UT staff members bustled around craft tables to make 80 fleece blankets at the Thompson Conference Center while laughing, chatting and shouting. The University’s Continuing and Innovative Education program made the blankets Tuesday as gifts for University Charter School students in the Pathfinders Camp program.
Brothers Edwin and Alexis Ramirez practice their newfound chess skills during the Citizen Schools presentation of Arts & Culture WOW! The event focused on giving older students an “opportunity to teach back” to elementary- and middle school-aged children.
Harvard’s endowment — the largest in higher education — fell 22 percent in four months from its June 30 value of $36.9 billion, marking the endowment’s largest decline in modern history, university officials announced. The precipitous drop will require Harvard’s faculties to take a “hard look at hiring, staffing levels and compensation,” wrote University President Drew G.
The University of Alabama’s student newspaper, The Crimson White, has confirmed details with a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity about the hazing incident that resulted in that fraternity’s removal from campus. The fraternity member, who requested to remain anonymous, confirmed the incident, which occurred last month, involved the heating of a metal chair by means of a blowtorch or iron.
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Listeners from 150 cities across the United States as well as in Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico and Venezuela tuned in to Universo, a brief Spanish-language radio program broadcast from UT-Austin, on Sunday. Universo gives brief lessons about the science and history of astronomy.
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Panelists say lessons from the past may help president-elect
Policy changes facing President-elect Barack Obama are similar to those faced by former President Lyndon B. Johnson, said professors and professionals at a symposium Thursday. About 20 panelists met at the LBJ Library and Museum to discuss the lessons Obama can learn from mistakes and successes of the LBJ presidency.
The Senate of College Councils voted Thursday after 40 minutes of debate to unanimously pass Senate Resolution 504, which urges the UT System Board of Regents to “fight against efforts to weaken campus weapons bans both at the state level and federally.
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Students walking near the stadium Thursday afternoon gazed into the sky to see a small plane toting a big message. “HEY MACK, QUIT WHINING, U KNEW THE RULES,” read the sign, which was towed by a single-propeller plane that flew over downtown and campus for a couple of hours.
Repairs on UT’s Biological Greenhouse were completed as of Nov. 12, said Laurie Lentz, communications coordinator for UT Facilities Services. The renovations cost $35,000. On May 15, a hail storm damaged the greenhouse’s glass windows. Problems with electrical wiring also made the greenhouse an unsuitable working environment.
Funds raised will help purchase supplies for school nurse’s office
During final exams, local coffeehouses will provide more than just a caffeine buzz to students by sponsoring a fundraiser for UT Elementary School. Starting Thursday, coffee mugs will be sold for $15 at several coffeehouses around Austin. All the proceeds will go to the elementary school, and those who buy the mugs can have free coffee from Sunday, Dec.
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Nearly one in five individuals ages 19 to 25 suffers from a personality disorder, according to a recent study released in the Archives of General Psychiatry. A team of trained interviewers with no clinical background asked participants about the states of their mental health in the study conducted by a team of researchers from universities nationwide.
Amanda Emery, a junior at the University of Michigan-Flint, was born and raised in a General Motors family. Her parents both logged more than 30 years on the job for the automotive giant — her mother, Cathy, as a skilled welder in a Flint truck plant and her father, Gary, as a company electrician and supervisor.
College preparation, accessibility in other nations outstrip U.S.
Though the United States is improving college preparation and higher education accessibility, other nations are advancing more quickly, according to a national report card on higher education released Wednesday. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education has published evaluations of higher education performance every two years since 2000.
A retired Army general outlined President-elect Barack Obama’s Middle East security challenges on Wednesday. Retired Gen. John Abizaid told a crowd of more than 100 people in the Applied Computational Engineering and Sciences Building that he was hopeful about the tense, complicated situations in the Middle East.
New York University President John Sexton is worried. At a University Senate meeting, the president spoke at length about his concerns regarding the economy and its effects on the college admissions playing field. How will the economic decline hurt the admission’s office, he asked.
LEAGUE CITY, Texas — The future of the state’s oldest medical school — hard hit by Hurricane Ike — and whether Texas should fund recovery programs to complement federal assistance were two of the highlights of a legislative hearing Wednesday looking at the state’s response to the storm.
Radio-television-film junior ‘made time for friends and family’
Josh Talbot, a radio-television-film junior, was confident of what his future would bring. He took all the right classes and got that perfect internship. He had the passion, the drive and the plan to propel him into his dream career as a graphic animator.
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Capital Metro and the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization staff completed on Monday the first of two planning stages for a proposed commuter rail running east of Austin along U.S. Highway 290. Capital Metro and the planning organization presented the results of the planning stage for the Green Line commuter rail to the Transit Working Group, which will decide the rail’s fate.
Professors receive award for chemical engineering UT engineering professors Donald Paul and Nikolaos Peppas received the 2008 Founders Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Chemical Engineering on Monday from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
More students are opting to prolong their education past an undergraduate degree, according to a recent study. The number of earned doctorates has increased by 5.4 percent since 2007, according to the National Science Foundation’s first report from an annual survey of doctoral-degree recipients.
Single-cell creature could offer insight into fossil record
Once called “high-tech poo,” a newly discovered single-cell organism may shed light on the evolutionary origin of animals, said UT biologist Mikhail Matz. Matz said the deep-sea creatures, called Bahamian Gromia, could offer a new understanding of fossil records.
Business freshman Austin Slims, right, aims at a cue ball while sociology freshman Andrew Grainey waits his turn during a pool game at the Union.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has helped improve education in Afghanistan by facilitating the construction of 19 universities in the country since 2001, said NATO Deputy Chairman Karl Eikenberry on Monday at UT’s Connally Center for Justice.
Scientists reconsider assumptions about Mars’ lifeless climate
The discovery of glaciers beneath blankets of rocky debris on Mars is causing some scientists to rethink climate change on Mars and ponder the possibility of Martian organisms existing on the fourth planet from the sun. Scientists were aware that most of the ice on the planet was in the polar caps, but the ice discovered is in the temperate latitudes, neither near the poles nor the equator, said Jeffrey Plaut, planetary geoscientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
A student rides his bike past the pedestrian bridge between the GSB and UTC on Monday afternoon. Traffic near UT’s largest library increases at the end of the term with students preparing for finals.
DALLAS — On the day marking the 45th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, some 500 people crowded into Dallas’ Dealey Plaza to remember one of the most tragic moments in American history. People stood shoulder-to-shoulder and bowed their heads during a moment of silence at 12:30 p.
Schools suffering economically due to state budget crisis
Due to a state budget crisis, the California State University system plans to cut its enrollment size by 10,000 students next year for the first time. The 23-campus system is the nation’s largest four-year public university system, with enrollment currently at 460,000.
