Topics in this week’s TribCast include the Texas GOP convention, the ongoing back-and-forth between the Perry and White camps, and the near-dissolution of the Big 12 conference.
Higher Education
Coverage of universities, colleges, student issues, and education policy shaping Texas’ campuses, from The Texas Tribune.
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Higher Education
TribBlog: “The Conference Formerly Known as the Big 12”
Now that the central question of tomorrow’s House Higher Ed Committee meeting on athletic conference realignments has been answered, Chairman Dan Branch says there’s no need for the show to go on.
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Higher Education
TribBlog: No Fury Like A Wentworth Scorned
State Sen. Jeff Wentworth calls new Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall a “Johnny-come-lately opportunist” and says he knows who should have gotten the job: state Sen. Jeff Wentworth.
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Higher Education
TribBlog: Political Football [Updated]
Shopping for a new athletic conference? Make sure the political alignment matches up with the school alignment.
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Higher Education
Going the Distance
Increasing numbers of college students are attending classes, and even completing some degree programs, online — an innovation that could be welcome in an era of rising enrollments and shrinking budgets. But virtual higher ed has its critics, who say the distance learning model will never match what one lawmaker terms the “interpersonal Aristotle style” of education.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Ramsey on what the new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll says about the governor’s race, education, immigration, and other issues; Grissom on a far West Texas county divided over Arizona’s immigration law; Ramshaw talks health care reform and obesity in Texas with a legendary Dallas doctor; M. Smith on the Collin County community that’s about to break ground on a $60 million high school football stadium; Aguilar on the backlog of cases in the federal immigration detention system; Philpott of the Green Party’s plans to get back on the ballot; Hu on the latest in the Division of Workers’ Comp contretemps; Mulvaney on the punishing process of getting compensated for time spent in jail when you didn’t commit a crime; Hamilton on the fight over higher ed formula funding; and my sit-down with state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin: The best of our best from May 24-28, 2010.
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Higher Education
Gaming the Systems
Should we base the funding of state universities on course completion rather than enrollment? The commissioner of higher education says yes. Some state lawmakers say no — not until we attack the manipulation of the financing formula by the higher ed lobby.
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Economy
A Lousy Grade
More than two-thirds of Texans say their confidence in the state’s public schools ranges from shaky to nonexistent, according to the new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll. A majority of Texans believe that crime, low academic standards, lack of parental involvement and not enough funding are “major” problems that public schools face — but two-thirds say “too much religion in the schools” is not a problem.
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Higher Education
Data App: More University Pay
The top professors and administrators at Texas universities routinely earn between to $250,000 and $500,000 year, while presidents and chancellors earn up to $900,000, according to salary data for more than a dozen universities and university systems added today to the Tribune’s public employee salary database. Some 57 employees at the University of Texas make more than $250,000; by contrast, only 13 employees at Texas Tech make that much.