Waco’s vibrating with a rumor that the Texas-born lawyer nationally known as the independent counsel who ran Bill Clinton to ground will be named president of Baylor University this week.
Higher Education
Coverage of universities, colleges, student issues, and education policy shaping Texas’ campuses, from The Texas Tribune.
From Bust to Boom
The recession has caused a spike in enrollment at two-year schools like Austin Community College, which now educates more than 40,000 students — within striking distance of the great behemoth, the University of Texas at Austin.
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Thevenot on the abysmally low community college graduation rate and higher ed’s coming budgetary winter. Ramshaw on Terri Hodge’s guilty plea and hasty exit. Grissom on the Department of Public Safety’s use of dreaded federal stimulus funds to plug a hole in the state’s border security budget. Hu on the first of the intraparty face-offs in our Primary Color series. Ramsey and Stiles on the congressional candidates with the most money on hand. Ramsey on whether Farouk Shami’s accent and name are an obstacle to his election. Aguilar on the fever-tick epidemic overwhelming South Texas. Rapoport on TxDOT’s hard road and the State Board of Education’s lack of finance expertise. Philpott on how Barack Obama’s budget will impact Texas. M. Smith on whether lawyers giving to judges is a good thing. Hamilton on the latest transportation innovations on the drawing board. The best of our best from February 1 to 5, 2010.
Burned Orange
A clash over a beloved campus music club at UT-Austin portends the gnashing of teeth at schools statewide as a budgetary winter threatens to envelop higher education.
A Matter of Degrees
Community colleges pitch themselves as the gateway to prosperity for lower-income students who’ve been historically shut out of higher education. Trouble is, despite increasing enrollment numbers, few of them graduate.
No Experience Necessary
Few members of the State Board of Education have finance expertise. Should we be concerned that they manage the investments of the $23 billion Permanent School Fund?
Ticked
The worst outbreak of fever-tick infestations in South Texas in four decades has ranchers and animal-health officials scrambling to prevent not just a loss of billions to the state cattle’s industry but an outright ban on our cattle.
Paperless Medicine: Training the eWorkforce
If doctors in Texas are going to start using electronic medical records, somebody has to teach them how to do it. The state’s universities are gearing up to teach the teachers.
Paperless Medicine?
Three challenges stand between Texas and the era of electronic medical records: convincing doctors to use them, figuing out how to safely share and protect them and finding a way to pay for them.
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Hu explores on the schism between Bushworld and Perrywold and the increasingly curious question of what Debra Medina wants; Stiles goes all Shark Week on gubernatorial campaign finance, with searchable databases, bubble maps and word clouds; M. Smith on what happens if there’s a GOP runoff; Rapoport on the sniping between Perry and KBH on transparency; Hamilton on KBH’s abortion issue odyssey; Ramshaw exposes the disgracefully low percentage of state school employees who abuse or kill profoundly disabled Texans and are then prosecuted for their acts; Thevenot on higher ed’s tuition time bomb; Aguilar on the Latino pay gap; Ramsey on Farouk Shami’s “gift” to Hank Gilbert; Ramsey and Philpott on the the Supreme’s Court’s corporate campaign cash fallout; and E. Smith’s interviews with House Speaker Joe Straus with retiring Republican state representative — and future Texas State chancellor? — Brian McCall. The best of our best from January 18 to 22, 2010.

