We watched a host of graduation speeches from the state’s hundreds of universities, and these are the ones we found most inspiring.
UT
The new rule uses geofencing technology to force vehicles on the college campus to slow down.
The University of Texas at Austin’s men’s tennis coach was among those accused of accepting bribes in a massive federal probe.
He just wants to rock and roll all night, and hook ’em every day.
Three people were injured and one person has died following a stabbing on the University of Texas at Austin's campus on Monday.
A reminder that Charles Whitman’s shooting spree resonated far outside of Texas.
The hook ’em sign in donut form has been a part of the bakery’s brand for years—but UT lawyers are suddenly unhappy.
Will UTRGV's football program remain undefeated?
Guns: Legal to carry on campus. Sex toys: Not so much.
The U.S. Supreme Court could take on affirmative action and abortion restrictions, two cases originating from Texas.
UNT and SMU are among the handful of schools in the country where fans can get drunk while they’re at the game—and new UT President Greg Fenves wants Darrell K. Royal Stadium to join them.
A 23-year-old UT-D graduate at Google allegedly attempted to extort nude photos from his former classmates by posing as a breast researcher.
You can make jokes about the team's 3-4 record, but $109 million in revenue has Texas football laughing all the way to the bank.
As the NFL attempts to clean up its image, the first college coach they met with was the no-nonsense new head of the Longhorns.
A new list of college rankings from Washington Monthly puts two Texas schools in the top ten—but not the two you might expect.
That's at 47 colleges, 4 NFL teams, and 2 high schools, according to some exhaustive reporting from ESPN. What, no CFL?
Patterson's desire to take the UT brand to China and Dubai may have grabbed the headlines, but the bigger deal could be that he's comfortable dropping the three-year-rule that requires college football players to wait to enter the NFL Draft.
The legendary Dan Jenkins has been covering sports since the forties. Things have not improved.
The juiciest celebrity trial of the year concluded in December but not, alas, with a satisfactory answer to the most important question of all: Who was Farrah Fawcett’s true love?
The new University of Texas campus opening in the Rio Grande Valley in the fall of 2015 is beginning to establish its identity—starting with the name.
Rick Perry dismissed the ongoing impeachment hearings against UT Board of Regent Wallace Hall as "extraordinary political theater."
The Longhorns need to beat the Wildcats for the first time in five meetings, but the game's been overshadowed by more questions about Mack Brown's future.
The U.S. Supreme Court made the right ruling yesterday in Fisher v. University of Texas by remanding the case to a lower federal court.
UPDATE: The Nominations Committee has approved all three nominees the UT System Board of Regents. The full Senate will take up nominations next. I walked in the east door of the Capitol yesterday with Senator John Whitmire. He asked if I was going to nominations. I said I…
Today was the long-awaited meeting of the Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance. This was strictly an organizational meeting, and no members of the UT Board of Regents were present. But it was another front in the increasingly tense battle between the UT System Board of Regents and UT…
The best college football coach the state has ever seen died early Wednesday morning at the age of 88. Memories & tributes from the Texas Monthly archives and around the state and country.
Saturday's loss to Oklahoma had nearly every columnist in Texas speculating about the Longhorns football coach's future, but he dismissed such talk this afternoon.
If you thought the rivalry between the University of Texas and Texas A&M was currently on ice, you are correct. Tonight in College Station, the two schools face off in, you guessed it, hockey.
This time last year, I was leaving the Cotton Bowl along with thousands of football fans who'd made the annual pilgrimage to watch the 106th Red River Rivalry, one of the highlights of the State Fair of Texas. While throngs of UT fans were making a beeline for the parking lot, dejected after their loss (a scene that was played out again today), I noticed many of the OU faithful heading straight for the fried food stands, eager to celebrate their victory by eating something—anything, everything—dipped in batter and dunked in hot oil. Naturally, I joined them. (Full disclosure: Although I am a native Texan and, thus, feel obligated to root for the home team even though I did not attend UT, my brother is a faithful OU alumnus, and I feel obligated to extend my unconditional sibling support even though he decided to go to school in Oklahoma. Plus, I went to school in Illinois, so I have no room to talk.) In between yells of "Boomer!," the celebratory Sooners popped doughy balls of fried beer into their mouths and hoisted paper boats filled with golden Oreos into the air like they were brandishing the Golden Hat itself.
(This post is a revision that includes corrections from a previous draft.) Regarding the situation with Texas A&M and the future of the Big Twelve Conference, I have spoken with persons familiar with the situation at Baylor, who prefer to remain anonymous. This is what I have learned. 1. The university started four weeks ago to determine its legal remedies if A&M decided to leave the Big Twelve for the SEC. Astonishingly, the Big XII had waived all of its rights in a letter to the SEC, although Baylor's position, which seems correct to me, is that the Big Twelve cannot bind its member institutions. 2. If it is necessary to resort to litigation, one theory would be tortious interference with contract. 3. The Baylor board has taken the position, "We're not going to waive our remedies." 4. Baylor is talking to all member institutions of the Big Twelve. UT and Oklahoma say they want to continue in the conference. At least two other conference schools have said they will not waive their rights. 5. Not surprisingly, politicians have gotten involved, including (reportedly) a number of legislators and a few statewide officials, including David Dewhurst, who would like to leverage the controversy to get the University of Houston in the Big Twelve.
I spoke with a friend yesterday who is knowledgeable about the situation at Texas A&M, and here is what he had to say. 1. Perry was not involved in the A&M regents’ decision to leave the Big Twelve for the SEC. He was described to me as “not supportive” but…
Michael Quinn Sullivan has a bone to pick with me. I am the subject of a blog post by Sullivan published on the Empower Texans web site yesterday under the headline, “Texas Monthly: Disclosure-Free Zone.” Sullivan objects to the fact that in an April column about higher ed reforms, I did not disclose that I have taught at UT from time to time. Here are some pertinent paragraphs: Paul Burka, the “senior executive editor” at Texas Monthly has taken to defending the higher education status quo – skyrocketing tuition and a lack of transparency. He follows the administrative bureaucracy party line by deriding reformers, disparaging them and calling motivations into question. Couldn’t be because he has a financial interest in the status quo, could it? Mr. Burka received $10,159 in compensation ($9,295 in salary) for teaching 13 students. (NOTE: the numbers are from UT’s own data, which the institution says may or may not be valid or accurate.) He hasn’t disclosed in any recent writings supporting the higher-ed establishment that he is a “visiting lecturer” for the University of Texas, teaching a three credit-hour class – ironically titled “Right And Wrong In Politics.” Mr. Sullivan has a point, though he overplays it to a ridiculous extreme, as is his custom. I should have included a parenthetical statement in that April column saying that I had taught at UT on various occasions in the past (though I was not teaching there or receiving compensation at the time that I wrote the column). But it is far-fetched to suggest that I have any permanent attachment to UT, or a financial motivation to defend the university. I am not an academic, I am a journalist. Over the past twenty years or so, I have been fortunate enough to teach courses at UT (and also at St. Edwards). During that time, I have written several editorial columns about the university. One was supportive of tuition deregulation; one was critical of a watered-down degree program I referred to as “B.A. Lite” (this one, alas, is not yet available online). I have not tried to hide the fact that I teach at UT; in 2001, for example, I wrote about volunteering to evaluate applications for admission to the Plan II honors program, as I was eligible to do as an instructor. I have also written a skeptical column about the athletic department’s efforts to find a home for the Longhorns after the breakup of the Big XII conference. In short, I choose subjects that Texas Monthly believes are important, and I try to call ‘em as I see ‘em. I leave it to readers to judge for themselves whether they believe that my reporting on UT is influenced by what Mr. Sullivan refers to as my “financial interest in the status quo,” or whether it reflects my strongly held personal belief in the importance of allowing state universities to pursue excellence free of political interference.
The hot topic on sports talk shows today was that the PAC-10 was set to issue invitations to six Big 12 schools: UT, A&M, OU, Okie State, Texas Tech, and Colorado. The PAC 10 commissioner issued an explicit denial late this afternoon. An A&M source told me after I posted…
As the Texas Senate began its debate this afternoon on Florence Shapiro’s bill to limit the Top Ten percent rule for university admissions, Royce West threw out some interesting numbers that call into question UT’s argument that it faces a “crisis” regarding its freshman class. UT has argued that its…
Here’s the problem for Tom Craddick. The House passed tuition deregulation in 2003 for one reason and one reason only: The speaker twisted Republicans’ arms to get the votes. Almost six years later, tuition and fees at Texas’s public university have risen by an average of 50%, according to Robert…
Janis Joplin’s life was about music, rebellion, and excess—but she was influenced most by her tormented relationship with the people and spirit of Port Arthur.