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Thursday, July 30, 2009
Local News: Iraqi Students to Study at Texas A&M
Texas A&M to Host Iraq Students
Iraq's newest scholarship provides the opportunity for students to earn degrees abroad.
By: Rebekah Skelton
From the Texas A&M University Battalion
This fall, Texas A&M University will be host to the first of many Iraqi students participating in their country's newest scholarship program.
Over the next five years, Iraq intends to send up to 50,000 students abroad to earn their bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees. The program will begin by sending about 500 students to England and the U.S. this fall to be trained in English before beginning coursework in their academic programs. Students will later be able to study at universities in Canada, Japan, France and Australia.
"The U.S. and Iraqi governments have been working cooperatively to assist the Iraqi people in rebuilding their infrastructure," said Suzanne Droleskey, A&M's executive director of the international programs for students. "Providing an opportunity for talented Iraqi students to study in the U.S. helps to achieve that goal. It also provides a foundation for future cooperative activities between Iraq and the U.S., when these students return to Iraq after graduation to work in education, government and industry."
Twenty two American universities and 21 British universities will participate, including Vanderbilt, Ohio State, the University of Cambridge and Newcastle University. A&M was asked to participate in the program through the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture of Texas A&M, which has been involved in agricultural development projects in Iraq.
"Because of these programs to help the Iraqi people develop sustainable agricultural production as an effort toward encouraging independence and security, Texas A&M is well known in the country," Droleskey said. "As a result, the Borlaug Institute was invited by the Iraqi government to facilitate Texas A&M participation in an educational fair that was the first step of the Iraqi Education Initiative."
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki formally announced the Iraq Education Initiative in Washington Saturday at the nonprofit organization Academy for Educational Development in Washington.
"Today, with the stability and the security back in Iraq, we are moving forward," al-Maliki said.
The Iraqi government is funding the program and will pay for tuition and fees, as well as room and board. About $54 million has been set aside for the first year of the program, with the estimated cost for each student to be about $50,000 annually. Students may choose their field of study, but are encouraged to go into engineering, education or business, and are expected to return to Iraq after graduating.
Zuhair Humadi, special assistant to the prime minister for educational matters, said that the Iraq Education Initiative will "open up Iraq, which has been isolated for 50 years, and really let it get back to a normal situation."
After prospective students apply to the program, they must apply to the university they wish to attend. Admission into the program does not guarantee acceptance into their chosen university.
Once renowned for its engineering and medical schools, Iraq's educational system has been deteriorating since the Gulf War, due to economic restrictions and war-related violence.
"Instead of armies and war and killing and occupation, we're moving to something more meaningful," Humadi said, "namely, economic development, education and exchanges of students and professors."
The program will help the U.S. develop strong ties to the Middle East, which is critical for political and economic relations.
"This is an important opportunity for Texas A&M to continue the efforts begun by the Borlaug Institute to help in the rebuilding of Iraq," Droleskey said. "It also provides Texas A&M faculty, staff and students with the opportunity to build personal, academic and professional relationships with more students from this region of the world."
Iraq's newest scholarship provides the opportunity for students to earn degrees abroad.
By: Rebekah Skelton
From the Texas A&M University Battalion
This fall, Texas A&M University will be host to the first of many Iraqi students participating in their country's newest scholarship program.
Over the next five years, Iraq intends to send up to 50,000 students abroad to earn their bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees. The program will begin by sending about 500 students to England and the U.S. this fall to be trained in English before beginning coursework in their academic programs. Students will later be able to study at universities in Canada, Japan, France and Australia.
"The U.S. and Iraqi governments have been working cooperatively to assist the Iraqi people in rebuilding their infrastructure," said Suzanne Droleskey, A&M's executive director of the international programs for students. "Providing an opportunity for talented Iraqi students to study in the U.S. helps to achieve that goal. It also provides a foundation for future cooperative activities between Iraq and the U.S., when these students return to Iraq after graduation to work in education, government and industry."
Twenty two American universities and 21 British universities will participate, including Vanderbilt, Ohio State, the University of Cambridge and Newcastle University. A&M was asked to participate in the program through the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture of Texas A&M, which has been involved in agricultural development projects in Iraq.
"Because of these programs to help the Iraqi people develop sustainable agricultural production as an effort toward encouraging independence and security, Texas A&M is well known in the country," Droleskey said. "As a result, the Borlaug Institute was invited by the Iraqi government to facilitate Texas A&M participation in an educational fair that was the first step of the Iraqi Education Initiative."
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki formally announced the Iraq Education Initiative in Washington Saturday at the nonprofit organization Academy for Educational Development in Washington.
"Today, with the stability and the security back in Iraq, we are moving forward," al-Maliki said.
The Iraqi government is funding the program and will pay for tuition and fees, as well as room and board. About $54 million has been set aside for the first year of the program, with the estimated cost for each student to be about $50,000 annually. Students may choose their field of study, but are encouraged to go into engineering, education or business, and are expected to return to Iraq after graduating.
Zuhair Humadi, special assistant to the prime minister for educational matters, said that the Iraq Education Initiative will "open up Iraq, which has been isolated for 50 years, and really let it get back to a normal situation."
After prospective students apply to the program, they must apply to the university they wish to attend. Admission into the program does not guarantee acceptance into their chosen university.
Once renowned for its engineering and medical schools, Iraq's educational system has been deteriorating since the Gulf War, due to economic restrictions and war-related violence.
"Instead of armies and war and killing and occupation, we're moving to something more meaningful," Humadi said, "namely, economic development, education and exchanges of students and professors."
The program will help the U.S. develop strong ties to the Middle East, which is critical for political and economic relations.
"This is an important opportunity for Texas A&M to continue the efforts begun by the Borlaug Institute to help in the rebuilding of Iraq," Droleskey said. "It also provides Texas A&M faculty, staff and students with the opportunity to build personal, academic and professional relationships with more students from this region of the world."
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tonight on Biased Transmission
Tonight on Biased Transmission the guest will be Adam Jones, an evolutionary biologist and Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Texas A&M University. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Environmental, Population and Organismic Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1992. He then moved to the University of Georgia and earned his Ph.D. in Genetics under the mentorship of Dr. John C. Avise in 1998. Jones then took a position as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Stevan Arnold in the Department of Zoology at Oregon State University. From 2002 to 2004, Jones was an Assistant Professor in the School of Biology at Georgia Institute of Technology.
In the summer of 2004, he moved to his current position at Texas A&M. Professor Jones’s areas of expertise include: the use of molecular techniques to resolve unanswered questions in sexual selection; theoretical studies of quantitative genetics and behavior, and the evolution of major morphological innovations. Other research projects in his lab involve population genetics, conservation genetics, speciation and molecular evolution. Tune in if you’re interested in understanding why you chose your mate and why your mate chose you. It should be an interesting and informative show.
Listen to Biased Transmission tonight on 89.1FM KEOS College Station-Bryan from 6-7pm, to hear Danny Yeager, Teddy Wilson, Michael Alvard, Ann Preston, Srikanth Sastry, and guest. If you have a question or comment you can post it here, or call the KEOS Bell Studios: 979-779-5367.
In the summer of 2004, he moved to his current position at Texas A&M. Professor Jones’s areas of expertise include: the use of molecular techniques to resolve unanswered questions in sexual selection; theoretical studies of quantitative genetics and behavior, and the evolution of major morphological innovations. Other research projects in his lab involve population genetics, conservation genetics, speciation and molecular evolution. Tune in if you’re interested in understanding why you chose your mate and why your mate chose you. It should be an interesting and informative show.
Listen to Biased Transmission tonight on 89.1FM KEOS College Station-Bryan from 6-7pm, to hear Danny Yeager, Teddy Wilson, Michael Alvard, Ann Preston, Srikanth Sastry, and guest. If you have a question or comment you can post it here, or call the KEOS Bell Studios: 979-779-5367.
Video Lunch: Patrick Murphy Speaking Out Against Don't Ask Don't Tell
Congressman Patrick Murphy speaks out against Don't Ask Don't Tell in Philadelphia.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Second Chances
Monday NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that Michael Vick will be conditionally reinstated into the league, and that no later than Week 6 of the NFL regular season Vick will be fully reinstated. Vick served 18 months in federal prison for operating a dog fighting ring on his property in Virginia. According to an article in the New York Times, Ingrid Newkirk, the president and co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), would not confirm whether or not there would or would not be protest by PETA. “There are so many strong sentiments. It’s on the table, but we’re not encouraging it.” Vick met with the president of the Humane Society of the United States while in prison, and as Sport Illustrated reported, plans to work with the Humane Society of the United States in a program designed to prevent inner city youth from becoming involved with dog fighting.
Teams have been lining up, not to sign Vick, but to announce that they will not sign Vick. It is understandable why teams would be reluctant to sign the quarterback; there are no guarantees that he will be the same player he was and the amount of extra baggage that Vick brings with him does discourage teams from taking that chance. However, it is probably that a team will be able to sign Vick for significantly lower than market value for a player of his caliber. Then the real question is how the fans and the media will react to Vick wearing an NFL uniform again. There is a section of the population that does not want Vick to ever play for the NFL, or for any other league for that matter, for the rest of his life. According to a Gallup poll from 2007, 58% of those surveyed believed that Vick should not be allowed to play professional football.
I understand the visceral reaction to Vick’s crimes, and I shared those emotions when I read about the crimes that he committed. How could you not be shocked by how the animals that he owned where treated; the same animals that many of us share our homes with? Also, as an owner of a pit bull I understood the public perception of the dogs, even though they are usually among the most loving and loyal breads, and the events surrounding Vick’s crimes did not help the image of pit bulls. With that said, I am no way trying to trivialize his crimes, or to suggest that I do not care about the victims of the crimes. This is not about the crimes that Michael Vick has committed; this is about what happens after someone pays their debt for the crimes they commit.
I do not feel sympathy for Michael Vick, but I do feel empathy for him. I know that is a dangerous word, but I think that despite the connotation that surrounds that word it is entirely appropriate. Vick committed a crime, a vicious and atrocious crime. Then he paid his debt to society, and whether or not you agree with the amount of debt that he owed, he paid is debt. In all likely hood Vick will never attain the same lifestyle he once enjoyed. Vick will probably never receive a $130 million salary, it is unlikely that companies will compensate him to endorse their products, and he has a debt of $20 million that he will have to pay off. Although Vick will by no means be living in poverty, he will not be living anywhere near the type of lifestyle he used to live.
There will be public pressure on whatever franchise decides to sign Vick. It is entirely likely that in addition to the emails and letters the front office will receive, practices and games will probably include the presence of protesters outside the gates. Letters to the editor will appear in the city’s newspapers decrying the addition of Vick, and the phone lines of the local sports talk radio shows will be filled with voices ready to condemn Vick.
To really place this in context we must look at how Vick will be treated in relation to other people who have committed crimes, and even possibly people who have been accused of crimes. While someone who has been convicted of a sexual crime must register as a sex offender, someone who has been convicted of murder can reintegrate back into society without the same types of barriers. When Michael Vick was arrested and convicted of dog fighting it galvanized the public, and cover stories and articles where dedicated to the subject. When Donté Stallworth was convicted of manslaughter because of driving under the influence, there were no cover stories about the dangerous of drunk driving. Even though drinking a driving is a much more significant problem that dog fitting.
So, what does how we treat Michael Vick say about our society? To paraphrase a famous quote, if we can judge our society by how we treat our prisoners, can we also judge our society by how we treat those who have been prisoners? In a sense Michael Vick’s story is about our own struggles, and no matter who we are we all make mistakes. However, what we hope is that we will have the opportunity to correct our mistakes, and have a second chance. The difference between us and Michael Vick is that we can make those mistakes in relative private, and no one will publically question whether or not we deserve a second chance.
It would be much easier to write with righteous indignation about how Michael Vick does not deserve to play professional football, and that he should have to live with the consequences of his decisions. It is simple to believe that there are moral absolutes, that life is in fact black and white. It is much harder to think about those situations in which life is not simple, and to understand that life is so often shades of gray. Life is not like a football game. Life is not easy or simple; life is fleeting and complex. So, perhaps we should let Vick back onto the field. Where for a while we can watch a simple game be played, and remember, if only for a moment, that we are all flawed and need second chances.
Teams have been lining up, not to sign Vick, but to announce that they will not sign Vick. It is understandable why teams would be reluctant to sign the quarterback; there are no guarantees that he will be the same player he was and the amount of extra baggage that Vick brings with him does discourage teams from taking that chance. However, it is probably that a team will be able to sign Vick for significantly lower than market value for a player of his caliber. Then the real question is how the fans and the media will react to Vick wearing an NFL uniform again. There is a section of the population that does not want Vick to ever play for the NFL, or for any other league for that matter, for the rest of his life. According to a Gallup poll from 2007, 58% of those surveyed believed that Vick should not be allowed to play professional football.
I understand the visceral reaction to Vick’s crimes, and I shared those emotions when I read about the crimes that he committed. How could you not be shocked by how the animals that he owned where treated; the same animals that many of us share our homes with? Also, as an owner of a pit bull I understood the public perception of the dogs, even though they are usually among the most loving and loyal breads, and the events surrounding Vick’s crimes did not help the image of pit bulls. With that said, I am no way trying to trivialize his crimes, or to suggest that I do not care about the victims of the crimes. This is not about the crimes that Michael Vick has committed; this is about what happens after someone pays their debt for the crimes they commit.
I do not feel sympathy for Michael Vick, but I do feel empathy for him. I know that is a dangerous word, but I think that despite the connotation that surrounds that word it is entirely appropriate. Vick committed a crime, a vicious and atrocious crime. Then he paid his debt to society, and whether or not you agree with the amount of debt that he owed, he paid is debt. In all likely hood Vick will never attain the same lifestyle he once enjoyed. Vick will probably never receive a $130 million salary, it is unlikely that companies will compensate him to endorse their products, and he has a debt of $20 million that he will have to pay off. Although Vick will by no means be living in poverty, he will not be living anywhere near the type of lifestyle he used to live.
There will be public pressure on whatever franchise decides to sign Vick. It is entirely likely that in addition to the emails and letters the front office will receive, practices and games will probably include the presence of protesters outside the gates. Letters to the editor will appear in the city’s newspapers decrying the addition of Vick, and the phone lines of the local sports talk radio shows will be filled with voices ready to condemn Vick.
To really place this in context we must look at how Vick will be treated in relation to other people who have committed crimes, and even possibly people who have been accused of crimes. While someone who has been convicted of a sexual crime must register as a sex offender, someone who has been convicted of murder can reintegrate back into society without the same types of barriers. When Michael Vick was arrested and convicted of dog fighting it galvanized the public, and cover stories and articles where dedicated to the subject. When Donté Stallworth was convicted of manslaughter because of driving under the influence, there were no cover stories about the dangerous of drunk driving. Even though drinking a driving is a much more significant problem that dog fitting.
So, what does how we treat Michael Vick say about our society? To paraphrase a famous quote, if we can judge our society by how we treat our prisoners, can we also judge our society by how we treat those who have been prisoners? In a sense Michael Vick’s story is about our own struggles, and no matter who we are we all make mistakes. However, what we hope is that we will have the opportunity to correct our mistakes, and have a second chance. The difference between us and Michael Vick is that we can make those mistakes in relative private, and no one will publically question whether or not we deserve a second chance.
It would be much easier to write with righteous indignation about how Michael Vick does not deserve to play professional football, and that he should have to live with the consequences of his decisions. It is simple to believe that there are moral absolutes, that life is in fact black and white. It is much harder to think about those situations in which life is not simple, and to understand that life is so often shades of gray. Life is not like a football game. Life is not easy or simple; life is fleeting and complex. So, perhaps we should let Vick back onto the field. Where for a while we can watch a simple game be played, and remember, if only for a moment, that we are all flawed and need second chances.
Video Lunch: CNN Panel About Racial Profiling
Panel: Don Lemon, Professor Andra Gillespie (Emory University), Tim Wise (antiracist writer and activist) and James Andrews (social media entrepreneur).
Local News: Texas A&M Provost Resigns
A&M Provost Steps Down
By Vimal Patel
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
An interim provost for Texas A&M will be named this week after the university's No. 2-ranked administrator resigned Monday.
Jeffrey Vitter, who had been in the post for almost a year, was asked to step down by Interim President R. Bowen Loftin, an A&M official and others familiar with the situation have said.
The tenured computer science and engineering professor will accept a computer science faculty position at the university.
"Considering the events of the past few months at Texas A&M University, where the President who hired me through a national search has resigned, and a new team will be starting, I have decided that I would rather devote my efforts to other professional activities," Vitter wrote in a statement.
Vitter's decision comes about six weeks after Elsa Murano resigned as Texas A&M's 23rd president amid a public falling-out with Mike McKinney, the chancellor of the 11-university Texas A&M System. H. Russell Cross, Murano's chief of staff and executive vice president for operations, resigned effective the same day as his boss. Cross and Murano have accepted faculty positions at the flagship school.
A spokesman for McKinney said Loftin was not under order to make administrative changes.
"It is the president's responsibility and authority to make decisions regarding personnel actions at Texas A&M," wrote Rod Davis, a McKinney spokesman, in an e-mail. "This applies equally to interim presidents."
Some said the appearance of Vitter's departure as provost and the seeming lack of stability could impact the search for the next Texas A&M president.
"This will make it harder to identify a national candidate [who will want the job]," said Tim Hall, a distinguished professor who is on the 15-person committee looking for the next Texas A&M leader.
In response to a request for an interview with Loftin, a university spokesman released a statement from the interim president.
"I would like to thank Dr. Vitter for his service to Texas A&M University as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academics, and particularly for his leadership in the development of the Academic Master Plan that we are firmly committed to pursuing in the years ahead," Loftin said in the statement.
"I am pleased that Dr. Vitter has elected to continue his scholarly work at Texas A&M in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering as we all work together to have our university recognized as one of [the] top public institutions in the country."
Vitter, who also resigned his post as executive vice president for academics, said he wants to pursue "scholarly activities and other opportunities as they arise."
The provost, the school's top academic officer, oversees the academic units in addition to the vice provost and vice presidents for research, information technology, diversity and institutional and federal affairs.
Presidents have the authority to replace their executive staff as they see fit. When Murano became president, she brought along with her several administrators from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, where she had been dean.
Vitter, the brother of U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, was selected by Murano last July after a national search headed by a diverse search committee that consisted of students, former students, faculty and administrators.
He led the development of A&M's academic master plan, an effort that involved more than 2,000 people. The goal is to provide a roadmap for Vision 2020, the university's long-range goal of becoming one of the nation's best public universities.
Vitter has served on the faculty in computer science at Brown University for more than 12 years, as a holder of a named and endowed distinguished professorship at Duke University for almost 10 years, where he also served as department chair, and as a holder of a named deanship of science at Purdue University for six years.
He has more than 250 book, journal and conference publications. He is credited as a founder of the field of external memory algorithms, which explores how to organize and process massive amounts of data.
Published on Tuesday, July 28, 2009
By Vimal Patel
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
An interim provost for Texas A&M will be named this week after the university's No. 2-ranked administrator resigned Monday.
Jeffrey Vitter, who had been in the post for almost a year, was asked to step down by Interim President R. Bowen Loftin, an A&M official and others familiar with the situation have said.
The tenured computer science and engineering professor will accept a computer science faculty position at the university.
"Considering the events of the past few months at Texas A&M University, where the President who hired me through a national search has resigned, and a new team will be starting, I have decided that I would rather devote my efforts to other professional activities," Vitter wrote in a statement.
Vitter's decision comes about six weeks after Elsa Murano resigned as Texas A&M's 23rd president amid a public falling-out with Mike McKinney, the chancellor of the 11-university Texas A&M System. H. Russell Cross, Murano's chief of staff and executive vice president for operations, resigned effective the same day as his boss. Cross and Murano have accepted faculty positions at the flagship school.
A spokesman for McKinney said Loftin was not under order to make administrative changes.
"It is the president's responsibility and authority to make decisions regarding personnel actions at Texas A&M," wrote Rod Davis, a McKinney spokesman, in an e-mail. "This applies equally to interim presidents."
Some said the appearance of Vitter's departure as provost and the seeming lack of stability could impact the search for the next Texas A&M president.
"This will make it harder to identify a national candidate [who will want the job]," said Tim Hall, a distinguished professor who is on the 15-person committee looking for the next Texas A&M leader.
In response to a request for an interview with Loftin, a university spokesman released a statement from the interim president.
"I would like to thank Dr. Vitter for his service to Texas A&M University as Provost and Executive Vice President for Academics, and particularly for his leadership in the development of the Academic Master Plan that we are firmly committed to pursuing in the years ahead," Loftin said in the statement.
"I am pleased that Dr. Vitter has elected to continue his scholarly work at Texas A&M in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering as we all work together to have our university recognized as one of [the] top public institutions in the country."
Vitter, who also resigned his post as executive vice president for academics, said he wants to pursue "scholarly activities and other opportunities as they arise."
The provost, the school's top academic officer, oversees the academic units in addition to the vice provost and vice presidents for research, information technology, diversity and institutional and federal affairs.
Presidents have the authority to replace their executive staff as they see fit. When Murano became president, she brought along with her several administrators from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, where she had been dean.
Vitter, the brother of U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, was selected by Murano last July after a national search headed by a diverse search committee that consisted of students, former students, faculty and administrators.
He led the development of A&M's academic master plan, an effort that involved more than 2,000 people. The goal is to provide a roadmap for Vision 2020, the university's long-range goal of becoming one of the nation's best public universities.
Vitter has served on the faculty in computer science at Brown University for more than 12 years, as a holder of a named and endowed distinguished professorship at Duke University for almost 10 years, where he also served as department chair, and as a holder of a named deanship of science at Purdue University for six years.
He has more than 250 book, journal and conference publications. He is credited as a founder of the field of external memory algorithms, which explores how to organize and process massive amounts of data.
Published on Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Video Lunch: Sunday Show Roundup: Long Way To Go
Your Daily Politics Video Blog: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says that when she brings a health care reform bill to the floor of the House, "it will win." But Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) says "it is not possible, and perhaps not desirable" to pass health care reform with Democratic votes alone. If nothing else was clear from the Sunday shows, one thing that was is that there is still a long way to go to reach health care reform.
Local News: Search for Texas A&M President Begins
Panel Starts Search For A&M Leader
By Vimal Patel
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
The search committee responsible for finding the next Texas A&M University president held its first gathering Friday.
Members chatted over breakfast before heading into the Board of Regents meeting room to begin the hunt.
"I didn't volunteer for this," said Regent Richard Box, an Austin dentist and chairman of the 15-member committee, in an interview before the 7:30 a.m. breakfast. "It's a great honor but a tremendous responsibility."
Board of Regents Chairman Morris Foster asked Box, a former treasurer of Gov. Rick Perry's campaign fund, to serve as chair of the committee, which is working under a flexible deadline of January to forward the names of three candidates to regents.
Officials tout the transparency of the process. This search, if followed as planned, will avoid the last-minute controversy that the last two presidential searches encountered when regents considered candidates who hadn't been vetted by the search committee.
Several committee members interviewed this week expressed optimism.
"There were many errors made in the past search committees," said Eric Beckham, student body president and one of two students on the committee. "But I think this committee's been set up correctly. I think we'll get the job done right this time."
The committee also consists of two other regents, five faculty members -- some of whom have administrative positions as well -- and five other members, including Frank Ashley, vice chancellor of academic affairs for the A&M System, and attorney Neal Adams.
"I'm sure we're going to get a huge pool of candidates," said Ashley, who has served on presidential search committees for four other Texas A&M System universities. "I think the hard part is going to be trying to just get down to eight or 10 candidates for the committee to look at."
Many members said they had no reservations about serving on the committee when asked, despite the level of scrutiny this search will encounter due to questions and acrimony surrounding the resignation of Elsa Murano in June.
"I'm pretty excited about it, actually," said Meredith Maloney, the only graduate student on the committee. "I have faith that the system will work."
The Board of Regents will make the final selection from the three candidates recommended by the panel. Officials indicated that every candidate would go through the same process.
That didn't happened in either of the last two searches.
In 2002, four of nine regents didn't support Robert Gates and were believed to favor former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, who was never declared an official candidate and wasn't vetted by the 24-person committee.
In 2007, a 14-member committee forwarded the names of three sitting university presidents. Instead, regents went with Murano, a vice chancellor and dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She had not been researched by the search committee.
In March, after a harsh back-and-forth over a job evaluation between McKinney and Murano, regents approved a formal policy that would allow them to select a president who hadn't been vetted by a search committee.
Information about candidates and deliberations will be confidential. R. Bowen Loftin, who is serving as Texas A&M's interim president, was asked Friday whether he planned to apply for the position.
"It's too soon to tell," he said.
Also Friday, officials announced that a Washington-based firm had been hired to assist the committee in the search. Academic Search Inc. has conducted more than 186 presidential searches since 2004.
Published on Saturday, July 25, 2009
By Vimal Patel
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
The search committee responsible for finding the next Texas A&M University president held its first gathering Friday.
Members chatted over breakfast before heading into the Board of Regents meeting room to begin the hunt.
"I didn't volunteer for this," said Regent Richard Box, an Austin dentist and chairman of the 15-member committee, in an interview before the 7:30 a.m. breakfast. "It's a great honor but a tremendous responsibility."
Board of Regents Chairman Morris Foster asked Box, a former treasurer of Gov. Rick Perry's campaign fund, to serve as chair of the committee, which is working under a flexible deadline of January to forward the names of three candidates to regents.
Officials tout the transparency of the process. This search, if followed as planned, will avoid the last-minute controversy that the last two presidential searches encountered when regents considered candidates who hadn't been vetted by the search committee.
Several committee members interviewed this week expressed optimism.
"There were many errors made in the past search committees," said Eric Beckham, student body president and one of two students on the committee. "But I think this committee's been set up correctly. I think we'll get the job done right this time."
The committee also consists of two other regents, five faculty members -- some of whom have administrative positions as well -- and five other members, including Frank Ashley, vice chancellor of academic affairs for the A&M System, and attorney Neal Adams.
"I'm sure we're going to get a huge pool of candidates," said Ashley, who has served on presidential search committees for four other Texas A&M System universities. "I think the hard part is going to be trying to just get down to eight or 10 candidates for the committee to look at."
Many members said they had no reservations about serving on the committee when asked, despite the level of scrutiny this search will encounter due to questions and acrimony surrounding the resignation of Elsa Murano in June.
"I'm pretty excited about it, actually," said Meredith Maloney, the only graduate student on the committee. "I have faith that the system will work."
The Board of Regents will make the final selection from the three candidates recommended by the panel. Officials indicated that every candidate would go through the same process.
That didn't happened in either of the last two searches.
In 2002, four of nine regents didn't support Robert Gates and were believed to favor former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, who was never declared an official candidate and wasn't vetted by the 24-person committee.
In 2007, a 14-member committee forwarded the names of three sitting university presidents. Instead, regents went with Murano, a vice chancellor and dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She had not been researched by the search committee.
In March, after a harsh back-and-forth over a job evaluation between McKinney and Murano, regents approved a formal policy that would allow them to select a president who hadn't been vetted by a search committee.
Information about candidates and deliberations will be confidential. R. Bowen Loftin, who is serving as Texas A&M's interim president, was asked Friday whether he planned to apply for the position.
"It's too soon to tell," he said.
Also Friday, officials announced that a Washington-based firm had been hired to assist the committee in the search. Academic Search Inc. has conducted more than 186 presidential searches since 2004.
Published on Saturday, July 25, 2009
Texas Progressive Alliance Roundup - July 27, 2009
Time again for the Texas Progressive Alliance weekly blog roundup.
Off the Kuff takes closer look at that story about Texas turnout in last year's election.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson adds some context to what's being said in Texas about Unemployment insurance, the stimulus, and Gov. Perry.
This week at McBlogger, Krispy Kreme takes a moment to tell of her personal experiences with folks desperately in need of adequate health care.
John Coby at Bay Area Houston thinks Clear Lake Hospital has a heart of Cold.
No matter what Governor Rick Perry says or hopes for, Texas is part of the federal union. Neil at Texas Liberal offers a video this week of him reading Federalist Paper #9 on the site of the San Jacinto battlefield. Federalist #9 talks about the need for a strong union and San Jacinto is where Texas won independence from Mexico.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that John Cornyn chooses to be an a**hole over Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation.
TXsharon is combining Principles of Community Organizing (POCO) training with a vacation in Colorado so several of her posting this week contained pictures of the Durango & Silverton train ride, clean air, huge deer and breathtaking beauty. But, be sure to check out the progress made from working on the Railroad in regards to land farming toxic drilling waste.
Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker explains why the language we use in defending Health Care Reform matters more than we may think. Hint: They want to have a discussion of Government takeover of health care. We should want to discuss the necessity and fundamental fairness of publicly assisted health care for all. We can win one of these debates, but probably not the other. Check it out...
Miss Hypocrisy, meet Mr. Ignorant. Kay Bailey pricked Rick Perry for snubbing stimulus money she voted against. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs serves.
WhosPlayin was on vacation all week, but still ended up spending some time reading the Health Care Bill and has written a summary of the 'Public Option' part of the bill, noting that it looks an awful lot like a PPO.
This week Teddy from Left of College Station covers the Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce resolution to oppose any national health care, and reviews what the resolution says and what the resolution means. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.
After Citizen Sarah at Texas Vox read the Austin American Statesman's report on how poorly the Green Choice power program was selling, she felt motivated to write a rebuttal on how Austin Energy's pricing of wind energy left something to be desired. And this week, the Statesman reports that Austin Energy may re-evaluate the price of their latest batch of clean energy When folks start asking questions, the powers that be (get it?) pay attention. Ya gotta agitate to get the dirt out!
Off the Kuff takes closer look at that story about Texas turnout in last year's election.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson adds some context to what's being said in Texas about Unemployment insurance, the stimulus, and Gov. Perry.
This week at McBlogger, Krispy Kreme takes a moment to tell of her personal experiences with folks desperately in need of adequate health care.
John Coby at Bay Area Houston thinks Clear Lake Hospital has a heart of Cold.
No matter what Governor Rick Perry says or hopes for, Texas is part of the federal union. Neil at Texas Liberal offers a video this week of him reading Federalist Paper #9 on the site of the San Jacinto battlefield. Federalist #9 talks about the need for a strong union and San Jacinto is where Texas won independence from Mexico.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that John Cornyn chooses to be an a**hole over Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation.
TXsharon is combining Principles of Community Organizing (POCO) training with a vacation in Colorado so several of her posting this week contained pictures of the Durango & Silverton train ride, clean air, huge deer and breathtaking beauty. But, be sure to check out the progress made from working on the Railroad in regards to land farming toxic drilling waste.
Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker explains why the language we use in defending Health Care Reform matters more than we may think. Hint: They want to have a discussion of Government takeover of health care. We should want to discuss the necessity and fundamental fairness of publicly assisted health care for all. We can win one of these debates, but probably not the other. Check it out...
Miss Hypocrisy, meet Mr. Ignorant. Kay Bailey pricked Rick Perry for snubbing stimulus money she voted against. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs serves.
WhosPlayin was on vacation all week, but still ended up spending some time reading the Health Care Bill and has written a summary of the 'Public Option' part of the bill, noting that it looks an awful lot like a PPO.
This week Teddy from Left of College Station covers the Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce resolution to oppose any national health care, and reviews what the resolution says and what the resolution means. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.
After Citizen Sarah at Texas Vox read the Austin American Statesman's report on how poorly the Green Choice power program was selling, she felt motivated to write a rebuttal on how Austin Energy's pricing of wind energy left something to be desired. And this week, the Statesman reports that Austin Energy may re-evaluate the price of their latest batch of clean energy When folks start asking questions, the powers that be (get it?) pay attention. Ya gotta agitate to get the dirt out!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Week in Headlines
Texas Politics
Republicans Entering Twenty-First Century
Texas Republicans are attempting to enter the twenty-first century, by holding workshops on Facebook. The Harris County Republican Party recently held a workshop in which party members learned how to use Facebook, and how to use the social networking site for grassroots organizing. Although the focus is less on expanding the base of the party and more on bringing the older generation of the party into the twenty-first century.
Politics
Ensign's Chief of Staff Quits
Embattled Senator John Ensign’s chief of staff is resigning; John Lopez has worked with the Senator since the mid-1990, and was named chief of staff in 2006. Lopez reportedly split his chief of staff duties with Doug Hampton, the husband of the Senator’s mistress. Much of the speculation around the chief of staff’s departure includes the involvement with Ensign with the religious group known as “the Family.”
Media
New Attacks on the Web Commons
The corporation media is perusing outlawing unauthorized Web links, charging news aggregators, and neutering search engines. Media companies want to convert the sharing culture of the Web into a regimented marketplace; European publishers are calling upon the European Union to ramp up copyright protection for the internet.
War and Peace
Senate Votes 58-40 to End Production of the F-22
The Senate voted earlier this week by a 58 to 40 margin that more F-22s are not needed for the nation's defense and would be a costly drag on the Pentagon's budget in an era of small wars and counterinsurgency efforts. The Senate's decision came on an amendment to reverse the Armed Services Committee's vote last month to spend an additional $1.75 billion for more planes; the program will be halted at 187 planes, less than a third of what the Air Force sought at the program's inception.
Foreign Policy
The Ten Commandments for Ambitious Policy Wonks
What are the topics or policy positions that a smart young foreign policy analyst should stay away from, especially if she is worried about getting elected, surviving a confirmation hearing, or landing a big job inside-the-Beltway?
Health Care
The Censored Health-Care Option
The big U.S. news media, which helped legitimize George W. Bush’s “election” in 2000 and paved the way for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, is now taking sides with “centrist” forces that want to limit the scope of any health-care reform. Indeed, the most shunned aspect of this debate is the most practical way to cover everybody at the lowest cost, the dreaded single-payer idea.
Human Rights
Rights Group Accuses Saudi Arabia of ‘Gross’ Abuses
The human rights group Amnesty International accused Saudi Arabia on Wednesday of using its campaign against terrorism as a facade for “a sustained assault on human rights” and said the rest of the world had failed to hold the authorities to account for “gross violations.” Its report said thousands of people had been arrested and detained in virtual secrecy “while others have been killed in uncertain circumstances.” It accused the Saudi authorities of using torture to extract confessions and of using their “powerful international clout to get away with it.”
Reproductive Rights
What's Wrong With the New Pro-Lifers
Each side in the abortion debate has its Achilles' heel. For advocates of choice it's the fetus; those opposed to abortion suffer from a cavalier attitude toward the woman who carries the fetus. Amid proclamations that common ground has been reached on abortion, a new set of anti-abortion actors has claimed leadership of the movement. They are no longer ultra-fundamentalist Catholics and Evangelicals but anti-war, anti-capital punishment, pro-environment "pro-lifers."
GLBT Issues
King's Accused Killer to Be Tried
A California judge ruled Wednesday that probable cause exists to try 15-year-old Brandon McInerney, accused slayer of gay classmate Larry King, for premeditated murder with hate crime and “lying in wait” special circumstances.
Race and Racism
Black Male Faces More Likely to Be Seen As Threatening
A research team from the University of California, conducted a preliminary study and three experiments to determine whether whites are more likely to perceive facial expressions as threatening if the face in question belongs to an African-American male. White participants failed to reduce their judgments of threat when a (neutral) black male face followed an angry black male face, the study suggests that for whites, the stereotype of the threatening black male is easy to activate.
Republicans Entering Twenty-First Century
Texas Republicans are attempting to enter the twenty-first century, by holding workshops on Facebook. The Harris County Republican Party recently held a workshop in which party members learned how to use Facebook, and how to use the social networking site for grassroots organizing. Although the focus is less on expanding the base of the party and more on bringing the older generation of the party into the twenty-first century.
Politics
Ensign's Chief of Staff Quits
Embattled Senator John Ensign’s chief of staff is resigning; John Lopez has worked with the Senator since the mid-1990, and was named chief of staff in 2006. Lopez reportedly split his chief of staff duties with Doug Hampton, the husband of the Senator’s mistress. Much of the speculation around the chief of staff’s departure includes the involvement with Ensign with the religious group known as “the Family.”
Media
New Attacks on the Web Commons
The corporation media is perusing outlawing unauthorized Web links, charging news aggregators, and neutering search engines. Media companies want to convert the sharing culture of the Web into a regimented marketplace; European publishers are calling upon the European Union to ramp up copyright protection for the internet.
War and Peace
Senate Votes 58-40 to End Production of the F-22
The Senate voted earlier this week by a 58 to 40 margin that more F-22s are not needed for the nation's defense and would be a costly drag on the Pentagon's budget in an era of small wars and counterinsurgency efforts. The Senate's decision came on an amendment to reverse the Armed Services Committee's vote last month to spend an additional $1.75 billion for more planes; the program will be halted at 187 planes, less than a third of what the Air Force sought at the program's inception.
Foreign Policy
The Ten Commandments for Ambitious Policy Wonks
What are the topics or policy positions that a smart young foreign policy analyst should stay away from, especially if she is worried about getting elected, surviving a confirmation hearing, or landing a big job inside-the-Beltway?
Health Care
The Censored Health-Care Option
The big U.S. news media, which helped legitimize George W. Bush’s “election” in 2000 and paved the way for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, is now taking sides with “centrist” forces that want to limit the scope of any health-care reform. Indeed, the most shunned aspect of this debate is the most practical way to cover everybody at the lowest cost, the dreaded single-payer idea.
Human Rights
Rights Group Accuses Saudi Arabia of ‘Gross’ Abuses
The human rights group Amnesty International accused Saudi Arabia on Wednesday of using its campaign against terrorism as a facade for “a sustained assault on human rights” and said the rest of the world had failed to hold the authorities to account for “gross violations.” Its report said thousands of people had been arrested and detained in virtual secrecy “while others have been killed in uncertain circumstances.” It accused the Saudi authorities of using torture to extract confessions and of using their “powerful international clout to get away with it.”
Reproductive Rights
What's Wrong With the New Pro-Lifers
Each side in the abortion debate has its Achilles' heel. For advocates of choice it's the fetus; those opposed to abortion suffer from a cavalier attitude toward the woman who carries the fetus. Amid proclamations that common ground has been reached on abortion, a new set of anti-abortion actors has claimed leadership of the movement. They are no longer ultra-fundamentalist Catholics and Evangelicals but anti-war, anti-capital punishment, pro-environment "pro-lifers."
GLBT Issues
King's Accused Killer to Be Tried
A California judge ruled Wednesday that probable cause exists to try 15-year-old Brandon McInerney, accused slayer of gay classmate Larry King, for premeditated murder with hate crime and “lying in wait” special circumstances.
Race and Racism
Black Male Faces More Likely to Be Seen As Threatening
A research team from the University of California, conducted a preliminary study and three experiments to determine whether whites are more likely to perceive facial expressions as threatening if the face in question belongs to an African-American male. White participants failed to reduce their judgments of threat when a (neutral) black male face followed an angry black male face, the study suggests that for whites, the stereotype of the threatening black male is easy to activate.
Local News: Congressman Edwards Secures Funds for Texas A&M Programs
Edwards Secures Funding for National Defense Programs at A&M
Reporter: Josh Taylor
From KBTX
A spokesperson for U.S. Representative Chet Edwards office says the Congressman has secured funding for national defense research at Texas A&M University under the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill, passed by the House Appropriations Committee this week.
“I am very pleased that the defense bill includes my request for key defense research projects at Texas A&M. These defense projects are part of a long-term plan to enhance and strengthen Texas A&M’s historic partnership with the Department of Defense,” said Edwards, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. “These priority programs will strengthen our nation’s defense, and support jobs and economic growth in the Brazos Valley.”
Texas A&M System Chancellor Michael D. McKinney said, “Research efforts with a national and international significance are priorities for the Texas A&M System. For our schools, that means better teachers and learning opportunities for our students. For our communities, that means more jobs and a better quality of life, and often, for our country, more security. We are pleased that our Congressman, Chet Edwards, recognizes those facts and has the dedication and experience to secure these funds for our research efforts.”
The funding would go towards defense projects that partner Texas A&M with Fort Hood in Killeen. Edwards secured $3 million for a joint Waco VA Hospital -Ft. Hood-Texas A&M health research program that will examine the underlying causes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Edwards created the program in 2006 and has secured $8.9 million total for this project to date.
“The Waco VA and Ft. Hood are uniquely positioned to conduct world-class research with the Department of Defense and Texas A&M to find improved treatments and cures for veterans suffering from mental illness and post traumatic stress disorder,” said Edwards, chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee.
Edwards worked with Congressman John Carter (R-Round Rock) to add $2.5 million to continue a cooperative effort between Texas AgriLife Research (a research agency of the Texas A&M System) and the Integrated Training Area Management group on Ft. Hood that improves training ranges for Fort Hood soldiers. It has been recognized by the Texas Council on Environmental Quality for its positive environmental benefits.
“This project improves training grounds after they have been eroded and degraded from tank and training operations on base. This is another example of A&M working with Fort Hood to help our troops train so that they can carry out their mission successfully when they reach the battlefield,” said Edwards.
“As a direct result of an appropriation carried by Representative Chet Edwards, our soldiers will be safer and be better trained as they head overseas into harm's way,” said Dr. Mark Hussey, Vice Chancellor and Dean of Agriculture at Texas A&M. “By providing strong political support for this project, Congressman Edwards again has recognized the importance of fully meeting the training needs of our soldiers while maintaining the environmental integrity of the land. We are especially pleased to provide support to those priorities identified by the leadership at Fort Hood.”
Edwards also secured $2 million for two research programs at Texas A&M that will develop innovative delivery methods for vaccines needed by military personnel deployed in the field, and work with the Air Force to develop a sensor and imaging technology for spacecraft to detect objects in their surroundings that may threaten U.S. intelligence operations.
“Ensuring our service men and women in combat can receive they best care possible is the least we can do to honor their service and sacrifice,” said Edwards. “These space surveillance tools will protect American spacecraft and satellites. As more and more countries gain access to space, it is important for us to track objects that come close to our incredibly valuable spacecraft and their important missions.”
Finally, Edwards secured $2 million for research at Texas A&M that will help the Department of Defense improve technology to adapt to battlefield operational issues. With the advent and proliferation of systems such as cell phone networks, wireless data networks, and software defined radio systems, this environment has become more complex.
"We appreciate Congressman Edwards' support of Texas A&M Engineering with these initiatives, which will build upon and expand our excellent research strengths," said Dr. G. Kemble Bennett, vice chancellor and dean of engineering and the Harold J. Haynes Dean's Chair Professor. "These projects will provide increased opportunities for interaction between federal agencies and Texas A&M faculty and students to further our nation's security and educate our next defense workforce."
The bill is expected to be on the House floor next week.
Published on Thursday, July 23, 2009
Reporter: Josh Taylor
From KBTX
A spokesperson for U.S. Representative Chet Edwards office says the Congressman has secured funding for national defense research at Texas A&M University under the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill, passed by the House Appropriations Committee this week.
“I am very pleased that the defense bill includes my request for key defense research projects at Texas A&M. These defense projects are part of a long-term plan to enhance and strengthen Texas A&M’s historic partnership with the Department of Defense,” said Edwards, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. “These priority programs will strengthen our nation’s defense, and support jobs and economic growth in the Brazos Valley.”
Texas A&M System Chancellor Michael D. McKinney said, “Research efforts with a national and international significance are priorities for the Texas A&M System. For our schools, that means better teachers and learning opportunities for our students. For our communities, that means more jobs and a better quality of life, and often, for our country, more security. We are pleased that our Congressman, Chet Edwards, recognizes those facts and has the dedication and experience to secure these funds for our research efforts.”
The funding would go towards defense projects that partner Texas A&M with Fort Hood in Killeen. Edwards secured $3 million for a joint Waco VA Hospital -Ft. Hood-Texas A&M health research program that will examine the underlying causes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Edwards created the program in 2006 and has secured $8.9 million total for this project to date.
“The Waco VA and Ft. Hood are uniquely positioned to conduct world-class research with the Department of Defense and Texas A&M to find improved treatments and cures for veterans suffering from mental illness and post traumatic stress disorder,” said Edwards, chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee.
Edwards worked with Congressman John Carter (R-Round Rock) to add $2.5 million to continue a cooperative effort between Texas AgriLife Research (a research agency of the Texas A&M System) and the Integrated Training Area Management group on Ft. Hood that improves training ranges for Fort Hood soldiers. It has been recognized by the Texas Council on Environmental Quality for its positive environmental benefits.
“This project improves training grounds after they have been eroded and degraded from tank and training operations on base. This is another example of A&M working with Fort Hood to help our troops train so that they can carry out their mission successfully when they reach the battlefield,” said Edwards.
“As a direct result of an appropriation carried by Representative Chet Edwards, our soldiers will be safer and be better trained as they head overseas into harm's way,” said Dr. Mark Hussey, Vice Chancellor and Dean of Agriculture at Texas A&M. “By providing strong political support for this project, Congressman Edwards again has recognized the importance of fully meeting the training needs of our soldiers while maintaining the environmental integrity of the land. We are especially pleased to provide support to those priorities identified by the leadership at Fort Hood.”
Edwards also secured $2 million for two research programs at Texas A&M that will develop innovative delivery methods for vaccines needed by military personnel deployed in the field, and work with the Air Force to develop a sensor and imaging technology for spacecraft to detect objects in their surroundings that may threaten U.S. intelligence operations.
“Ensuring our service men and women in combat can receive they best care possible is the least we can do to honor their service and sacrifice,” said Edwards. “These space surveillance tools will protect American spacecraft and satellites. As more and more countries gain access to space, it is important for us to track objects that come close to our incredibly valuable spacecraft and their important missions.”
Finally, Edwards secured $2 million for research at Texas A&M that will help the Department of Defense improve technology to adapt to battlefield operational issues. With the advent and proliferation of systems such as cell phone networks, wireless data networks, and software defined radio systems, this environment has become more complex.
"We appreciate Congressman Edwards' support of Texas A&M Engineering with these initiatives, which will build upon and expand our excellent research strengths," said Dr. G. Kemble Bennett, vice chancellor and dean of engineering and the Harold J. Haynes Dean's Chair Professor. "These projects will provide increased opportunities for interaction between federal agencies and Texas A&M faculty and students to further our nation's security and educate our next defense workforce."
The bill is expected to be on the House floor next week.
Published on Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Local News: College Station Will Vote on Red Light Cameras
CS Red Light Cameras Headed for Vote
Reporter: KBTX Staff
From KBTX
It was just last Thursday when red-light camera opponents dropped off their petition at city hall.
Wednesday they got the answer they were hoping to hear.
By a comfortable margin, the petition has been certified by the city.
That means after the council signs off on it next month, the issue of whether to keep or abandon red light cameras will be decided by voters.
The petition had to have the signatures of at least 846 registered voters, or 25% of the number that voted in the last city election. The final count yielded 924 valid signatures.
No word yet on the date of the red light election.
The petition drive was spear-headed by College Station resident Jim Ash who's been actively opposing red light cameras for months.
Published on Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Reporter: KBTX Staff
From KBTX
It was just last Thursday when red-light camera opponents dropped off their petition at city hall.
Wednesday they got the answer they were hoping to hear.
By a comfortable margin, the petition has been certified by the city.
That means after the council signs off on it next month, the issue of whether to keep or abandon red light cameras will be decided by voters.
The petition had to have the signatures of at least 846 registered voters, or 25% of the number that voted in the last city election. The final count yielded 924 valid signatures.
No word yet on the date of the red light election.
The petition drive was spear-headed by College Station resident Jim Ash who's been actively opposing red light cameras for months.
Published on Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Tonight on Biased Transmission
Tonight on Biased Transmission, the City of Bryan animal ordinance debate; our guest will be Dr. Charles Brookes, Dr. Powell Knight, and Lance Parr and will discuss the recently proposed Animal Control Ordinance by the City of Bryan.
We will be discussing the nature and concerns with the document in totality and also going into details on three specific issues that the citizen of Bryan expressed the most concern with respect to:
1. The trap-and-kill policy with respect to feral cats (as opposed to trap-neuter-and-release policy which is being advocated by many)
2. The requirements of permits/licenses for having more than 4 pets in a household (and the alleged encroachment of citizens' civil liberties under the terms of these permits)
3. The three day hold period for impounded animals after which the city has the right to extinguish the property ownership rights of the owner of the impounded pet.
Listen to Biased Transmission tonight on 89.1FM KEOS College Station-Bryan from 6-7pm, to hear Srikanth Sastry, Teddy Wilson, Michael Alvard, Danny Yeager, Ann Preston, and guest. If you have a question or comment you can post it here, or call the KEOS Bell Studios: 979-779-5367.
We will be discussing the nature and concerns with the document in totality and also going into details on three specific issues that the citizen of Bryan expressed the most concern with respect to:
1. The trap-and-kill policy with respect to feral cats (as opposed to trap-neuter-and-release policy which is being advocated by many)
2. The requirements of permits/licenses for having more than 4 pets in a household (and the alleged encroachment of citizens' civil liberties under the terms of these permits)
3. The three day hold period for impounded animals after which the city has the right to extinguish the property ownership rights of the owner of the impounded pet.
Listen to Biased Transmission tonight on 89.1FM KEOS College Station-Bryan from 6-7pm, to hear Srikanth Sastry, Teddy Wilson, Michael Alvard, Danny Yeager, Ann Preston, and guest. If you have a question or comment you can post it here, or call the KEOS Bell Studios: 979-779-5367.
Local News: Local Colleges Could See Increase in Veterans Enrollment
New GI Bill Could Increase Enrollment at Baylor, Other Local Colleges
By Regina Dennis (Tribune-Herald staff writer)
From the Waco Tribune-Herald
Some veterans may have expanded higher education options locally when a new GI Bill with higher college tuition benefits goes into effect next month.
The new GI Bill, starting Aug. 1, will pay the tuition and fees up to the highest public tuition in the state for veterans who served in Afghanistan or Iraq.
The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates 7,000 Texas veterans will be able to take advantage of the bill this year. Qualified Texas veterans can receive up to $1,471 per credit hour, or $17,652 per semester, for a 12-hour course load.
That means that full tuition costs will likely be covered at Baylor University and other private schools in Texas, Baylor spokeswoman Lori Fogleman said. Baylor has a flat-rate tuition of $25,320 for a full school year, plus $2,590 in fees annually.
“The way we interpret the bill, because of the amount it pays per credit hour in Texas, full tuition at Baylor would be covered by it,” Fogleman said.
Fogleman said 35 veterans were enrolled at Baylor for the 2008-09 school year. Already, 14 new veteran students have enrolled for the fall semester under new GI Bill benefits, and three more prosepective veteran students are awaiting eligibility certification for the new bill from the VA, Fogleman said.
Other area colleges also predict an increase in their veteran student population. Kathy Chastain, veterans benefits certification officer for Texas State Technical College in Waco, said she is already fielding inquiries from prospective veteran students about the new bill.
“It’s possible that more veterans will enroll at TSTC because of the bill,” Chastain said, adding that the school has about 200 veterans currently enrolled. “Most of my calls are from new students, and some current students are trying to weigh the benefits of the new bill versus the old one.”
Kris Cervantes, veterans services coordinator at McLennan Community College, said some of the school’s 190 veterans are weighing their education options under the new bill, with a few considering transferring to Baylor. Some are also considering transferring to the University Center at MCC to earn degrees from colleges like Tarleton State University, Texas Tech University and the University of Texas at Arlington, Brownsville and Medical Branch campuses.
“It does give students more choices for a college education, but at the same time, Baylor and some of the larger universities may not be a good fit,” Cervantes said. “MCC does have a more nontraditional student population, and that student who is 26 or 35 may prefer to see other people their age in their classes, so MCC or the University Center would be a better fit.”
Veterans must file for the new GI Bill benefits through the VA, which will certify eligibility for the program. Cervantes said a few students at MCC have already obtained their certification, including a veteran she knows personally.
Her husband, Rob Cervantes, 35, who served in the Army for six years, will transfer to the University Center to obtain his bachelor’s degree in business administration from University of Texas at Arlington using the new GI Bill education benefits.
Rob Cervantes, who was a sergeant and served two tours of duty in Iraq, began attending MCC last August on the current GI Bill and will graduate with an associates degree in general studies next month. He said while the current GI Bill’s monthly stipend of $1,321 combined with his wife’s salary covered school and living expenses for the couple and their two sons, it would not afford him the opportunity to enter the UTA program.
“It would have been absolutely prohibitive, just because the tuition and fees alone would be twice as much (as the stipend),” said Rob Cervantes, who quit his job as a branch manager at an ATM company in San Antonio shortly after Sept. 11 to enlist in the Army. “Plus, I haven’t bought books yet, so it would be next to impossible.”
The benefits vary by state, with veterans in states with higher public tuition such as Texas and New Hampshire receiving close to $20,000 or more per semester in education credits — while veterans in other states could receive next to nothing, which is the case in California, where public universities and colleges are barred from charging tuition. California schools raise money through fees, which are not covered in the bill.
U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, said Congress will likely address the discrepancy in a future bill. Edwards, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, has already expanded the GI Bill to cover full tuition to all children of military members who were killed in active duty after Sept. 11 through a provision in the 2009 supplemental appropriations bill to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The cost of higher education has gone up dramatically, and the old GI Bill had not kept pace, making it increasingly difficult for our troops and veterans to attend college,” Edwards said. “Secondly, we felt this was a show of respect for the extreme sacrifices being made by our troops, and third, this is a matter of recruitment and retention of the best and brightest into our all-volunteer military force.”
Published on Wednesday, July 22, 2009
By Regina Dennis (Tribune-Herald staff writer)
From the Waco Tribune-Herald
Some veterans may have expanded higher education options locally when a new GI Bill with higher college tuition benefits goes into effect next month.
The new GI Bill, starting Aug. 1, will pay the tuition and fees up to the highest public tuition in the state for veterans who served in Afghanistan or Iraq.
The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates 7,000 Texas veterans will be able to take advantage of the bill this year. Qualified Texas veterans can receive up to $1,471 per credit hour, or $17,652 per semester, for a 12-hour course load.
That means that full tuition costs will likely be covered at Baylor University and other private schools in Texas, Baylor spokeswoman Lori Fogleman said. Baylor has a flat-rate tuition of $25,320 for a full school year, plus $2,590 in fees annually.
“The way we interpret the bill, because of the amount it pays per credit hour in Texas, full tuition at Baylor would be covered by it,” Fogleman said.
Fogleman said 35 veterans were enrolled at Baylor for the 2008-09 school year. Already, 14 new veteran students have enrolled for the fall semester under new GI Bill benefits, and three more prosepective veteran students are awaiting eligibility certification for the new bill from the VA, Fogleman said.
Other area colleges also predict an increase in their veteran student population. Kathy Chastain, veterans benefits certification officer for Texas State Technical College in Waco, said she is already fielding inquiries from prospective veteran students about the new bill.
“It’s possible that more veterans will enroll at TSTC because of the bill,” Chastain said, adding that the school has about 200 veterans currently enrolled. “Most of my calls are from new students, and some current students are trying to weigh the benefits of the new bill versus the old one.”
Kris Cervantes, veterans services coordinator at McLennan Community College, said some of the school’s 190 veterans are weighing their education options under the new bill, with a few considering transferring to Baylor. Some are also considering transferring to the University Center at MCC to earn degrees from colleges like Tarleton State University, Texas Tech University and the University of Texas at Arlington, Brownsville and Medical Branch campuses.
“It does give students more choices for a college education, but at the same time, Baylor and some of the larger universities may not be a good fit,” Cervantes said. “MCC does have a more nontraditional student population, and that student who is 26 or 35 may prefer to see other people their age in their classes, so MCC or the University Center would be a better fit.”
Veterans must file for the new GI Bill benefits through the VA, which will certify eligibility for the program. Cervantes said a few students at MCC have already obtained their certification, including a veteran she knows personally.
Her husband, Rob Cervantes, 35, who served in the Army for six years, will transfer to the University Center to obtain his bachelor’s degree in business administration from University of Texas at Arlington using the new GI Bill education benefits.
Rob Cervantes, who was a sergeant and served two tours of duty in Iraq, began attending MCC last August on the current GI Bill and will graduate with an associates degree in general studies next month. He said while the current GI Bill’s monthly stipend of $1,321 combined with his wife’s salary covered school and living expenses for the couple and their two sons, it would not afford him the opportunity to enter the UTA program.
“It would have been absolutely prohibitive, just because the tuition and fees alone would be twice as much (as the stipend),” said Rob Cervantes, who quit his job as a branch manager at an ATM company in San Antonio shortly after Sept. 11 to enlist in the Army. “Plus, I haven’t bought books yet, so it would be next to impossible.”
The benefits vary by state, with veterans in states with higher public tuition such as Texas and New Hampshire receiving close to $20,000 or more per semester in education credits — while veterans in other states could receive next to nothing, which is the case in California, where public universities and colleges are barred from charging tuition. California schools raise money through fees, which are not covered in the bill.
U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, said Congress will likely address the discrepancy in a future bill. Edwards, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, has already expanded the GI Bill to cover full tuition to all children of military members who were killed in active duty after Sept. 11 through a provision in the 2009 supplemental appropriations bill to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The cost of higher education has gone up dramatically, and the old GI Bill had not kept pace, making it increasingly difficult for our troops and veterans to attend college,” Edwards said. “Secondly, we felt this was a show of respect for the extreme sacrifices being made by our troops, and third, this is a matter of recruitment and retention of the best and brightest into our all-volunteer military force.”
Published on Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Video Lunch: Bill Moyers Journal Essay: Health Care
A Bill Moyers essay on health care. Bill Moyers Journal airs Friday nights at 9 pm on PBS, check your local listings.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Video Lunch: Health care or disease care?
From the Real News Network:
Len Saputo, MD, a 1965 graduate of Duke University Medical School, is board certified in internal medicine. After his awakening to the deep flaws in conventional medicine, Saputo developed a new paradigm that is now known as integral-health medicine. Saputo founded the Health Medicine Forum in 1994, and went on to found and direct the Health Medicine Center in Walnut Creek, California—one the first integrative clinics.
Local News: Chamber of Commerce Votes to Pass Resolution Opposing Health Care
B-CS Chamber Votes To Pass Resolution Opposing National Healthcare Plan
Reporter: Mike George & Sylvia Villarreal
From KBTX
The Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce has voted to pass a resolution that opposes National Healthcare in the U-S.
The Texas Associating of Business (TAB) is urging local Chambers to approve a resolution opposing legislation that would pass National Healthcare in the U-S.
Here's what the resolution states:
Be it resolved that the Board of Directors of the Bryan/College Station Chamber of Commerce express its opposition to any legislation that develops National Healthcare in the United States, and
Whereas, the health care plan as proposed creates huge inequities among all hard-working wage earners in America, and
Whereas, this proposal will require huge tax increases in order to subsidize the planned program, and
Whereas, the Federal Government should not be in the business of controlling and manipulating the health care system, and
Whereas, the enactment of a government-run, health care insurance program is not sustainable. No confidence exists in the Federal Government's ability to deliver the cost containment's necessary to expand coverage of the uninsured, and
Whereas, the private health care insurance industry has the existing tools to contain costs and the incentives necessary to improve quality and affordability for their customers, and
Whereas, under the health care reform bill, access to health care will become unreasonable to the highest degree. The rationing of health care in countries with socialized medicine has led to patients dying because they were forced to wait too long to receive treatment, and
Whereas, the solution in health care reform lies in improving the quality and affordability of health care through market-based changes, and
Whereas, the focus on health care reforms should be directed in finding ways to make private health care coverage more affordable and to provide fair and adequate reimbursements for care.
Therefore, be it resolved that: The Board of Directors of the Bryan/College Station Chamber of Commerce representing 1400 businesses in our community states through this resolution its strong opposition to the proposed changes in our country’s health system through government interference and control that negatively impacts businesses, and
Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded immediately to our elected representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
Published on Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Reporter: Mike George & Sylvia Villarreal
From KBTX
The Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce has voted to pass a resolution that opposes National Healthcare in the U-S.
The Texas Associating of Business (TAB) is urging local Chambers to approve a resolution opposing legislation that would pass National Healthcare in the U-S.
Here's what the resolution states:
Be it resolved that the Board of Directors of the Bryan/College Station Chamber of Commerce express its opposition to any legislation that develops National Healthcare in the United States, and
Whereas, the health care plan as proposed creates huge inequities among all hard-working wage earners in America, and
Whereas, this proposal will require huge tax increases in order to subsidize the planned program, and
Whereas, the Federal Government should not be in the business of controlling and manipulating the health care system, and
Whereas, the enactment of a government-run, health care insurance program is not sustainable. No confidence exists in the Federal Government's ability to deliver the cost containment's necessary to expand coverage of the uninsured, and
Whereas, the private health care insurance industry has the existing tools to contain costs and the incentives necessary to improve quality and affordability for their customers, and
Whereas, under the health care reform bill, access to health care will become unreasonable to the highest degree. The rationing of health care in countries with socialized medicine has led to patients dying because they were forced to wait too long to receive treatment, and
Whereas, the solution in health care reform lies in improving the quality and affordability of health care through market-based changes, and
Whereas, the focus on health care reforms should be directed in finding ways to make private health care coverage more affordable and to provide fair and adequate reimbursements for care.
Therefore, be it resolved that: The Board of Directors of the Bryan/College Station Chamber of Commerce representing 1400 businesses in our community states through this resolution its strong opposition to the proposed changes in our country’s health system through government interference and control that negatively impacts businesses, and
Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded immediately to our elected representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
Published on Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Information Underground
This Sunday is the premier of Information Underground on 89.1FM KEOS. Information Underground is an alternative news, politics, and opinion talk show; the program will focus on local news and politics, but it will also cover both national and international issues. Although the show will reporting from a liberal/progressive perspective, there will be a concerted effort to show many different angels of the debates and issues presented.
Every Sunday from 5-6pm after Tavis Smiley, Information Underground will review the weekend in headlines. After headlines the program is dedicated to special programming, including interviews or special reports. The show will close each with political and social commentary to the Left of College Station. More information about the new program will be posted over the course of the week.
Every Sunday from 5-6pm after Tavis Smiley, Information Underground will review the weekend in headlines. After headlines the program is dedicated to special programming, including interviews or special reports. The show will close each with political and social commentary to the Left of College Station. More information about the new program will be posted over the course of the week.
Chamber of Conference Health Care Resolution: What It Says, and What It Means
Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce Proposed Resolution on Health Care
Whereas, what we say is in black ink, but what we mean is in read ink
Whereas, the health care plan as proposed creates huge inequities among all hard-working wage earners in America, and
Whereas, the current health care system in America has created huge inequities among hardworking wage earners in America, and a universal health care system would create huge inequities in the insurance companies’ profit margins
Whereas, this proposal will require huge tax increases in order to subsidize the planned program, and
Whereas, under the current system Americans spend more money on health care than in any other country and receive health care that is only adequate for those that can afford health care
Whereas, the Federal Government should not be in the business of controlling and manipulating the health care system, and
Whereas, the insurance companies would like to maintain their control over manipulating the health care system
Whereas, the enactment of a government-run, health care insurance program is not sustainable. No confidence exists in the Federal Government's ability to deliver the cost containments necessary to expand coverage of the uninsured, and
Whereas, the government run health care system could not work efficiently, but it would work too efficiently and private health insurance companies could not compete
Whereas, the private health care insurance industry has the existing tools to contain costs and the incentives necessary to improve quality and affordability for their customers, and
Whereas, the private health care insurance industry has the existing tools to contain the costs and the incentives necessary to improve quality and affordability for their customers, but will continue to exploit their customers in order to increase their profit margin
Whereas, under the health care reform bill, access to health care will become unreasonable to the highest degree. The rationing of health care in countries with socialized medicine has led to patients dying because they were forced to wait too long to receive treatment, and
Whereas, under the current health care system there are patients dying because they do not have access to affordable health care because the insurance companies have either denied them coverage or denied their claims, or patients are forced into bankruptcy because the cost of life saving treatments are so expensive
Whereas, the solution in health care reform lies in improving the quality and affordability of health care through market-based changes, and
Whereas, the solution in health care reform lies in improving the quality and affordability of health care through market-based changes: see the housing market, the automobile industry, and the banking industry
Whereas, the focus on health care reforms should be directed in finding ways to make private health care coverage more affordable and to provide fair and adequate reimbursements for care.
Whereas, the focus on health care reforms should be directed in keeping private health care coverage affordable only for the affluent and to providing unfair and inadequate reimbursements for care to the poor
Therefore, be it resolved that: The Board of Directors of the Bryan/College Station Chamber of Commerce representing 1400 businesses in our community states through this resolution its strong opposition to the proposed changes in our country’s health system through government interference and control that negatively impacts businesses, and
Therefore, be it resolved that: The Board of Directors of the Bryan/College Station Chamber of Commerce representing 1400 businesses in our community states through this resolution its strong support of the status quo, and strong opposition to proposed changes in our country’s health care system that could positively impact the health of Americans
Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded immediately to our elected representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be returned to the Republican National Committee and the health insurance lobbyists that oppose universal health care.
Video Lunch: Sunday Show Roundup: Work in Progress
Your Daily Politics Video Blog: White House Budget Director Peter Orszag and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius say that the major health care reform proposal congress is working on is making progress, but Republicans remain entrenched in opposition to the President's big push as the previously proposed August congressional recess deadline approaches. We examine the standoff in today's Sunday Show Roundup.
Local News: Renovating Downtown Bryan
Doing Up Downtown Bryan
By Cassie Smith
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
The crown on the Queen Theater is coming back to life with a light and the ability to rotate. A block away, a gallery with up to $50 million worth of art is moving in.
These noticeable changes for downtown Bryan are long overdue, according to officials behind the alterations and additions.
The Bryan City Council recently approved grants to go toward restoring parts of the Queen and the Wimberly Building, both of which have been vacant for years.
The Downtown Large Facade Rehabilitation and Preservation Grant Program will provide up to $100,000 for improvements to the Main Street side of the Wimberly, which is near the Subway on Main Street and now will house the gallery. Up to $100,000 in renovations will help improve the exterior of the Queen.
The recipient of the grants, Astin Redevelopment, will spend plenty more than that sprucing up both sites, though the Queen still won't reopen any time soon.
Mayor Pro Tem Jason Bienski said the grants had been a positive economic tool to help motivate business owners to make renovations.
Texas A&M's Forsyth Gallery will be housed in the Wimberly Building at 110 N. Main St. for the next three years, while the university's Memorial Student Center is undergoing major renovations.
"That will be a big tourist attraction and boon to downtown Bryan," Bienski said. "We're glad to have that here as opposed to it being shuttered for the next three years as they do renovations to the MSC."
Bienski said the renovations might provide the opportunity to bring in another art gallery if the Forsyth leaves once the MSC is ready.
Bryan Director of Economic Development Dennis Goehring said the multimillion-dollar gallery is a welcome addition that can only benefit the area.
"The thought occurred to all of us — what an opportunity to bring a $40 million to $50 million art gallery to downtown Bryan and have the opportunity to display that to the general public because the general public really doesn't have an opportunity to get out to the MSC that much and even students don't really see it," Goehring said. "But here's an opportunity to give it some publicity and excitement and show it off."
Randall Spradley, executive vice president of Fibertown which owns Astin Redevelopment, said the gallery would move in Tuesday. Nine-foot-tall glass doors have replaced the shorter doors to the building's entrance, while steel-reinforced walls have been installed in the basement with "more cameras than you can imagine" to store the artwork not hanging on the walls, Spradley said. The building will be divided into north and south galleries, with rooms for offices on both floors.
"Our real objective is for people that come in here to say this is a gallery worthy of the collection," Spradley said.
Down the street, the future of the old movie theater near the LaSalle Hotel on South Main Street remains uncertain except for one aspect: It will remain a theater.
Improvements to the Queen include: $40,000 for roof repairs; $25,000 for Bryan Avenue facade improvements; $35,000 for Main Street facade improvements; and $95,000 for marquee, canopy and crown renovations. Another $25,000 will go toward other outside changes to the building.
"We view it as an opportunity for a mural or something that communicates with the public," Spradley said.
The three-story brick-and-stucco building built in 1939 has a large sheet-metal crown that once rotated on top of the theater.
"We all know what the Queen looks like. It's been kind of a sore subject for all of us for a long time," Goehring said. "There has not been a real economic reason because the right thing has not come along. As a result, nothing happens."
Several offers from people wanting to buy or lease the property have come and gone over the years, Spradley said. But Astin has two requirements for new ownership: It must remain a theater, and the new owner must have successfully operated one in the past.
"What we don't want to see happen is to have someone open it and close it within two years," Spradley said.
Work on the Wimberly, built in 1964, is scheduled to be done by July 31, while the rehabilitation to the Queen may take until next June.
Spradley said the Queen has been used as a storage facility, but leaks in the roof have become severe enough that everything had to be removed.
"The real trick to the Queen isn't the cost of the redevelopment; the trick is to successfully operate it as a theater," Spradley said.
Published on Sunday, July 19, 2009
By Cassie Smith
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
The crown on the Queen Theater is coming back to life with a light and the ability to rotate. A block away, a gallery with up to $50 million worth of art is moving in.
These noticeable changes for downtown Bryan are long overdue, according to officials behind the alterations and additions.
The Bryan City Council recently approved grants to go toward restoring parts of the Queen and the Wimberly Building, both of which have been vacant for years.
The Downtown Large Facade Rehabilitation and Preservation Grant Program will provide up to $100,000 for improvements to the Main Street side of the Wimberly, which is near the Subway on Main Street and now will house the gallery. Up to $100,000 in renovations will help improve the exterior of the Queen.
The recipient of the grants, Astin Redevelopment, will spend plenty more than that sprucing up both sites, though the Queen still won't reopen any time soon.
Mayor Pro Tem Jason Bienski said the grants had been a positive economic tool to help motivate business owners to make renovations.
Texas A&M's Forsyth Gallery will be housed in the Wimberly Building at 110 N. Main St. for the next three years, while the university's Memorial Student Center is undergoing major renovations.
"That will be a big tourist attraction and boon to downtown Bryan," Bienski said. "We're glad to have that here as opposed to it being shuttered for the next three years as they do renovations to the MSC."
Bienski said the renovations might provide the opportunity to bring in another art gallery if the Forsyth leaves once the MSC is ready.
Bryan Director of Economic Development Dennis Goehring said the multimillion-dollar gallery is a welcome addition that can only benefit the area.
"The thought occurred to all of us — what an opportunity to bring a $40 million to $50 million art gallery to downtown Bryan and have the opportunity to display that to the general public because the general public really doesn't have an opportunity to get out to the MSC that much and even students don't really see it," Goehring said. "But here's an opportunity to give it some publicity and excitement and show it off."
Randall Spradley, executive vice president of Fibertown which owns Astin Redevelopment, said the gallery would move in Tuesday. Nine-foot-tall glass doors have replaced the shorter doors to the building's entrance, while steel-reinforced walls have been installed in the basement with "more cameras than you can imagine" to store the artwork not hanging on the walls, Spradley said. The building will be divided into north and south galleries, with rooms for offices on both floors.
"Our real objective is for people that come in here to say this is a gallery worthy of the collection," Spradley said.
Down the street, the future of the old movie theater near the LaSalle Hotel on South Main Street remains uncertain except for one aspect: It will remain a theater.
Improvements to the Queen include: $40,000 for roof repairs; $25,000 for Bryan Avenue facade improvements; $35,000 for Main Street facade improvements; and $95,000 for marquee, canopy and crown renovations. Another $25,000 will go toward other outside changes to the building.
"We view it as an opportunity for a mural or something that communicates with the public," Spradley said.
The three-story brick-and-stucco building built in 1939 has a large sheet-metal crown that once rotated on top of the theater.
"We all know what the Queen looks like. It's been kind of a sore subject for all of us for a long time," Goehring said. "There has not been a real economic reason because the right thing has not come along. As a result, nothing happens."
Several offers from people wanting to buy or lease the property have come and gone over the years, Spradley said. But Astin has two requirements for new ownership: It must remain a theater, and the new owner must have successfully operated one in the past.
"What we don't want to see happen is to have someone open it and close it within two years," Spradley said.
Work on the Wimberly, built in 1964, is scheduled to be done by July 31, while the rehabilitation to the Queen may take until next June.
Spradley said the Queen has been used as a storage facility, but leaks in the roof have become severe enough that everything had to be removed.
"The real trick to the Queen isn't the cost of the redevelopment; the trick is to successfully operate it as a theater," Spradley said.
Published on Sunday, July 19, 2009
Texas Progressive Alliance Roundup - July 20, 2009
It's Monday and it's time for another Texas Progressive Alliance blog roundup.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is sick of cronies running our cities our state and our country!
WCNews at Eye On Williamson on more GOP shenanigans - Republicans, hypocrisy, the stimulus, and more Carter "nuttiness".
Off the Kuff notes that as Texas' unemployment rate continues to rise, we are now in the position of having to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government to fulfill our unemployment insurance obligations. Heckuva job, Governor Perry!
John Coby at Bay Area Houston has posted a A How to Guide for Illegal Immigrants to Vote in Texas Elections.
Xanthippas takes on more disability-as-diversity nonsense. Also, on a side note, our blog Three Wise Men's 5th anniversary is this coming Tuesday. We'll be putting up a special post in commemoration.
The Texas Cloverleaf looks at how the NTTA will be raising rates because volume is down. So much for supply and demand theory.
This week, an old author returns to McBlogger with a true story about dogs. Completely unrelated to politics and nothing but funny.
Neil at Texas Liberal posted a video of him reciting the words the 1848 Shaker hymn Simple Gifts as a ship passes behind him on Galveston Island. Coming up this week at Texas Liberal will be a video shot at the San Jacinto battlefield.
Upon the arrival of Fashion Week in Austin, Mean Rachel wants to know "Does this city make my butt look hot?"
Citizen Sarah at Texas Vox expresses disappointment, to say the least, that the Public Utility Commission denied Sylvester Turner's petition to protect our most vulnerable from dangerous summer heat.
Teddy at Left%20of%20College%20Stationthe fourth estate, will be able to survive the economic recession and into the new digital age. Left of College Station also reviews the week in headlines.
The Texas Tribune, a new media project headed up by soon-to-be-former Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith, is an idea that shows lots of promise. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has more details about it.
Just as during the campaign, malicious emails are being sent, especially to the elderly. One paticularly nasty one is entitled: SENIOR DEATH WARRANTS. Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker takes on piece of electronic hit mail and offers some ideas on fighting back in his diary, Healthcare Scare Mail and what You Can Do To Help.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is sick of cronies running our cities our state and our country!
WCNews at Eye On Williamson on more GOP shenanigans - Republicans, hypocrisy, the stimulus, and more Carter "nuttiness".
Off the Kuff notes that as Texas' unemployment rate continues to rise, we are now in the position of having to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government to fulfill our unemployment insurance obligations. Heckuva job, Governor Perry!
John Coby at Bay Area Houston has posted a A How to Guide for Illegal Immigrants to Vote in Texas Elections.
Xanthippas takes on more disability-as-diversity nonsense. Also, on a side note, our blog Three Wise Men's 5th anniversary is this coming Tuesday. We'll be putting up a special post in commemoration.
The Texas Cloverleaf looks at how the NTTA will be raising rates because volume is down. So much for supply and demand theory.
This week, an old author returns to McBlogger with a true story about dogs. Completely unrelated to politics and nothing but funny.
Neil at Texas Liberal posted a video of him reciting the words the 1848 Shaker hymn Simple Gifts as a ship passes behind him on Galveston Island. Coming up this week at Texas Liberal will be a video shot at the San Jacinto battlefield.
Upon the arrival of Fashion Week in Austin, Mean Rachel wants to know "Does this city make my butt look hot?"
Citizen Sarah at Texas Vox expresses disappointment, to say the least, that the Public Utility Commission denied Sylvester Turner's petition to protect our most vulnerable from dangerous summer heat.
Teddy at Left%20of%20College%20Stationthe fourth estate, will be able to survive the economic recession and into the new digital age. Left of College Station also reviews the week in headlines.
The Texas Tribune, a new media project headed up by soon-to-be-former Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith, is an idea that shows lots of promise. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has more details about it.
Just as during the campaign, malicious emails are being sent, especially to the elderly. One paticularly nasty one is entitled: SENIOR DEATH WARRANTS. Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker takes on piece of electronic hit mail and offers some ideas on fighting back in his diary, Healthcare Scare Mail and what You Can Do To Help.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Week in Headlines
War and Peace
Afghanistan War Resister to "Put the War on Trial"
"What I did there, I know I contributed to death and human suffering.” Those are the words of Victor Agosto, a soldier stationed Fort Hood, in Killeen, Texas. Agosto was answering a question in an interview with TruthOut.org about the thirteen months he spent in Iraq, and now Agosoto is refusing to deploy to Afghanistan. “It's a matter of what I'm willing to live with. I'm not willing to participate in this occupation, knowing it is completely wrong."
Politics
The Coming End of the Culture Wars
The “culture wars” have taken over the political landscape in the last thirty years, however, the political landscape may be changing. According to a report by the Center for American Progress, ongoing demographic shifts have seriously eroded the mass base for culture wars politics and will continue to erode this base in the future. The report notes that effects of the Millennials, the generation born between 1978 and 2000, will have on the future of politics.
Texas Politics
'Experts' Stir Controversy Over Social Studies Textbooks
In the coming months, the Texas State Board of Education six expert reviewers appointed by the board will be focusing on the social studies curriculum standards for 4.7 million Texas public school children. The Houston Chronicle is reporting that recommendations are already causing controversy, such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen F. Austin not being included in text books for elementary schools students and to emphasize the role of the Bible and the Christian faith in the settling of the original colonies. This is coming on the heels of a controversial SBOE debate over evolution, and Texas Governor Rick Perry’s nomination of the Chair of the SBOE not being confirmed by the Texas State Senate.
Media
Open for Business
Would you pay for news online? Some small news outlets that service large areas or media organizations that focus on specific and narrow audiences are charging for news. However, could larger news organizations successfully make a profit from charging for news and information online? The Columbia Journalism Review reports that online subscriptions will not save newspapers, and that no one revenue stream will (not online or print advertising, or alerts on handheld devices, or new electronic). However, all of them together might.
Education
Ex-Athlete Says High Schools Teach How to Win Instead of How to Live
An ex-athlete who played high school football in Texas, testified before the State Board of Education that high school athletes only learn how to play and how to win but learn little else about health. The Houston Chronicle reports that Alex Payne requested that the SBOE require schools to teach athletes about the long term effects of injures, and that high school sports focus more on prevention and not solely on competition.
Economy
Bernanke’s Bad Teachers
An article from Dollars and Sense about how Fed chair Ben Bernanke got “hooked” on Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz while he was in graduate school, and following their teachings on the Great Depression, he’s been starving the real economy to avoid interfering in free markets. Conducting an economic policy as cruel as it has been ineffective whose blame goes beyond Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz, and lies squarely on the economics profession.
Environment
From the Sewage Plant: The Promise of Biofuel
A Yale Environment 360 report on how researchers throughout the world are working to produce biofuel from algae. But a few are trying a decidedly novel approach: Using an abundant and freely available source — human waste — to make the fuel of the future while also treating sewage.
Reproductive Rights
Playing the Abortion Card
The conservative opposition to universal health care is using abortion as a wedge issue to prevent health care reform. An article in the American Prospect points to organizations such as the Family Research Council and the National Right to Life Committee who are promoting the idea that a vote for universal health care is a vote for abortion. Those groups point to the “family planning” language in the legislation as evidence that abortion will be federally funded, when in reality "family planning" language refers exclusively to contraceptive services.
GLBT Issues
Episcopal Church Moves to End Ban on Gay Bishops
This week the Episcopal Church voted to allow openly gay bishops, which ended the moratorium on ordaining gay bishops that was passed just three years ago. The decision that was passed overwhelmingly by church delegates would allow dioceses to consider gay candidates to the episcopacy, but does not mandate that all dioceses do so. The vote comes at a time when the Church has faced internal strife over the issue of homosexuals, and has cause splits in the denomination both in the United States in other countries throughout the world.
Race and Racism
Closet Racism in the Age of Obama
How does empathy equal racism? If the white male experience is the only authentically American experience, and therefore the only one that could possibly be unbiased. This is the picture that Republicans tried to paint during the confirmation hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s Senate confirmation hearings. Marie Cocco at TruthDig.com writes that “Senators who argue in the Sotomayor hearings that race—let alone “empathy”—should never be a factor in legal rulings would do well to look beyond the dais.”
Afghanistan War Resister to "Put the War on Trial"
"What I did there, I know I contributed to death and human suffering.” Those are the words of Victor Agosto, a soldier stationed Fort Hood, in Killeen, Texas. Agosto was answering a question in an interview with TruthOut.org about the thirteen months he spent in Iraq, and now Agosoto is refusing to deploy to Afghanistan. “It's a matter of what I'm willing to live with. I'm not willing to participate in this occupation, knowing it is completely wrong."
Politics
The Coming End of the Culture Wars
The “culture wars” have taken over the political landscape in the last thirty years, however, the political landscape may be changing. According to a report by the Center for American Progress, ongoing demographic shifts have seriously eroded the mass base for culture wars politics and will continue to erode this base in the future. The report notes that effects of the Millennials, the generation born between 1978 and 2000, will have on the future of politics.
Texas Politics
'Experts' Stir Controversy Over Social Studies Textbooks
In the coming months, the Texas State Board of Education six expert reviewers appointed by the board will be focusing on the social studies curriculum standards for 4.7 million Texas public school children. The Houston Chronicle is reporting that recommendations are already causing controversy, such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen F. Austin not being included in text books for elementary schools students and to emphasize the role of the Bible and the Christian faith in the settling of the original colonies. This is coming on the heels of a controversial SBOE debate over evolution, and Texas Governor Rick Perry’s nomination of the Chair of the SBOE not being confirmed by the Texas State Senate.
Media
Open for Business
Would you pay for news online? Some small news outlets that service large areas or media organizations that focus on specific and narrow audiences are charging for news. However, could larger news organizations successfully make a profit from charging for news and information online? The Columbia Journalism Review reports that online subscriptions will not save newspapers, and that no one revenue stream will (not online or print advertising, or alerts on handheld devices, or new electronic). However, all of them together might.
Education
Ex-Athlete Says High Schools Teach How to Win Instead of How to Live
An ex-athlete who played high school football in Texas, testified before the State Board of Education that high school athletes only learn how to play and how to win but learn little else about health. The Houston Chronicle reports that Alex Payne requested that the SBOE require schools to teach athletes about the long term effects of injures, and that high school sports focus more on prevention and not solely on competition.
Economy
Bernanke’s Bad Teachers
An article from Dollars and Sense about how Fed chair Ben Bernanke got “hooked” on Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz while he was in graduate school, and following their teachings on the Great Depression, he’s been starving the real economy to avoid interfering in free markets. Conducting an economic policy as cruel as it has been ineffective whose blame goes beyond Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz, and lies squarely on the economics profession.
Environment
From the Sewage Plant: The Promise of Biofuel
A Yale Environment 360 report on how researchers throughout the world are working to produce biofuel from algae. But a few are trying a decidedly novel approach: Using an abundant and freely available source — human waste — to make the fuel of the future while also treating sewage.
Reproductive Rights
Playing the Abortion Card
The conservative opposition to universal health care is using abortion as a wedge issue to prevent health care reform. An article in the American Prospect points to organizations such as the Family Research Council and the National Right to Life Committee who are promoting the idea that a vote for universal health care is a vote for abortion. Those groups point to the “family planning” language in the legislation as evidence that abortion will be federally funded, when in reality "family planning" language refers exclusively to contraceptive services.
GLBT Issues
Episcopal Church Moves to End Ban on Gay Bishops
This week the Episcopal Church voted to allow openly gay bishops, which ended the moratorium on ordaining gay bishops that was passed just three years ago. The decision that was passed overwhelmingly by church delegates would allow dioceses to consider gay candidates to the episcopacy, but does not mandate that all dioceses do so. The vote comes at a time when the Church has faced internal strife over the issue of homosexuals, and has cause splits in the denomination both in the United States in other countries throughout the world.
Race and Racism
Closet Racism in the Age of Obama
How does empathy equal racism? If the white male experience is the only authentically American experience, and therefore the only one that could possibly be unbiased. This is the picture that Republicans tried to paint during the confirmation hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s Senate confirmation hearings. Marie Cocco at TruthDig.com writes that “Senators who argue in the Sotomayor hearings that race—let alone “empathy”—should never be a factor in legal rulings would do well to look beyond the dais.”
Local News: Texas A&M Announces Presidential Search Committee
Panel Picked to Look for Next A&M Leader
By Vimal Patel
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
Robert Bednarz presided as Faculty Senate speaker last month as the group passed a vote of "no confidence" in Texas A&M System Chancellor Mike McKinney's leadership.
On Thursday, Bednarz was named one of 15 people who will search for the next president at the flagship university.
The announcement of a diverse advisory committee during the regularly scheduled Board of Regents meeting in College Station represents a move to alleviate concerns by many worried about regents and the chancellor making decisions without proper input from faculty and other groups.
"It's certainly very encouraging," said Tim Hall, a distinguished professor who will serve on the committee. "I think it's the sort of thing that most of the faculty were looking for."
The chair of the new committee is Richard Box, who, before he was tapped to become a regent last year, was treasurer of Texans for Rick Perry, the governor's campaign fund.
Two more regents also will serve on the committee -- Ida Clement Steen and Lupe Fraga, who served on a 2007 presidential search committee.
The group will search for a replacement for Elsa Murano, who resigned in June amid a public falling-out with McKinney, a family physician and former chief of staff to Perry.
R. Bowen Loftin, who has served as the chief of the Galveston branch campus, is serving as interim president.
The committee -- which includes two students, five faculty members and five other members representing various "stakeholders" -- will work under a flexible deadline of February to complete the 16-step process that began with the creation of the committee and ends with the final selection.
"While the schedule is aggressive, I certainly believe it can be accomplished," said Regents Chairman Morris Foster, adding that the deadline could be pushed back if necessary.
Some observers have described the next presidential search as the most important in the university's history. Others view it as a test: how it is handled will determine whether the chancellor and regents put muscle behind their conciliatory overtures.
It will be Texas A&M's third search for a president in the last seven years. The last two took essentially the same path: The chancellor appointed a diverse advisory committee, and each body recommended three candidates to regents.
And each search ended in a spurt of controversy as it became known that regents were considering candidates who weren't vetted by the search committee -- Murano in 2007 and former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm in 2002.
Differences
In the 2002 process, the will of the search committee was upheld when five of the nine regents voted for approving Robert Gates, who was researched by the search committee and was one of the three recommended finalists.
The remaining regents supported Gramm, a former Texas A&M professor who was neither vetted by the search committee nor ever officially acknowledged as a candidate by the board chairman at the time, Erle Nye.
The 2007 search ended with Murano's approval by an 8-1 vote even though the search advisory committee had recommended three sitting university presidents to regents. Murano, who was then a vice chancellor and dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, had not been vetted by the advisory committee.
The 2007 advisory committee was criticized by some on the faculty. In 2002, the three finalists' names were made public and the candidates were invited to campus for interviews and a chance for the community to meet each candidate.
But the names of the three finalists whom the 2007 search committee yielded were never publicly named -- not by the chair of the committee, Douglas Slack, or by the regents.
After the names were forwarded in August 2007, Slack said, he and other committee members were in the dark about what was happening with the search until December, when regents announced that Murano was the sole finalist.
Slack defended his tight grip on information, saying he went as far as making committee members sign secrecy oaths not to disclose the candidates' names. The wildlife and fisheries sciences professor said that his search was different from the one that led to Gates' hiring: In 2007, he said, all the finalists were sitting university presidents whose reputations at their current institutions could have been harmed if their job search had been disclosed.
The new search will protect the names of all candidates from disclosure, officials said.
Jerry Cox has run through more applications for Texas A&M president in the last decade than just about anyone else. The distinguished alumnus, who is the only person to have served on both advisory committees, defends the 2007 search process.
"I got an inside look at both searches, and I can say unequivocally that both were equally successful," said Cox. "Had we picked [one of the] recommended finalists, we would have been equally as pleased with that candidate as we were with Bob Gates.
"The problem came after the search," he said, referring to regents' consideration of candidates not vetted by the committee.
Politics Suspected
In both searches, many saw political undertones.
In 2002, three of the four regents who didn't support Gates and were said to favor Gramm had been appointed by Perry, a former Aggie yell leader. All five regents who broke for Gates had been appointed by Gov. George W. Bush.
Former Regent Don Aviles was one of them. Now he's one of 24 members of Murano's shared governance task force.
"The five of us followed the process," Aviles said. "I personally believe that if you set a process, follow the process. Otherwise, you lose credibility."
The political undertones were subdued in the 2007 search, because there was no final showdown between two candidates. In a largely guarded process that began that August after the committee forwarded recommendations, the university community didn't know the status of the search until Murano was named sole finalist in December, many faculty members said.
With a board packed with Perry appointees, Murano was approved on an 8-to-1 vote.
Some have lamented the politicization of the search process and note that even though Gates is regarded as a successful president, the fact that all the regents who supported him were Bush appointees shows that board members often have a political allegiance to the governor who picked them.
One member of the 2002 search committee said that Gates and Perry zapped attention away from academics.
A New Search
Officials said that each candidate would go through the same search process, even if more candidates were added. If that procedure is followed, the last-minute concerns of the two previous searches will be avoided.
McKinney didn't address the search during remarks Thursday, but he said in a statement that the process was about more than hunting for the next Texas A&M leader. He called it a way to reach out to "the greater Aggie community regarding their thoughts and recommendations on how we can best advance Texas A&M."
"We believe this process will be one of the most interactive and progressive ever undertaken in selecting a president for Texas A&M University," he said.
The search will begin with outreach efforts such as town-hall sessions throughout the state, visits with various interested groups and solicitation of thoughts and comments through a presidential search Web site, officials said.
From the initial pool of candidates, those on a short list will be interviewed and then "three to four" semi-finalists will come to College Station for interviews. The committee will then forward three names unranked to regents, who will make the selection and approval.
Foster, in a press conference after the board meeting, said this search would be better orchestrated than the last one.
"We learned a lot from prior searches," he said. "I fully believe that we're organized this time, and ... we'll have a successful search."
Presidential Search Committee
The 15-member search committee expected to select the next Texas A&M president was announced Thursday. They include:
* Regent Richard Box will serve as the chairman of the committee.
* Regent Ida Clement Steen
* Regent Lupe Fraga
* Dr. John Junkins -- Distinguished Professor; Regents Professor; Director, Center for Mechanics and Control, Department of Aerospace Engineering
* Dr. Tim Hall - Distinguished Professor; Director, Institute of Developmental and Molecular Biology, Department of Biology
* Dr. Robert Bednarz - Speaker, Faculty Senate; Professor, Department of Geography
* Dr. Mark Hussey - Vice Chancellor and Dean of College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Former Head of Soil & Crop Sciences Department
* Dr. Antonio Cepeda-Benito - Dean of Faculties and Associate Provost
* Eric Beckham -- Student Body President
* Meredith Maloney - President, Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medicine Association
* Shelley Potter - Chair of the Board, The Association of Former Students
* Thomas Saylak - Chairman of Board of Trustees, Texas A&M Foundation
* Neal Adams - Attorney; Former Vice Chair and Member, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
* Dr. Dave Parrott - Executive Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Student Life
* Dr. Frank Ashley - Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, A&M System
Published on Friday, July 17, 2009
By Vimal Patel
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
Robert Bednarz presided as Faculty Senate speaker last month as the group passed a vote of "no confidence" in Texas A&M System Chancellor Mike McKinney's leadership.
On Thursday, Bednarz was named one of 15 people who will search for the next president at the flagship university.
The announcement of a diverse advisory committee during the regularly scheduled Board of Regents meeting in College Station represents a move to alleviate concerns by many worried about regents and the chancellor making decisions without proper input from faculty and other groups.
"It's certainly very encouraging," said Tim Hall, a distinguished professor who will serve on the committee. "I think it's the sort of thing that most of the faculty were looking for."
The chair of the new committee is Richard Box, who, before he was tapped to become a regent last year, was treasurer of Texans for Rick Perry, the governor's campaign fund.
Two more regents also will serve on the committee -- Ida Clement Steen and Lupe Fraga, who served on a 2007 presidential search committee.
The group will search for a replacement for Elsa Murano, who resigned in June amid a public falling-out with McKinney, a family physician and former chief of staff to Perry.
R. Bowen Loftin, who has served as the chief of the Galveston branch campus, is serving as interim president.
The committee -- which includes two students, five faculty members and five other members representing various "stakeholders" -- will work under a flexible deadline of February to complete the 16-step process that began with the creation of the committee and ends with the final selection.
"While the schedule is aggressive, I certainly believe it can be accomplished," said Regents Chairman Morris Foster, adding that the deadline could be pushed back if necessary.
Some observers have described the next presidential search as the most important in the university's history. Others view it as a test: how it is handled will determine whether the chancellor and regents put muscle behind their conciliatory overtures.
It will be Texas A&M's third search for a president in the last seven years. The last two took essentially the same path: The chancellor appointed a diverse advisory committee, and each body recommended three candidates to regents.
And each search ended in a spurt of controversy as it became known that regents were considering candidates who weren't vetted by the search committee -- Murano in 2007 and former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm in 2002.
Differences
In the 2002 process, the will of the search committee was upheld when five of the nine regents voted for approving Robert Gates, who was researched by the search committee and was one of the three recommended finalists.
The remaining regents supported Gramm, a former Texas A&M professor who was neither vetted by the search committee nor ever officially acknowledged as a candidate by the board chairman at the time, Erle Nye.
The 2007 search ended with Murano's approval by an 8-1 vote even though the search advisory committee had recommended three sitting university presidents to regents. Murano, who was then a vice chancellor and dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, had not been vetted by the advisory committee.
The 2007 advisory committee was criticized by some on the faculty. In 2002, the three finalists' names were made public and the candidates were invited to campus for interviews and a chance for the community to meet each candidate.
But the names of the three finalists whom the 2007 search committee yielded were never publicly named -- not by the chair of the committee, Douglas Slack, or by the regents.
After the names were forwarded in August 2007, Slack said, he and other committee members were in the dark about what was happening with the search until December, when regents announced that Murano was the sole finalist.
Slack defended his tight grip on information, saying he went as far as making committee members sign secrecy oaths not to disclose the candidates' names. The wildlife and fisheries sciences professor said that his search was different from the one that led to Gates' hiring: In 2007, he said, all the finalists were sitting university presidents whose reputations at their current institutions could have been harmed if their job search had been disclosed.
The new search will protect the names of all candidates from disclosure, officials said.
Jerry Cox has run through more applications for Texas A&M president in the last decade than just about anyone else. The distinguished alumnus, who is the only person to have served on both advisory committees, defends the 2007 search process.
"I got an inside look at both searches, and I can say unequivocally that both were equally successful," said Cox. "Had we picked [one of the] recommended finalists, we would have been equally as pleased with that candidate as we were with Bob Gates.
"The problem came after the search," he said, referring to regents' consideration of candidates not vetted by the committee.
Politics Suspected
In both searches, many saw political undertones.
In 2002, three of the four regents who didn't support Gates and were said to favor Gramm had been appointed by Perry, a former Aggie yell leader. All five regents who broke for Gates had been appointed by Gov. George W. Bush.
Former Regent Don Aviles was one of them. Now he's one of 24 members of Murano's shared governance task force.
"The five of us followed the process," Aviles said. "I personally believe that if you set a process, follow the process. Otherwise, you lose credibility."
The political undertones were subdued in the 2007 search, because there was no final showdown between two candidates. In a largely guarded process that began that August after the committee forwarded recommendations, the university community didn't know the status of the search until Murano was named sole finalist in December, many faculty members said.
With a board packed with Perry appointees, Murano was approved on an 8-to-1 vote.
Some have lamented the politicization of the search process and note that even though Gates is regarded as a successful president, the fact that all the regents who supported him were Bush appointees shows that board members often have a political allegiance to the governor who picked them.
One member of the 2002 search committee said that Gates and Perry zapped attention away from academics.
A New Search
Officials said that each candidate would go through the same search process, even if more candidates were added. If that procedure is followed, the last-minute concerns of the two previous searches will be avoided.
McKinney didn't address the search during remarks Thursday, but he said in a statement that the process was about more than hunting for the next Texas A&M leader. He called it a way to reach out to "the greater Aggie community regarding their thoughts and recommendations on how we can best advance Texas A&M."
"We believe this process will be one of the most interactive and progressive ever undertaken in selecting a president for Texas A&M University," he said.
The search will begin with outreach efforts such as town-hall sessions throughout the state, visits with various interested groups and solicitation of thoughts and comments through a presidential search Web site, officials said.
From the initial pool of candidates, those on a short list will be interviewed and then "three to four" semi-finalists will come to College Station for interviews. The committee will then forward three names unranked to regents, who will make the selection and approval.
Foster, in a press conference after the board meeting, said this search would be better orchestrated than the last one.
"We learned a lot from prior searches," he said. "I fully believe that we're organized this time, and ... we'll have a successful search."
Presidential Search Committee
The 15-member search committee expected to select the next Texas A&M president was announced Thursday. They include:
* Regent Richard Box will serve as the chairman of the committee.
* Regent Ida Clement Steen
* Regent Lupe Fraga
* Dr. John Junkins -- Distinguished Professor; Regents Professor; Director, Center for Mechanics and Control, Department of Aerospace Engineering
* Dr. Tim Hall - Distinguished Professor; Director, Institute of Developmental and Molecular Biology, Department of Biology
* Dr. Robert Bednarz - Speaker, Faculty Senate; Professor, Department of Geography
* Dr. Mark Hussey - Vice Chancellor and Dean of College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Former Head of Soil & Crop Sciences Department
* Dr. Antonio Cepeda-Benito - Dean of Faculties and Associate Provost
* Eric Beckham -- Student Body President
* Meredith Maloney - President, Student Chapter of the American Veterinary Medicine Association
* Shelley Potter - Chair of the Board, The Association of Former Students
* Thomas Saylak - Chairman of Board of Trustees, Texas A&M Foundation
* Neal Adams - Attorney; Former Vice Chair and Member, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
* Dr. Dave Parrott - Executive Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Student Life
* Dr. Frank Ashley - Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, A&M System
Published on Friday, July 17, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
We're all Uighurs now. Or are we?
From the Real News Network: The early July riots in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province in China's Far West, opposing turcophone Uighurs and Han Chinese, have been spun by Beijing as yet another "foreign interference" conspiracy organized by the Uighur diaspora in exile. Pepe Escobar argues it's more complicated than that. All the trouble stems from the official Chinese policy of population transfer - enticing millions of Han Chinese to move to the Far West where they find limitless opportunities not available to the local population. And then there's the key strategic importance of Xinjiang province - immensely rich in natural resources. China's spin plus heavy handed repression has been met by thundering silence all across the "international community". What a difference from the recent turmoil in Iran.
Local News: Search for Texas A&M University President Set to Begin
Plans for Search for Next A&M President Coming Thursday
Reporter: Steve Fullhart
From KBTX
The Texas A&M System Board of Regents began three days of meetings Wednesday, much of it focused on the budget.
Thursday, Regent chairman Morris Foster is scheduled to announce the committee that will search for the next president of Texas A&M.
Elsa Murano resigned her post prior at the last Regents meeting in June. Hers was the shortest presidency in modern history, one that ended after a poor performance assessment by System Chancellor Mike McKinney.
Foster declined to discuss what the make-up of the committee would be last month, but said it would be made up of a variety of A&M stakeholders. He also said he hoped to have a new president within six months.
Regents disregarded the 2007 search committee's recommendations in choosing Murano. The committee reportedly had recommended three sitting university presidents to the board.
Wednesday, the board heard from the College Station leaders and all other campuses about their plans for the upcoming year and what cuts they plan on making
Published on Thursday, July 16, 2009
Reporter: Steve Fullhart
From KBTX
The Texas A&M System Board of Regents began three days of meetings Wednesday, much of it focused on the budget.
Thursday, Regent chairman Morris Foster is scheduled to announce the committee that will search for the next president of Texas A&M.
Elsa Murano resigned her post prior at the last Regents meeting in June. Hers was the shortest presidency in modern history, one that ended after a poor performance assessment by System Chancellor Mike McKinney.
Foster declined to discuss what the make-up of the committee would be last month, but said it would be made up of a variety of A&M stakeholders. He also said he hoped to have a new president within six months.
Regents disregarded the 2007 search committee's recommendations in choosing Murano. The committee reportedly had recommended three sitting university presidents to the board.
Wednesday, the board heard from the College Station leaders and all other campuses about their plans for the upcoming year and what cuts they plan on making
Published on Thursday, July 16, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tonight on Biased Transmission
Tonight on Biased Transmission, Dr. Will Heyman from the Geography Department Texas A&M University. Dr. Heyman will discuss his work on the science and sustainable management of tropical coastal and marine systems.
Tune in to 89.1FM KEOS tonight from 6:00-7:00pm to hear Michael Alvard, Danny Yeager, Anne Preston, Srikanth Sastry, and Teddy Wilson interview Dr. Heyman and discuss science and other topics.
Also, we will ask Michael Alvard to tell us a little about his recent trip to Dominica, and after the show feel free to join the host and the guest at Revolution Café and Bar for discussion and debrief (otherwise known as drinks).
Tune in to 89.1FM KEOS tonight from 6:00-7:00pm to hear Michael Alvard, Danny Yeager, Anne Preston, Srikanth Sastry, and Teddy Wilson interview Dr. Heyman and discuss science and other topics.
Also, we will ask Michael Alvard to tell us a little about his recent trip to Dominica, and after the show feel free to join the host and the guest at Revolution Café and Bar for discussion and debrief (otherwise known as drinks).
Local News: Search for a New Texas A&M President Begins
A&M's Future Focus of Talks
By Vimal Patel
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
The search for Texas A&M's next president will include a diverse advisory committee of regents, faculty, staff, students and former students, officials are expected to announce this week.
The three-day regents meeting in College Station that starts Wednesday includes an update from board Chairman Morris Foster about the progress of teams charged with making recommendations about what functions to merge between the flagship campus and the 11-university A&M system in an effort to save money. The groups are working under a mid-August deadline and the findings will be presented at a September regents meeting.
Foster's remarks are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Thursday in Room 292 of the Memorial Student Center, following a closed-session discussion about the presidential search. More details about the search will be released then.
Those issues were of the most concern among Texas A&M faculty and others after Elsa Murano's resignation as president last month amid a public falling-out with McKinney.
Regents also are expected to hear the A&M System's final report on the sinking of the Cynthia Woods, the Galveston branch campus' sailboat that capsized in June 2008 after losing its 4,500-pound keel about 10 hours into a race to Veracruz, Mexico. Safety officer Roger Stone died and five crew members escaped and spent 26 hours in the water before the Coast Guard rescued them.
The board will consider the following:
* Establishing the Institute for Innovative Therapeutics, which will serve as a "one-stop" biopharmaceutical program to research, develop and commercialize biomedical discoveries. The new institute -- which will consist of units already within the A&M system -- will "result in a single, unified biomedical enterprise," according to board documents.
* Authorizing a year of paid development leave for H. Russell Cross, Murano's chief of staff who resigned the same week as his boss, before he returns to the faculty as an animal sciences professor. It was unclear how much money he would receive, but Murano will receive $425,000, a year's worth of her pay, during her yearlong leave. Cross' annual pay in 2008 was $310,000.
* Establishing the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue within the Texas Engineering Experiment Station, one of the A&M System's seven state agencies. Another state agency, the Texas Engineering Extension Service, already is touted as a world leader in emergency response technology, but this new center, officials say, will round out the academic side of rescue robotics. Funding would come from external grants, industry donations and agencies requesting expertise.
* Approving the appointments of Kate C. Miller, a former associate dean of the College of Science at the University of Texas at El Paso, as dean of Texas A&M's College of Geosciences; Christine Stanley, executive associate dean in the College of Education & Human Development, as the university's vice president and associate provost for diversity; and Jorge Vanegas, an architecture professor, as Texas A&M's architecture college dean.
Published on Wednesday, July 15, 2009
By Vimal Patel
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
The search for Texas A&M's next president will include a diverse advisory committee of regents, faculty, staff, students and former students, officials are expected to announce this week.
The three-day regents meeting in College Station that starts Wednesday includes an update from board Chairman Morris Foster about the progress of teams charged with making recommendations about what functions to merge between the flagship campus and the 11-university A&M system in an effort to save money. The groups are working under a mid-August deadline and the findings will be presented at a September regents meeting.
Foster's remarks are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Thursday in Room 292 of the Memorial Student Center, following a closed-session discussion about the presidential search. More details about the search will be released then.
Those issues were of the most concern among Texas A&M faculty and others after Elsa Murano's resignation as president last month amid a public falling-out with McKinney.
Regents also are expected to hear the A&M System's final report on the sinking of the Cynthia Woods, the Galveston branch campus' sailboat that capsized in June 2008 after losing its 4,500-pound keel about 10 hours into a race to Veracruz, Mexico. Safety officer Roger Stone died and five crew members escaped and spent 26 hours in the water before the Coast Guard rescued them.
The board will consider the following:
* Establishing the Institute for Innovative Therapeutics, which will serve as a "one-stop" biopharmaceutical program to research, develop and commercialize biomedical discoveries. The new institute -- which will consist of units already within the A&M system -- will "result in a single, unified biomedical enterprise," according to board documents.
* Authorizing a year of paid development leave for H. Russell Cross, Murano's chief of staff who resigned the same week as his boss, before he returns to the faculty as an animal sciences professor. It was unclear how much money he would receive, but Murano will receive $425,000, a year's worth of her pay, during her yearlong leave. Cross' annual pay in 2008 was $310,000.
* Establishing the Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue within the Texas Engineering Experiment Station, one of the A&M System's seven state agencies. Another state agency, the Texas Engineering Extension Service, already is touted as a world leader in emergency response technology, but this new center, officials say, will round out the academic side of rescue robotics. Funding would come from external grants, industry donations and agencies requesting expertise.
* Approving the appointments of Kate C. Miller, a former associate dean of the College of Science at the University of Texas at El Paso, as dean of Texas A&M's College of Geosciences; Christine Stanley, executive associate dean in the College of Education & Human Development, as the university's vice president and associate provost for diversity; and Jorge Vanegas, an architecture professor, as Texas A&M's architecture college dean.
Published on Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Video Lunch: Real News: Cheney Told CIA to Hide Plan
From the Real News Network: The CIA concealed a secret American counterterrorism programme from Congress for eight years on direct orders from the former US Vice-President Dick Cheney, according to reports. Watch Sally Gould's report. The New York Times claims the current head of the CIA, Leon Panetta, revealed the information to two Congressional intelligence committees last month. Panetta, who was named to head the agency earlier this year by President Barack Obama, ended the program, which remains secret, when he first learned of its existence from subordinates on June 23. There's been no comment from Mr Cheney. When asked about the Times report, CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said it was not the agency's practice to discuss classified briefings. "When a CIA unit brought this matter to Director Panetta's attention, it was with the recommendation that it be shared appropriately with Congress.
Local News: Houston Mayor in College Station Campaigning for Senate
Houston Mayor runs for U.S. Senate
By: Meagan O'Toole-Pitts
From the Texas A&M University Battalion
Houston Mayor Bill White is running for U.S. Senator, in place of Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is running for governor, and said he plans to reform energy policy in the nation, as he has in Houston.
"We need to cut oil imports and use new green forms of energy, including energy efficiency, and I have a 34-year track record for promoting alternative energy as well as domestic supplies of clean, natural gas," White said at Monday's roundtable discussion in College Station. "I know how we can cut [oil] imports and try to moderate the rise in utility and gasoline bills, and have green jobs with a real future."
Former Deputy Secretary of Energy of the United States, White has led Houston to become the nation's No. 1 public purchaser of renewable energy, noted White's communications director Katy Bacon in a blog, "Clean Energy Leaders: Texas, Bill White," at billwhitefortexas.com.
"[What] motivates me is having an energy policy which is sustainable and affordable and secure," White said. "We have the most forward-thinking building code in the nation in Houston, energy code that will result in double-digit decreases in the amount of power consumed in our buildings."
White said he aims to avoid the establishment of new coal fire plants.
"I'd like to make it very difficult to open a new coal fire plant so long as there are any realistic alternatives available," he said. "And that includes energy efficiency, a renewable [energy] such as wind and solar and drilling for domestic natural gas."
Secondly, White said he plans to simplify the financial aid process for college students throughout the country.
"It would be great if we removed obstacles for people pursuing higher educations - it could be at a community college or a four-year school or graduate school because, after all, if we're going to compete in a global economy we've got to compete on the basis of brains," he said. "We need to make it easier for young people to go to college, where no student would not be able to attend a college based on financial hardship."
The federal budget deficit is now at a record $1 trillion, and White said he believes the solution is to run the government like "a well-run private business."
"Everything we contract for in the federal government ought to be on a competitive basis, and too often we pay too much because of all the fellow bureaucratic rules and regulations [there] are in the procurement process - I know that for a fact. I was chief officer of the department of energy early in the Clinton administration," he said. "There were $17 billion of contracts we led every year and some years the same old contractors got it time and time again. But as we put up for competition between contractors and based … it on performance and not just how much money they spend, we got a lot better value for our dollar."
Houston employees work competitively, White said, and reduced cost and increased efficiency has resulted.
"The city of Houston has every employee have an annual performance review and we were growing services, providing more services by firing people who didn't perform well," he said. "It's a ridiculous system we have sometimes, where you make it hard to fire somebody who's not performing and the trade is you don't pay them adequately."
Asked if such terminations could contribute to a rise in the national unemployment rate, White said no.
"There's plenty of people willing to work," he said. "Wherever there's anybody pulling out a pay check that isn't carrying their load that's an expense that's being paid for on borrowed money."
Solutions, not sound bites - like last year's stimulus package - White said is his promise.
"They borrowed money to pay for a tax rebate and sent the money out to people to say that [it's] stimulus but the reason we got in the bind in the first place is that there were people that had gotten too far in debt. So the solution for too much debt is not for the government to borrow more money and then to send it to people and pretend the government is Santa Claus," he said. "That has added to our cumulative deficit."
Accountability is missing in Congress, White said, which is one reason for low congressional approval ratings.
"People point fingers and accept no responsibility for failure of regulation, of financial institutions," he said. "I do believe in accountability - holding my myself accountable and those who work for me. If something isn't working, I'll change it. In business you'd go broke if you didn't change something that wasn't working. In politics people confuse stubbornness for courage too often."
Plans for a public appearance or town hall meeting in the Bryan or College Station have not been made, said Bacon, but may be scheduled during the fall when the entire student body is present.
"University population is going to be important to us, not just in College Station but all across the state," she said.
White said Aggieland is a small example of his vision for the nation.
"The Bryan/College Station area and Houston area are growing closer. This is a place very close to home," he said. "Having a fairly low tax environment with a high quality of life I think makes this an appealing area and we ought to look at our country like that too. If we're going to grow we've got to invest more in education, we've got to make that a priority for public spending, and we have to make it affordable for people of different incomes."
Published on Tuesday, July 14, 2009
By: Meagan O'Toole-Pitts
From the Texas A&M University Battalion
Houston Mayor Bill White is running for U.S. Senator, in place of Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is running for governor, and said he plans to reform energy policy in the nation, as he has in Houston.
"We need to cut oil imports and use new green forms of energy, including energy efficiency, and I have a 34-year track record for promoting alternative energy as well as domestic supplies of clean, natural gas," White said at Monday's roundtable discussion in College Station. "I know how we can cut [oil] imports and try to moderate the rise in utility and gasoline bills, and have green jobs with a real future."
Former Deputy Secretary of Energy of the United States, White has led Houston to become the nation's No. 1 public purchaser of renewable energy, noted White's communications director Katy Bacon in a blog, "Clean Energy Leaders: Texas, Bill White," at billwhitefortexas.com.
"[What] motivates me is having an energy policy which is sustainable and affordable and secure," White said. "We have the most forward-thinking building code in the nation in Houston, energy code that will result in double-digit decreases in the amount of power consumed in our buildings."
White said he aims to avoid the establishment of new coal fire plants.
"I'd like to make it very difficult to open a new coal fire plant so long as there are any realistic alternatives available," he said. "And that includes energy efficiency, a renewable [energy] such as wind and solar and drilling for domestic natural gas."
Secondly, White said he plans to simplify the financial aid process for college students throughout the country.
"It would be great if we removed obstacles for people pursuing higher educations - it could be at a community college or a four-year school or graduate school because, after all, if we're going to compete in a global economy we've got to compete on the basis of brains," he said. "We need to make it easier for young people to go to college, where no student would not be able to attend a college based on financial hardship."
The federal budget deficit is now at a record $1 trillion, and White said he believes the solution is to run the government like "a well-run private business."
"Everything we contract for in the federal government ought to be on a competitive basis, and too often we pay too much because of all the fellow bureaucratic rules and regulations [there] are in the procurement process - I know that for a fact. I was chief officer of the department of energy early in the Clinton administration," he said. "There were $17 billion of contracts we led every year and some years the same old contractors got it time and time again. But as we put up for competition between contractors and based … it on performance and not just how much money they spend, we got a lot better value for our dollar."
Houston employees work competitively, White said, and reduced cost and increased efficiency has resulted.
"The city of Houston has every employee have an annual performance review and we were growing services, providing more services by firing people who didn't perform well," he said. "It's a ridiculous system we have sometimes, where you make it hard to fire somebody who's not performing and the trade is you don't pay them adequately."
Asked if such terminations could contribute to a rise in the national unemployment rate, White said no.
"There's plenty of people willing to work," he said. "Wherever there's anybody pulling out a pay check that isn't carrying their load that's an expense that's being paid for on borrowed money."
Solutions, not sound bites - like last year's stimulus package - White said is his promise.
"They borrowed money to pay for a tax rebate and sent the money out to people to say that [it's] stimulus but the reason we got in the bind in the first place is that there were people that had gotten too far in debt. So the solution for too much debt is not for the government to borrow more money and then to send it to people and pretend the government is Santa Claus," he said. "That has added to our cumulative deficit."
Accountability is missing in Congress, White said, which is one reason for low congressional approval ratings.
"People point fingers and accept no responsibility for failure of regulation, of financial institutions," he said. "I do believe in accountability - holding my myself accountable and those who work for me. If something isn't working, I'll change it. In business you'd go broke if you didn't change something that wasn't working. In politics people confuse stubbornness for courage too often."
Plans for a public appearance or town hall meeting in the Bryan or College Station have not been made, said Bacon, but may be scheduled during the fall when the entire student body is present.
"University population is going to be important to us, not just in College Station but all across the state," she said.
White said Aggieland is a small example of his vision for the nation.
"The Bryan/College Station area and Houston area are growing closer. This is a place very close to home," he said. "Having a fairly low tax environment with a high quality of life I think makes this an appealing area and we ought to look at our country like that too. If we're going to grow we've got to invest more in education, we've got to make that a priority for public spending, and we have to make it affordable for people of different incomes."
Published on Tuesday, July 14, 2009
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