Days after the end of the special legislative session and on the brink of a holiday weekend, the governor’s office announced the appointment of Barbara Cargill to chair of the State Board of Education.
The City Council voted Wednesday to endorse the Formula 1 racetrack. The vote will most likely bring the Grand Prix to Austin in 2012 — an event that has promised the city a lot while asking for surprisingly little.
Last week, Gov. Rick Perry signed into law a bill that overrides a federal mandate phasing out incandescent lightbulbs. Flying in the face of constitutional authority and judicial precedent, the legislation only scores cheap political points at the expense of solving real problems.
Amid a flurry of outside reports and think tank publications suggesting to universities ways to improve how they teach, it may be tempting to the casual observer to assume that UT lacks meaningful in-house ideas or ways to generate them.
Debating how to deal with a large budget shortfall during this legislative session, lawmakers pressured universities to be “more efficient.” Largely absent from this debate has been the pivotal role that college readiness plays in determining how “efficiently” a university’s teaching operation can be.
Four different U.S. congressmen will represent students living on and around the UT campus, effectively shattering the voting power of a student body numbering 50,000, under the congressional map passed by the Texas Legislature on Tuesday.
In addition to requiring layoffs and heavy cuts to core University programs, the budget will see our insurance costs — premiums, deductibles and co-pays — rise significantly.