Over the last 12 years, the University of Texas has increased its merchandising royalties from $600,000 to, most recently, a one-year haul of more than $10.1 million. Not coincidentally, during that period the Longhorns excelled on the football field. This year, however, saw the team’s first losing season since 1997, ending without a bowl game. After enjoying the financial benefits of prolonged success, what will be the cost of failure? And how will it impact UT’s $3 billion capital campaign?
Higher Education
Coverage of universities, colleges, student issues, and education policy shaping Texas’ campuses, from The Texas Tribune.
TribBlog: Taking On Tarleton
Today, leaders from journalism and First Amendment advocacy groups sent a letter to Tarleton State University challenging a controversial and restrictive open-records policy.
John Nielsen-Gammon Audio Interview
An audio interview with John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas’s state climatologist
John Nielsen-Gammon: The TT Interview
The Texas state climatologist on the reasons for rising temperatures, why international science on climate change is fundamentally sound (no matter what state officials say), what he thinks of our fight with the EPA and how long the drought in Central Texas is likely to continue.
TribBlog: Texans OK With Some Higher Ed Cuts
A new survey commissioned by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, finds that 80 percent of Texas voters believe that colleges and universities could be run more efficiently than they are now.
A Conversation With Dan Branch
For the 18th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the Dallas Republican who chairs the House Higher Education Committee about the speaker’s race, how the shortfall runs smack into the ambitious plans of universities and why tying funding to outcomes is the best accountability that tax dollars can buy.
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
M. Smith and Butrymowicz of the Hechinger Institute on charter schools and public schools making nice in the Valley, Ramsey’s interview with House Speaker candidate Ken Paxton and column on the coming budget carnage, Hu on the Legislature’s disappearing white Democratic women, Grissom on the sheriff who busted Willie Nelson, Hamilton talks higher ed accountability with the chair of the Governor’s Business Council, Aguilar on the arrest of a cartel kingpin, Ramshaw on the explosive growth in the number of adult Texans with diabetes, Philpott on state incentive funding under fire and Galbraith on the greening of Houston: The best of our best from November 29 to December 3, 2010.
TribBlog: Big 12 Spenders
Texas universities are likely facing massive budget cuts in the upcoming legislative session — so how are they spending the money they have now, and is there even any room for cuts? A new report offers some clues.
The Weekly TribCast: Episode 57
In this week’s TribCast, Evan, Ross, Elise and Reeve discuss the freshman class at the Lege, the ongoing speaker’s race and potential cuts to higher education.


