Supporters tell legislators they're ready to go

April 1, 2009

By Rubi Reyes

The University of Houston-Victoria expansion cleared a key legislative hurdle Wednesday.

Legislators in the higher education committees of both state houses expressed no opposition to the move. The Senate committee unanimously approved moving the bill forward.

"We are ready to make the move from a upper-level university to a four-year institution," UHV President Tim Hudson told the Senate committee.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Enrique Rangel

AUSTIN - A Texas House panel on Wednesday held a hearing on various bills that would limit or freeze tuition at the state's public universities but Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance and the chancellors of three other leading universities made this clear to the lawmakers: If you do that it would hurt the entire state, not just the schools and the students.

"If you get us in a position we cannot raise rates and we don't get additional funds from the state we are going to become a Third-World state as far as higher education is concerned," Hance told the nine-member Higher Education Committee. "We do not want that, we can't have that, in my opinion. One size-fits-all will not work."

Posted on Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Op-Ed - Royce West, Dan Branch, Tom Leppert and Lee Jackson

Jimmy, a disabled Army veteran who served in Bosnia, dreams of becoming a lawyer "to help as many people as possible."

But Jimmy, a 36-year-old paralegal in Addison, is not the so-called traditional law school applicant. His wife has an established career as an accountant, and the couple supports his disabled mother-in-law in Wylie. To attend law school, Jimmy would rely on the Hazlewood Act, which provides educational benefits to honorably discharged Texans. However, the program is only available for public institutions, and North Texas lacks a public law school.

The Texas Legislature has the power to change the ending to Jimmy's story and help other students who have put legal education plans on

Tuesday, April 22, 2009

With more than 24 million Texans and only three national Tier One academic research universities – UT-Austin, Texas A&M and Rice – it's no wonder that our top schools have more outstanding applicants than they can admit.

Legislation filed by Sen. Florence Shapiro and myself seeks to ease admissions pressures resulting from the Top 10 percent rule by ensuring that high-demand universities can still choose a material percentage of their freshman class on a holistic basis. A partner piece of legislation, House Bill 51, recently passed out of the House Higher Education Committee, creates additional options by encouraging more universities to reach Tier One status.

More than ever, economic progress and cultural advancement are linked inextricably to research and education. Texas lags significantly behind peer states in national research universities, with nine in California and seven in New York. We are engaged in a global contest for

Thurssday, April 9, 2009

By Mohini Madgavkar

A House bill to turn a program at UT into an independent school has drawn criticism from faculty members.

State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, introduced a bill to create the School of Ethics, Western Civilization and American Traditions at UT during the House's Higher Education Committee meeting Wednesday.

Students in the school would be required to take 18 hours of Western civilization studies, including courses covering ancient philosophy and

Friday, April 24, 2009

Marcus Funk

Trail Blazers Blog

Today, at the Capitol ...

There are no committee meetings today, and the Senate has an intent calendar with 70+ bills and a local/consent calendar for its 9 a.m. meeting. The Housealso begins a monster hearing at 9 a.m. - they've got no less than 54 bills on tap, more than twice their usual workload. They've also got the first "Major State Calendar" bill of the session. Here are some highlights of the upcoming discussion.

- The state could match, in some cases dollar-for-dollar, certain grants and scholarships awarded to "emerging research universities"

Friday, April 24, 2009

Enrique Rangel

AUSTIN - Texas Tech and six other leading universities in the state aiming to get the prestigious tier-one designation have one less hurdle to overcome.

The Texas Senate Higher Education Committee has voted out two bills that would put the seven schools in the same league as the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M, as well as privately funded Rice University in Houston, the only higher education schools in the state with the title of national research institutions, more commonly known as tier-one or flagship universities.

Senate Bill 9 by Committee Chairwoman Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, and Senate Bill 1560 by Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, and Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, have been sent to the full Senate for consideration, Zaffirini and Duncan said Thursday.

Article Launched: 04/24/2009

By Brandi Grissom / El Paso Times

AUSTIN -- Without some last-minute maneuvering, Texas Tech University is unlikely to receive money this year for a third building on its medical school campus in El Paso, lawmakers said Thursday.

"We've exhausted every revenue source we can think of," said state Rep. Norma Chávez, D-El Paso.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, said the economic crisis and the fact that Texas lawmakers started this year with $9 billion less than they had to write the budget two years ago meant little money was available for new construction projects.

Friday, April 24, 2009

By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz

The Texas House today gave preliminary approval — and then final approval — to legislation intended to boost the number of top-tier research universities in the state.

The measure, House Bill 51, would provide extra funding — assuming the cash is authorized by lawmakers — to reward schools for raising gifts, hiring top faculty members, increasing research and otherwise improving their profile.

Posted on Friday, April 24

By Jackie Stone

AUSTIN, Texas — Seven universities in Texas may soon be competing for money to help them become major research centers under a bill approved by the House Friday.

The measure would create three potential funding pools for "emerging research universities" — but only if the Legislature puts the money into the program.

The House unanimously voted to send the measure to the Senate.

Dallas Republican Rep. Dan Branch, the author of the measure, said 10,000 students a year go out of state because there aren't enough