser. Full Story
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You’d think the Aggie consultant would be working for the Aggie candidate. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry isn’t backing down from his push for a “no-frills” approach to higher education. He wants students to move and be moved through the system quickly and efficiently. And if that wasn’t clear enough already, he underscored it with his veto pen. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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Natalie Butler and Christopher Covo, are both student leaders from public universities in Texas. But they find themselves on different sides of the state's ongoing higher education reform debate. Full Story
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An Everybody-in-the-Pool effort on what's left to do in the special session, Ramshaw on a doozy of a congressional race shaping up, Aguilar on the debate over sanctuary cities and other immigration proposals, M. Smith on the state's used-up Rainy Day Fund, Grissom on efforts to kick the special interests out of an insurance fight, Dehn and Tan on whether the special session helps or hurts the governor's national ambitions, Galbraith and KUT Radio team up for a series on the long-term outlook for Central Texas water, Aaronson on government attempts to balance openness and privacy with data releases, yours truly on Amazon's run at a sales tax break, and Hamilton on an ethnic gap in higher education: The best of our best from June 20 to 24, 2011. Full Story
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Only 16 percent of Latino adults have an associate's degree or higher — compared to 33 percent of the total working-aged population in Texas. The national average is 38 percent. Full Story
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Beset by the threat of natural disasters and potential funding difficulties, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment at the University of Texas' McDonald Observatory could turn gravity’s time-honored laws on their head. Full Story
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Aaronson and Murphy visualize what happened to the nearly 5,800 bills introduced in the 82nd Lege, Aaronson, Hasson and Swicegood interactively recap the budget battle, Aguliar on the surge in illegal re-entry cases prosecuted by the Obama administration, Galbraith on a coal plant that wants a water deal from the LCRA, Grissom interviews a man wrongly imprisoned and nearly executed — twice, Hamilton on a controversial UT regent who wants a do-over in the debate over higher ed reform, Ramshaw on the continuing fight over pre-abortion sonograms, Root on Rick Perry's newsmaking trip to NYC and M. Smith on whether cash-strapped school districts will raise taxes: The best of our best content from June 13 to 17, 2011. Full Story
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Earlier this week, we published a quiz to see if readers could distinguish between comments made about higher education by Gov. Rick Perry, University of Texas President Bill Powers, and others. It turns out: They (sometimes) can’t! Full Story
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One certain result of the 82nd Legislative Session is that the University of Texas at Austin will lose a signfiicant amount of funding in the 2012-2013 budget. Nathan Bernier of KUT News interviewed UT-Austin President Bill Powers on the effects of that cut and other session-related matters. Full Story
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We have a special update to the Tribune's government employee salary database, adding recently acquired salary data from the last six agencies missing from the the University of Texas System, Texas Woman's University and the Sabine River Authority. Full Story
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A powerful group of individuals — including former regents, former university system chancellors and former university presidents — from around Texas have joined together to address the state's ongoing higher education controversy. Full Story
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The current controversy dominating the higher education headlines in Texas is nothing if not nuanced. See if you can read between the lines and figure out who made what comment in our latest quiz. Full Story
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Hey, Texplainer: Is is true that sex acts are being taught to college students at state-funded gender and sexuality centers? Full Story
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The Chronicle of Higher Education has released a data interactive showing the education levels of lawmakers nationally. The study shows most Texas legislators are well educated — 48 percent have attained more than a bachelor’s degree. Full Story
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Of the new University of Texas System regents, none has received more scrutiny than Alex Cranberg. After months of controversy, he said the time has come to “push a reset button” on the relationship between the regents and the leadership at UT. Full Story
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Aguilar on a newly exposed rift in the GOP, Dehn on what summer overtime for lawmakers costs taxpayers, Galbraith on one bright spot for environmentalists this session, Grissom on reports of abuse shrouding a death row case, Hamilton on the long slog toward higher education reform, Ramsey on where the Big Three stand, Ramshaw on the filibuster-induced rise of a state senator, Root on Perry's jump into the culture wars, M. Smith on a new wrinkle in the school finance battle and Tan on the "pansexual" debate that nearly killed the crucial fiscal matters bill: The best of our best content from June 6 to June 10, 2011. Full Story
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While you were sleeping last night, lawmakers in the Texas House were engaged in a passionate debate over "pansexual" politics that nearly killed the entire fiscal matters bill, which is pretty much the main reason they're having a special session. Trust us — this is must-see video. Full Story
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The report on UT teachers' productivity by Richard Vedder and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity is technically accurate — but substantively misleading. A deeper analysis raises troubling questions about how Vedder would change UT. Full Story
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