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Of pumpkins and physics
William Pieper, a police officer at the University of Texas, has a rare ability to turn a phrase in what could otherwise be a monotonous account of campus crime.
Not that crime is funny. Here’s the latest example of his deft touch in appropriate circumstances. I especially liked his interjection of the laws of physics.
ERNEST COCKRELL JR. HALL, 301 East Keeton
Criminal Mischief: An unknown subject(s) hoisted an unknown number of pumpkins over the retaining wall located on the east side of the 2nd floor patio of the building. Gravity took control of the pumpkins and caused them to plummet to the parking lot below. Gourd debris removal cost: $20.00. Discovered on 10/31/09 at 9:04 AM.
Here’s the full list of the incidents posted today.
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Postscript on the Knight Commission’s report
Earlier this week, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics issued a report describing the rising state of alarm among university presidents regarding the cost of big-time football and basketball programs. What’s more, the presidents feel powerless to control the spiraling expenses.
John Maher, a sharp-eyed sportswriting colleague, alerted me to one passage in the report that is especially candid. Although I’m not big on anonymous quotes, I found the comments telling:
Presidents believe they have limited power to effect change on their own campuses regarding athletics financing and the larger problems it has created. A number of presidential comments suggest the nature of this problem. One comment captured the challenge succinctly: “Presidents of big schools aren’t listening and don’t want to. There are lots of fans and lots of dough working against that. They don’t want to push back against these interests.”
One president observed that “no one can or will stick his neck out”:
The real power doesn’t lie with the presidents; presidents have lost their jobs over athletics. Presidents and chancellors are afraid to rock the boat with boards, benefactors, and political supporters who want to win, so they turn their focus elsewhere.
A more lengthy response came from a non-equity president:
I’ve only been a president of the university for two and a half years, but I’ve observed other presidents close-up. There are schools that have much larger athletics budgets and are selling out their games. That empowers athletics in ways that are hard to resist.
Presidents do find the athletic program provides the opportunity to sell the institution to the larger community and they want to preserve that. Presidents are also expected to raise a lot of money from the private sector and they are trying not to alienate their major donors. Even if major athletic donors are not giving to the rest of the university they can make your life miserable. If you have a lucrative TV contract you want to protect that. Frankly, I would love to have twice the problems I have if it came with twice the revenue.
The “executive summary” containing this passage, as well as an appendix, a news release and other documents, can be viewed at this link to the Knight Commission’s Web site.
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Muny historical marker dedicated
The historical marker for Lions Municipal Golf Course has finally been planted — in a temporary location.
As my able sportswriting colleague, Kevin Robbins, reports in today’s paper, officials dedicated the marker noting the 1951 racial integration of Lions as the first known desegregation of a municipal golf course in the South.
It was placed in a temporary hole on the first tee and will be moved later to the right-of-way along a street adjacent to Muny.
University of Texas System regents are considering recommendations by a consultant to eliminate the course after a lease with the City of Austin expires in 2019 and replace it with a major residential and commercial district.
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Of LBJ and the Smothers Brothers
In the course of preparing a recent article on the new director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, which is on the University of Texas campus, I spent a couple of hours wandering through the museum’s exhibit halls.
I stumbled across something I hadn’t noticed in previous visits: a letter to LBJ from the comedians Tom and Dick Smothers apologizing for their harsh criticism of him and his conduct of the Vietnam war in the late 1960s on their TV show, the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. They even said they would vote for him again. But the left-leaning show was too political for CBS’s taste and the network soon canceled it.
Coincidentally, my wife and I had purchased tickets to the Smothers Brothers appearance with the Austin Symphony Orchestra on Friday. At a reception following their hilarious performance, I had a chance to ask them about the letter to LBJ. They remembered it well.
“We received a very nice letter in return,” Tom Smothers said.
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Professors to debate influence of college football
In “The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values,” authors James L. Shulman and William G. Bowen describe the shocking level of violence in college football in the early 1900s. In 1905 alone, 18 players died, largely as a result of such plays as the Harvard-invented “flying wedge,” in which the offensive team ran en masse into or over one player on the defensive team.
President Theodore Roosevelt summoned the presidents and coaches of Harvard, Yale and Princeton to express his outrage.
That led to the formation of what is now the National Collegiate Athletic Association, charged with improving safety and making sure athletic programs were consistent with “the dignity and high purpose of education.”
More than 100 years later, the question still stands: Is college football a positive influence in American universities?
Two professors at the University of Texas will debate the point next week. Thomas Palaima, left,
a professor of classics, will answer the question in the affirmative; Lino Graglia, a law professor, will take the opposite position. Emma Tran, a student majoring in rhetoric and writing, will moderate. The debate, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday in Room 2.112 of the Recreational Sports Center.
A posting on the College of Liberal Arts’ Web site notes that a 2006 study found that a substantial proportion of the American public believes a university’s athletic success and academic success are connected. Many members of university faculties disagree.
The posting adds: “Palaima, the University of Texas’ representative on the Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics, has been critical of money’s influence on NCAA football while upholding the concept of ‘amateur sports within a true educational context.’ Graglia, an outspoken opponent of large college football programs, has called big-time college football a ‘fraudulent enterprise.’ “
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A&M’s VP search began as sham, article says
Mike McKinney, chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, has told the online publication Inside Higher Ed that Elsa Murano, who resigned as president of the College Station campus under pressure in June, conducted a search for a vice president of research that started out as a sham with a pre-determined outcome but ended up as a real search.
As previously released documents indicated, McKinney said Murano failed to keep her promise to hire the candidate favored by him and the system’s Board of Regents.
Jeffrey Seemann, a dean at the University of Rhode Island, was hired instead. In the meantime, McKinney and the regents brought their favored candidate, Brett Giroir, aboard as the system’s vice chancellor for research.
It was no secret that McKinney and the regents wanted Giroir, formerly with the federal government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, for the research slot at the system’s flagship campus. But this is the first time that McKinney has suggested Murano’s search was just for show.
“She told me ‘I feel like I need to appoint a search committee for the VPR’s office, but I’m still going to get Brett,’ ” McKinney is quoted as telling the publication. “I went ‘Elsa, this is me and I stand up and swear on the Bible, that’s not a search, that’s manipulation.’ I think the only thing worse than not being inclusive is to act like you are and you’re not. That’s manipulation.”
The article says McKinney conceded that he advised Murano on conducting a search with a pre-determined outcome.
“Don’t appoint a big committee,” he told her. Murano has not responded to interview requests.
Here’s what Rod Davis, a spokesman for the A&M System, said when I asked him about the article:
“The quotes are accurate but selective. The spin is often out of context, and reflects the biases of the reporter. It is an op-ed, not a news report, and basically re-hashes long dormant material… We’re not going to comment on this matter anymore.
“I can say that more than once during the interview, Dr. McKinney said that in recounting once again the sequence of events, he did not in any way wish to say anything bad about Dr. Murano, and to stress that he looked forward to working with her.”
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UT-El Paso, other tier-one aspirants rack up donations
Seven public universities in Texas that aspire to become tier-one research institutions have been pursuing donations vigorously. The University of Texas at El Paso is a case in point.
The Hunt Family Foundation recently contributed $1 million to establish an endowed chair in international business and to support the university’s Institute for Policy and Economic Development.
The donation is among six recent gifts, totaling $4.1 million, to UT-El Paso to enhance research and faculty recruitment. University officials said they expect to receive about $3 million in partial matching funds from the state under a program enacted by the Legislature this year and intended to reward tier-one aspirants for fundraising.
The other schools designated by the state as emerging research universities also have racked up millions of dollars in donations to be partially matched by the state. They are Texas Tech University, the University of Houston, the University of North Texas, UT-Arlington, UT-Dallas and UT-San Antonio.
“We saw a valuable opportunity this year to support UTEP in its goal to achieve tier-one status and become a national research university,” said Woody Hunt, chairman of the Hunt Companies and affiliates and a former UT System regent. “Being a tier-one institution will raise UTEP’s profile significantly, and that, in turn, will enhance our region’s ability to compete more effectively, especially on the international level.”
Diana Natalicio, the university’s president, said, “Recognition as a national research university is UTEP’s top priority, and this program demonstrates the progress that can be made when the state’s priorities align with our own.”
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3 tier-one university leaders tout ballot proposal
The leaders of the state’s three tier-one universities — the University of Texas, Texas A&M University and Rice University — have more or less endorsed Proposition 4, an amendment to the Texas Constitution that would free up about $500 million to help several public universities shoot for that lofty status.
I say “more or less” because the trio stopped short of a flat-out endorsement. But the letter they’ve written doesn’t leave much doubt as to their position.
“Significantly, Proposition 4 does not require any new taxes or bonds and puts to work money that today is not benefitting any Texas university,” write William Powers Jr., president of UT; David W. Leebron, president of Rice; and R. Bowen Loftin, interim president of A&M.
Early voting is under way, and Nov. 3 is election day.
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Classes at ACC Pinnacle campus to resume Thursday
The Austin Community College’s Pinnacle campus in Oak Hill is expected to reopen Thursday after repairs are made to the campus electrical system.
A small fire contained to an electrical box Wednesday caused damage to equipment that must be replaced and monitored before the campus reopens, ACC officials said Sunday.
That timetable may be adjusted as the equipment is installed and checked. All other ACC campuses are operating as usual, officials said.
To check for updates, click here.
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Protesters converge on Texas A&M ahead of Obama speech
Hundreds of demonstrators arrived at the Texas A&M campus at College Station on Friday ahead of a speech by President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to appear with former President George H.W. Bush to mark the 20th anniversary of Bush’s “Thousand Points of Light” initiative.
The demonstrations cover a variety of topics, including immigration and health care. Many protesters are carrying signs, sitting in lawn chairs and listening to speeches and bands over loudspeakers.
“Our only true task is networking and organization,” Mike Openshaw from the North Texas Tea Party in Plano said. “The common thread is the belief in governmental fiscal sanity. We’re spending more than we are taking in, and it’s easier to solve the going out than the coming in.”
The largest protest was organized by members of the Texas A&M University’s College Republicans, who arrived at 5 a.m. to claim an 80,000-sq.-ft. section of Spence Park, which university officials say can hold up to 7,000 people. The College Republicans are partnered with the Brazos County Republican Party, the Republican Women of the Brazos Valley and other conservative organizations.
The College Republicans have labeled their demonstration “Hands Off Texas,” while the Young Conservatives of Texas are protesting “Obama’s Socialist Agenda.”
The Young Conservatives said they did not wish to partner with non-student groups. But they have been joined by members of Young Conservative chapters from other Texas schools, including the University of Houston and Baylor University.
Before the event, officials urged students to honor the university’s core values of respect and selfless service. The university president, the student body president, and president Bush all wrote letters to the students urging them to exhibit behavior the university could be proud of.
“I was hoping more people would show up. This is a Christian nation not a Socialist nation,” said Diane Kerr, from Rockport. Asked why there were not more people, Kerr said “Conservatives have jobs. Most of us are working.”
There appeared to be no organized demonstrations by Democrats, but some people were holding protests against the Obama protesters.
Tom White, a freshman at A&M, carried a sign that read “Today is not about politics.”
He said, “There are a lot of posters that are very respectful. There are a lot that are filled with hate. We’re in Aggie land, we should be friendly.”
Obama is scheduled to speak after 5 p.m., officials say.
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Regents approve plan to expand academic medicine in Austin
The governing board of the University of Texas System unanimously approved a plan today to expand medical education and research in Austin through a partnership involving the system, the UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and the Seton Family of Hospitals.
“It really is a historic day for the UT System and Central Texas,” said James Huffines, chairman of the Board of Regents.
The board’s approval comes as no surprise. Officials have been working for years to strengthen academic medicine in Austin. The plan could advance efforts to establish a medical school here, but there are no guarantees.
My story about the plan in today’s paper describes it in greater detail.
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What the Brackenridge proposals cost
Some readers have asked how much the University of Texas System Board of Regents is spending for the Brackenridge tract development proposals by Cooper, Robertson & Partners LLP and its subcontractors.
I’ve previously reported that the maximum possible total of fees and expenses under the Cooper firm’s contract with the regents is $5.1 million.
Here is some additional detail from Florence Mayne, the UT System’s director of real estate:
The total budget is $5,139,882. That budget consists of a professional fee component and a reimbursable expense component.
The total professional fee budgeted is $4,590,782. Of that budgeted amount, $87,552.77 remains to be paid when all work is completed.
The total amount of the fee that Cooper Robertson earned was $2,060,920; the remainder of the budgeted amount (which remainder is $2,529,862) was budgeted for Cooper Robertson to pay its subcontractors (almost all of whom are here in Austin). (UT pays Cooper Robertson, and Cooper Robertson then pays its subs.)
The total expense amount budgeted is $549,100. Of that budgeted amount, a total of $299,481.83 in expenses has been reimbursed.
So, a total of $4,802,711.06 of the overall budgeted amount of $5,139,882 has been paid.
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A postscript on UT cost-cutting
My story in Sunday’s paper about cost-cutting at the University of Texas touched briefly on efforts to save money in athletics.
To elaborate a bit: The men’s and women’s athletics programs are hoping to shave “hundreds of thousands” of dollars a year from their spending, said Chris Plonsky, the women’s athletic director. The goal is to do so without affecting recruiting and other aspects of the university’s competitiveness.
A major focus is on airline travel, hotels and meals, Plonsky said. For example, routine flights must be booked earlier, to take advantage of discounts. Efforts have been ramped up to drive a harder bargain on charter flights and hotels as well.
The athletics programs at UT are essentially self-supporting, thanks largely to income from football. A portion of the $110 million in total annual revenue for athletics is forked over to the UT president’s office for academic purposes.
Here’s how Mary Knight, associate vice president and budget director, explained this and other revenue transfers from athletics:
“Effective fiscal year 2008-09, Athletics provides a minimum of $1M per year for presidential initiatives. Prior to fiscal year 2008-09, the contribution was about $600K per year. In years with exceptional income, such us the 2005-06 football national championship, additional gifts will be made to promote presidential priorities and programs. An additional $1.5M was provided for presidential priorities at that time.
“Additionally, Athletics transfers about $2.8M to cover central administrative support costs provided to Athletics, and to support the University Bands and improvements to the Jamail Swim Center.”
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Texas flags to be lowered for A&M’s Borlaug
Gov. Rick Perry has ordered the lowering of Texas flags to half-staff throughout the state on Tuesday in honor of Norman E. Borlaug, a Nobel laureate at Texas A&M University for whom a public memorial will be held that day.
Borlaug, a professor of international agriculture at A&M, died Sept. 12 in Dallas at the age of 95. The memorial will be at 11 a.m. in Rudder Auditorium on the College Station campus, according to a university news release.
Perry said in a statement that “the world has lost a dedicated researcher and scientist with the passing of Dr. Borlaug, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.
“Dr. Borlaug was widely acclaimed as the founder of the Green Revolution in agriculture and a leading expert in the effort to relieve world hunger. As a mark of respect for this widely regarded researcher and professor, it seems fitting that flags in Texas be lowered to half-staff.”
Borlaug won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for developing high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat that dramatically reduced famine in many developing countries.
A&M’s Web site on Borlaug includes additional information and a portal for writing condolences.
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Yudof still quick with the one-liners
The budget cuts, unpaid furloughs and other financial blood-letting under way at the University of California can’t be much fund for Mark Yudof, who quit the chancellorship of the University of Texas System last year to lead the 10 UC campuses.
But judging by a recent Q and A in The New York Times, Yudof hasn’t lost his sense of humor. For instance, when asked what he thinks of the idea that no administrator at a state university should make more than the president of the United States, $400,000, he replied:
“Will you throw in Air Force One and the White House?”
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‘Notes from Dr. Mike’ takes indirect note of UT
In the latest online video message in a series dubbed “Notes from Dr. Mike,” Texas A&M University System Chancellor Mike McKinney draws a distinction or two between his flagship campus and its rival in Austin — without mentioning the University of Texas by name.
“Texas A&M will not limit the number of top 10 percent,” McKinney says in the message, titled “A New Semester.”
“So if you’re out there and wondering if you’re going to be able to go to school, you can go to Texas A&M University if you’re in the top 10 percent.”
Earlier this year, the state Legislature tweaked the state’s automatic-admission law to allow UT-Austin to limit the number of students who can enroll by virtue of having graduated in the top 10 percent of their class from a high school in Texas. All other public universities in the state still must accept every top 10 percent student who applies.
UT-Austin announced this month that students applying to enroll in fall 2011 will have to rank in the top 8 percent to gain automatic admission.
McKinney also says the College Station campus welcomes National Merit Scholars. The Austin campus announced this month that it would begin pulling out of the National Merit Scholarship Program next fall and channel the scholarship money into need-based aid instead.
“We want you to know if you are a National Merit Scholar, we would love to have you at Texas A&M,” McKinney says. “And I tell you, you would enjoy — you would enjoy being at the university.”
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Director of Texas Student Media resigns
Kathy Lawrence, the director of Texas Student Media at the University of Texas, resigned in an e-mail to her staff Thursday after 15 years in that position.
Texas Student Media is the umbrella organization for The Daily Texan newspaper, KVRX 91.7 FM and Texas Student Television. Texas Student Media board member and journalism professor Wanda Cash said the board will discuss hiring an interim director and a timeline to hire Lawrence’s successor. Operations will continue as usual, she said, in Lawrence’s absence.
Cash said it was unclear why Lawrence chose to resign. Lawrence did not return several calls for comment. She told The Daily Texan she had health issues.
While Lawrence was director of Texas Student Media, she fought for The Daily Texan to not come under prior review by the newspaper’s adviser and oversaw the outsourcing of printing operations to the Austin American-Statesman. Under prior review, Richard Finnell, The Daily Texan’s adviser, read all stories before they were published, according to a Daily Texan story.
“The greatest achievement of my career was the elimination of prior review,” Lawrence told The Daily Texan.
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Faculty panel calling for environmental campus at Brackenridge tract
The University of Texas’ Brackenridge tract in West Austin would be transformed into an environmental science campus under a proposal to be presented today by a panel of faculty members.
The five-member faculty committee is calling for enhancing an existing biological field laboratory by housing the university’s extensive plant and natural history collections, currently stored on the main campus, in a new science center that would serve as a museum, a research center and a public outreach site.
Additional space on the 350-acre tract would be set aside for a technology transfer center, where researchers could work on biofuels, biotech, clean energy, environmentally friendly architecture and other initiatives with a goal of moving breakthroughs at the lab bench into the marketplace.
“It basically gives UT a large environmental sciences campus along Lake Austin with public outreach components, commercial components and academic components,” David Hillis, a professor of integrative biology and chairman of the panel, said in an interview this morning.
Hillis is scheduled to outline the committee’s recommendations at a Faculty Council meeting this afternoon.
The proposal by the Faculty Council panel differs dramatically from two conceptual plans developed by a consulting firm hired by the university’s governing board and outlined in June. Those plans call for downsizing or relocating the Brackenridge Field Laboratory, eliminating a municipal golf course and developing a dense residential and commercial neighborhood.
The faculty members’ proposal defers a decision on the Lions Municipal Golf Course until closer to 2019, when the city’s lease for the parcel expires. The faculty committee is recommending against residential development.
“It doesn’t fit UT’s mission,” Hillis said. “We have a lot of need for space to enhance UT’s academic programs.”
The faculty panel’s proposal is similar to those advanced by Cooper, Robertson & Partners LLP in some ways. For example, a hike-and-bike trail would be extended into the Brackenridge tract, and and retail space would be leased for shops such as cafes and bicycle stores.
In addition, the faculty panel wants to expand the university-owned Gateway apartment complex, just off the Brackenridge tract, to accommodate some students living in apartments on the tract. The Cooper firm recommended eliminating all apartments on the tract, but the faculty members are calling for eliminating some and deciding later about the rest.
Hillis said funding for his panel’s recommendations needs to be worked out. “The financials I think are still somewhat unclear on everybody’s proposals,” he said.
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UT endowment fund falls 15 percent
The endowment funds overseen by the University of Texas System Board of Regents lost $2 billion, about 15 percent of their value, in the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, according to preliminary reports.
The endowments, managed by the University of Texas Investment Management Co., fell to $15.2 billion from $17.8 billion a year ago, Bloomberg News reported.
UTIMCO’s investments include $9.7 billion in the Permanent University Fund, of which two-thirds benefits the UT System and the rest benefits the Texas A&M University System.
UTIMCO is a private entity that answers to the UT regents and is subject to the state’s open meetings laws.
In July it had an estimated $23 billion under management, including the Permanent University Fund, the oil- and gas-based fund established to help finance 24 components of the UT and A&M systems - 18 academic and health institutions and six agencies.
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Rep. Villarreal’s take on top 8 percent
I have a story in today’s paper about the announcement from the University of Texas that freshmen who want to enroll under the state’s automatic-admission law will need to rank in the top 8 percent rather than the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class. The new policy is effective for the fall 2011 entering class, meaning that the first students affected will be those who are currently high school juniors.
One lawmaker who has been following these matters closely is state Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, who was instrumental in crafting legislation earlier this year that gave UT authority to scale back its admission of top 10 percent students.
“It’s not a surprise,” Villarreal said of the announcement by UT President William Powers Jr. “When we were analyzing different options of how to bring the two sides together, the data that we were looking at told us if we capped it at 75 percent, the rule would be effectively a top 8 percent.”
The “two sides,” Villarreal said, were those who wanted to repeal the top 10 percent law and those who wanted no change whatsover. Of course, the 8 percent rule could evolve into a 7 percent rule, a 6 percent rule and so forth down the road as the state’s population increases.
“I think it’s important to recognize this is a short-term solution to a long-term challenge,” Villarreal said. “And that challenge is growing top-tier universities in Texas where students want to live and study.
“Students want to live and study in places like Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.”
What about Lubbock? I asked.
“Dallas, Houston and San Antonio,” he replied.
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Obama to hold forum on community service at A&M
President Barack Obama will be in Aggieland next month.
The White House announced today that the president would hold a forum on community service at the George Bush Presidential Library Center at Texas A&M University on Oct. 16.
Here’s the text of the White House press release:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Friday, October 16th, President Barack Obama will hold a Presidential Forum on community service hosted by former President George H.W. Bush and the Points of Light Institute at the George Bush Presidential Library Center on the campus of Texas A&M University. The event builds upon President Obama’s “United We Serve” call to service challenging all Americans to help lay a new foundation for growth in this country by engaging in sustained, meaningful community service. It will also celebrate the contributions of more than 4,500 Daily Point of Light award winners and honor President Bush’s legacy of service and civic engagement.
The Daily Point of Light Award - created by President Bush in 1989 - honors individuals and volunteer groups around the country who are helping to meet critical needs in their communities and creating change every day and has a bi-partisan presidential legacy over the past two decades.
President Obama’s United We Serve call to service began on June 22nd and runs through the National Day of Service and Remembrance on September 11th. Service projects marking the eight year anniversary of 9/11 will take place today in all 50 states, and will include over a dozen Cabinet Secretaries and high ranking government officials. Projects range from food drives and home repairs to neighborhood cleanups and disaster preparation activities.
The National Day of Service and Remembrance was developed by 9/11 families and established into law by the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which President Obama signed in April. The most sweeping overhaul and expansion of national service programs in 18 years, the Serve America Act will triple the size of AmeriCorps and strengthen service opportunities for Americans at all stages of their lives.
For more information about the October 16th Presidential Forum on community service, please visit www.PointsofLight.org.
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Americans say that they want a level playing field in competition. We have anything BUT that in college athletics. It’s tempting to point to the presidents who sit atop some organizational charts but I’m not sure that’s fair. Their schools
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Only another Mencken could do justice to the virtuous and ennobling sentiments at play here.
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