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The latest higher education news from The Texas Tribune.

  • Texplainer: What is UTIMCO?

    By Reeve Hamilton

    The simple answer: It's the acronym for University of Texas Investment Management Company, a nonprofit company with a single client, the University of Texas System (and, to a lesser extent, the Texas A&M University System). With the universities it serves under pressure not to hike tuition rates even though fewer state dollars are flowing their way, the company's performance will be under intense scrutiny this session — and UTIMCO officials are still recovering from last session's showdown over their generous bonuses. To explain all this for us, we called in an expert: CEO Bruce Zimmerman. Full Story 

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  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    The Trib staff on the sweeping cuts in the proposed House budget, Grissom on what's lost and not found at the Department of Public Safety, Galbraith on the wind power conundrum, Hamilton on higher ed's pessimistic budget outlook, Stiles and Swicegood debut an incredibly useful bill tracker app, Ramsey interviews Rick Perry on the cusp of his second decade as governor, Aguilar on a Mexican journalist's quest for asylum in the U.S., Ramshaw on life expectancy along the border, M. Smith on the obstacles school districts face in laying off teachers and yours truly talks gambling and the Rainy Day Fund with state Rep. Jim Pitts: The best of our best from January 17 to 21, 2011. Full Story 

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  • A Plea For Fairness

    By Reeve Hamilton

    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. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • All UT, All The Time

    By Ian Crawford

    In a match made in Longhorn athletics heaven, the University of Texas and ESPN have struck a deal to launch a 24-hour TV network that’s all UT, all the time. As Ian Crawford of KUT News reports, it's a lucrative venture for UT, which says it'll use the network for more than just athletics. Full Story 

  • TribBlog: Killing Them With Contact

    By Reeve Hamilton

    Among the most controversial issues in House Bill 1, the base budget, is its denial of state funding to four community colleges. While the bill does not represent a final decision, critics say presenting the proposed budget executions this way is as dangerous as the methodology behind the decision is misleading. Full Story 

    State Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, lays out House Bill 1.

  • A Stiff Cocktail of Budget Cuts

    By Texas Tribune Staff

    The Texas House has unveiled a $156.4 billion budget that's $31.1 billion smaller than the current two-year spending plan — a drop of 16.6 percent. The proposed budget came with $1.2 billion in recommendations for savings and new revenue from the Legislative Budget Board. Full Story 

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  • The Legal Limit

    By Reeve Hamilton

    Texas produces more law school graduates than it has jobs for. But that hasn’t stopped some lawmakers from proposing that the state build a new law school in the Valley. Full Story 

    State Rep. Eddie Lucio III, D-San Benito
    Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera

  • Branch: Higher Ed Cuts Unavoidable

    By Elise Hu

    As state leaders grapple with a budget shortfall that could be as high as $27 billion, state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, who chaired the House Higher Education Committee in 2009, offers up some possible cuts to higher education. Full Story 

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  • Shades of Burnt Orange

    By Reeve Hamilton, The Texas Tribune, and Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report

    In August, 60 years after the University of Texas admitted its first black student, the school welcomed the first incoming freshman class in its history in which white students were in the minority. The state’s flagship university passed the demographic milestone earlier than some had anticipated, reflecting a similar shift that is rapidly taking place at other top-level universities across the country. While the changing demographics of college campuses may grab the headlines, the more compelling issue is how the growing number of minority students presents serious social and academic challenges for financially strapped universities, even as they are under pressure to boost graduation rates. Full Story 

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    Credit: Spencer Selvidge

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Ramshaw on how hard it is to sue over emergency room mistakes, Galbraith on paying for roads in an era of fuel-efficient vehicles, Aguilar on a disagreement about gun regulation, my interview with tort reformer Dick Trabulsi, Grissom on Perry's parsimonious pardoning, Hu and Chang interactively look at House committee chairs, M. Smith on an election challenge and who'll settle it, Ramshaw and Stiles on Dallas County's blue streak and Hamilton on a Valley school district that leads the nation in preparing kids for college: The best of our best from Dec. 20 to 24, 2010. Full Story 

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  • Kid's College

    By Reeve Hamilton

    In the 1980s, when the state’s education accountability systems were first put into place, Hidalgo’s high school was ranked among the bottom 10 percent of all schools in academic performance. Today, its students graduate at higher rates than the state average, and 98 percent complete a recommended or distinguished curriculum — all thanks to an unprecedented level of collaboration between local leaders in public and higher education that has permeated Hidalgo for the last five years and is taking hold elsewhere in the Rio Grande Valley, providing new opportunities in some of the country’s poorest counties. Full Story 

    Students in the Hidalgo Independent School District physics classroom work on a project on acceleration with a sloped ramp in a regular science class at Hidalgo Early College High School.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Evan Smith

    Ramsey on what a GOP supermajority means, Ramshaw on a crime victim not eligible for crime victims' compensation, M. Smith on grave matters and state regulation, Hamilton on the college pipeline at San Antonio's Jefferson High, Hu on a senator's anticlimactic return, Grissom on the coming closure of juvenile lockups, Aguilar on the return of residents to their drug-war-torn Mexican town, Galbraith on next session's energy agenda, Philpott on the legal fight over federal health care reform and Stiles on the travel expenses of House members: The best of our best from Dec. 13 to 17, 2010. Full Story 

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  • Free Advice

    By Reeve Hamilton

    The interim principal of San Antonio's Thomas Jefferson High believes that the current juniors will be the school’s first with a 100 percent graduation rate and that many will go on to respected universities. One key factor: Allison Najera, a 2010 University of Texas graduate placed at Jefferson through a new program: the Texas College Advising Corps. Full Story 

    TCAC adviser, Allison Najera and Cynthia McCarty, head guidance counselor at Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio
    Credit: Reeve Hamilton

  • Him Again

    By Elise Hu

    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. Full Story 

    State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, at the Texas GOP Convention in June, 2010
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich