Hundreds of dignitaries, Baylor fans and local citizens gathered on the football practice fields at the Highers Athletics Complex to hear of the significant milestones from Baylor University President Ken Starr. Just two weeks ago, Starr announced that the University had successfully raised more than $100 million for student scholarships through the President’s Scholarship Initiative, and today announced more good news on the fundraising front.

“Only one year ago – on the heels of an athletic season that will be remembered for generations – we took our first step forward in this historic project. Drayton, Elizabeth and the entire McLane family provided a generous lead gift that has given rise to a period of unprecedented philanthropic support for Baylor. Additional leadership gifts followed from John Eddie and Sheridan Williams and Sheila and Walter Umphrey, which gave the University the impetus necessary to move forward with construction of this remarkable facility,” Starr said.

“Over the course of the past year, Baylor Nation has risen up in record numbers and with unparalleled generosity, and today, we are privileged to announce that we have reached the $100 million milestone in private support for Baylor Stadium,” Starr said.

Baylor Student Body President Kelly Rapp, who will graduate next week from Baylor, recalled the excitement of running out on the Floyd Casey field for the first time with the Baylor Line as a freshman and cheering the Bears on year after year.

“Baylor Stadium and the President’s Scholarship Initiative are two examples of the passion and loyalty of Baylor Nation. For Baylor students, the future is bright and we look forward to leading the charge onto the field at the new Baylor Stadium,” Rapp said.

Baylor Director of Athletics, Ian McCaw, told the gathered crowd that enthusiasm for the stadium is running high. Premium seating for the new Baylor Stadium, including Founders Suites, Premium Suites and Loge Boxes, have all sold out, with great demand expected for club seating options when they become available on June 1. McCaw also announced that season ticket sales for Baylor’s forthcoming 2013 football season have been brisk, already running well ahead of this time last year.

“It is exciting to see the progress that has been made over the past year to bring Baylor football back to campus,” McCaw said. “We are deeply appreciative of the generosity of Baylor Nation, and the outstanding work of our development team. Through these efforts, Baylor Stadium will open in 2014 as the most modern, student-athlete and fan-friendly college football facility in America.

“In addition to selling out the Founders Suites, Premium Suites and Loge Boxes, we have received more than 1,500 new season ticket orders for the 2013 season. The outstanding work of Coach Briles, his staff and student-athletes has inspired Baylor Nation to rise up and be a part of Baylor football,” McCaw said.

When it opens in fall 2014, Baylor Stadium will be arguably the most dynamic college football stadium in America. The $250 million on-campus stadium is under construction on a 93-acre site at the intersection of Interstate 35, one of the nation’s busiest highways, and the Brazos River, the longest waterway in the state of Texas. The stadium will hold 45,000 spectators, with the flexibility to expand to 55,000, and feature the Shelia and Walter Umphrey Pedestrian Bridge that will cross the Brazos and connect the stadium to the campus in the area of Baylor Law School.

“Baylor Stadium is a game-changer not only for the football program, but for our University and the Central Texas community,” said Baylor Head Football Coach Art Briles. “We are grateful for everyone who has given generously in support of the stadium, as well as our University leadership for stepping forward to turn this vision into reality.

“The stadium has created tremendous excitement with our current student-athletes, as well as those we are recruiting for future success,” Briles added.  “People know Baylor is a great academic University but there’s no question this has enhanced peoples image of the University as a whole, and they look over and say, ‘Baylor’s doing it right, all the way across the board.’”

Brian Nicholson, associate vice president for facility planning and construction at Baylor, said construction on Baylor Stadium is on schedule for the August 2014 opening. The contractor for the project is a partnership between Austin Commercial-Flintco LLC, which have worked on such Big 12 football facilities as Oklahoma State’s Boone Pickens Stadium, Oklahoma’s Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium and TCU’s Amon G. Carter Stadium. The architect for the project is Kansas City, Mo.-based Populous, which has designed several stadiums, including Minute Maid Park in Houston, Yankee Stadium and the new football stadium at the University of Minnesota.

“The project is running smoothly and we are right on schedule. All of the foundations for Baylor Stadium have been installed, and today we poured and placed our 300th column,” Nicholson said of the largest construction project ever undertaken in Waco and Central Texas.

Nicholson provided a series of construction highlights to illustrate the magnitude and complexity of the project. To date, Baylor Stadium crews have:

·         drilled 1,129 piles, each one between 45-50 feet deep

·         poured 7,000 cubic yards of concrete

·         installed five miles of piping underground

·         brought in 22,000 truckloads of dirt

·         pumped 33 million gallons of water

·         and logged 155,000 combined work time hours without a lost time accident

Over the summer, Nicholson expects work to begin on the precast seating bowl and installation of structural steel and exterior skin of the facility on the west side of the stadium.

In addition to moving football games to the Baylor campus, the Baylor Stadium project is expected to help stimulate riverfront development, revitalize downtown Waco and bring jobs and economic development to the region. During his remarks, Nicholson noted that about 50 percent of the dollars contracted to date have been spent locally.

For more information about Baylor Stadium, visit www.Baylor-Stadium.com.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution, characterized as having “high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University provides a vibrant campus community for approximately 15,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 11 nationally recognized academic divisions. Baylor sponsors 19 varsity athletic teams and is a founding member of the Big 12 Conference.

For more information, contact Lori Fogleman, 254-710-6275, Lori_Fogleman@baylor.edu, or Nick Joos, 254-710-3043, Nicholas_Joos@baylor.edu.

The P-20 Institute for African American Student Success has reviewed the most recent certified state data on student persistence and success and has used that information to determine which 2- and 4-year institutions of higher education (IHEs) would be invited to present at the upcoming Texas Developmental Education Course Redesign Summit for minority-serving institutions July 15-16, 2013, at the N. Austin Marriott Convention Center in Austin, Texas.

Click here to register your attendance now!

Each of the following colleges and universities is either meeting or beating the state average in at least one critical measurement area demonstrated to affect successful student education outcomes:

• College preparedness upon acceptance
• Time to successful completion of the first credit-bearing college course
• Academic advising and support
• Average time to graduation
• Average number of credit hours completed to graduation
• Professional development and support for faculty and staff
• Research-based programmatic innovation
• High number of minority enrollment (primarily African American and/or Latino)

The IHEs will be asked to provide a brief presentation in their identified area of education innovation to the assembled body of their peers during the TDECR2013 Summit in North Austin, Texas. Click here now to register your attendance.

Additionally, the Texas Higher Education Journal in conjunction with the P-20 Institute for African American Student Success will recognize someone as Minority Education Innovators of the Year during the summit!

Institutional representatives who were asked to present were selected based on the following criteria:  (1). enroll a high percentage of minority students (2). move a high percentage of those students through developmental education in the critical areas of math, reading or writing, (3). meet or beat the state average time to graduation or (4). meet or beat the state average in number of credit hours completed to graduation, or (5) demonstrated success in programmatic and/or support services for high percentage of at-risk students.

Invited institutions of higher education in one or more of these categories currently include:

4-Year IHEs:

• Angelo State University – Time to Graduation/Credit Hours Completed to Graduation
• Sam Houston State University — Time to Graduation/Credit Hours Completed to Graduation
• Stephen F. Austin State University — Time to Graduation/Credit Hours Completed to Graduation
• Texas State University – Average Credit Hours Completed to Graduation
• The University of Texas at Dallas — Time to Graduation/Credit Hours Completed to Graduation
• Lamar University – High Minority Enrollment/ Average Time to Graduation/Credit Hours Completed to Graduation
• Prairie View A&M University – High Minority Enrollment/Student Support Services
• University of Houston  –  High Minority Enrollment/Persistence Strategies/Credit Hours to Graduation
• Texas College – Program Design Innovation
• Texas Southern University – High Minority Enrollment/Program Innovation
• The University of Texas at San Antonio – High Minority Enrollment/Average Time to Graduation
• The University of Texas – Permian Basin — High Minority Enrollment/Average Time to Graduation
• Texas A&M University – Central Texas – Average Credit Hours to Graduation
• Wiley College – Technology Integration
• Paul Quinn College – Program Innovation/Student Engagement Strategies
• Huston-Tillotson University – Program Innovation/Student Support (Math Tutoring Program)

2-Year IHEs:

• Alamo- NE Lakeview/St. Philips Community College: DE Reading Innovation
• Austin Community Colleges: DE Reading Innovation
• Blinn College: DE Reading Innovation
• Brazosport College: DE Writing Innovation
• College of the Mainland: DE Reading/Writing Innovation
• Galveston College:  DE Innovation: Math, Reading, Writing
• Hill College: DE Math Innovation
• Houston Community Colleges:  DE Innovation: Math, Reading, Writing
• Lamar State College:  DE Math and Writing Innovation
• Lamar Institute of Technology:  DE Math Innovation
• Lone Star Community College- Cy Fair: DE Innovation: Math, Reading, Writing
• Navarro College: DE Math and Reading Innovation
• North Central Texas College:  DE Innovation: Math, Reading, Writing
• Richland College: DE Reading/Writing Innovation
• San Jacinto Community College – South Campus:  DE Reading Innovation
• South Texas College: DE Innovation:  Math, Reading, Writing
• Texas State Technical College:  DE Innovation: Math, Reading, Writing
• Wharton County Junior College:  DE Innovation: Math, Reading, Writing

The Texas Higher Education Journal and the P-20 Institute for African American Student Success are excited to offer this independent statewide forum to explore innovations in Developmental Education redesign as well as other critical areas of Academic Advising for institutions with a demonstrated commitment to enroll and educate large percentages of minority students. Check back often as this list is evolving every day!

Register now to snag the early bird rate through May 17^th and to take advantage of the amazing room rate offer from our host at the N. Austin Marriott Hotel and from our advertising sponsor, SilverCar Luxury Automobile Rental Service.

If your institution is not on the invited presenters list, don’t worry. This will be a wonderful opportunity to get a first-hand look at what other institutions may be doing to make a difference on their campuses for their students by giving summit participants the opportunity to exchange ideas and insights in an intimate and purposeful environment.

Make sure you keep up with Summit updates on Facebook and Twitter, because this DE professional development experience will only get more exciting as it gets closer.

TDECR2013 is a statewide conference sponsored by the P-20 Institute for African American Student Success, the only independent research-based think tank in Texas that’s solely dedicated to improving education outcomes for students of color and their families. We encourage qualified researchers to become members of the P-20 Institute at the low annual rate. Membership allows you to participate in research projects and other noteworthy activities important to minority student success and to the work you do on their behalf every day! Members will receive super discounts and it’s easy to join when you register.

Dr. Bill Cosby, entertainment icon, will deliver the 2013 commencement address to Paul Quinn graduates May 4. Courtesy photo

The legendary Bill Cosby will deliver the commencement address at Paul Quinn College’s graduation ceremony on May 4, on the campus at 3837 Simpson Stuart Road. The graduation processional is scheduled to start at 9:45 a.m. with the ceremony immediately following.

“This is such a fitting conclusion to the Quinnite Nation collegiate experience for this class,” said Paul Quinn College’s President Michael J. Sorrell.  “These students battled landfills, witnessed the demolition of fifteen abandoned buildings, the transformation of the football field to an organic farm, the renovation of the dorm, dining hall, fitness center, student lounge, classrooms, the Grand Lounge, and more.  They deserve to have one of the most revered men in the world as their commencement speaker.  This is our way of saying ‘Thank you for believing in us and we love you.’ ”

Cosby recently completed the book “I Didn’t Ask to Be Born (But I’m Glad I Was)” and is once again on tour.  Cosby promises to bring his signature wholesome brand of comedic social commentary supported by thought-provoking social insights and his well-known passion for education to an institution recognized for its impressive renaissance.

“It is always a pleasure to see those fresh faces of the new graduates,” says Cosby about delivering commencement addresses.  “It’s also fun to notice the relieved smiles of the parents who are wondering, ‘Are they going to be all right?’  The unanswered questions are now really directed at them.”

Cosby, a Philadelphia native, is well-known for having an epiphany about the value of a formal education during his time in the Navy.  “Four years later in May,” Cosby has famously recalled, “I hit the ground running from Norfolk, VA and immediately enrolled at Temple University in Philadelphia.” Eventually, he would earn his master’s and doctorate degrees in education.

Cosby has shown no signs of slowing down.  “People always say ‘You don’t need money, why are you still working?’  My answer is that it isn’t about money. That’s academic.  It’s about accepting the challenges of one’s own ideas, clarifying the unanswered questions and pursuing the excitement of discovery,” he says.  Cosby has received honorary degrees from more than a dozen colleges and universities.

Cosby became wildly popular for his family-oriented stand-up comedy.  Over the years, Cosby leveraged his comedic influence to become an actor, author, television producer, educator, and activist.  He is best known for creating the cartoon “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” and “The Cosby Show”, which went on to become the highest ranking sitcom of all time.  One of only three American television programs to have been number one in the Nielson ratings for at least five consecutive seasons, “The Cosby Show” sparked a robust conversation throughout the national African-American community about whether or not the fictional affluent Huxtable family served as an accurate depiction of how some African-Americans live.  Among his honors are a Kennedy Center Honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.  In 2011, the U.S. Navy made Cosby an honorary Chief Petty Officer.

Paul Quinn College is opening the doors of the commencement ceremony to welcome members of the Dallas community to attend. However, the college will require all guests to have a ticket. Tickets are free and will be available for pick up from noon to 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 30 through Thursday, May 2, in the Paul Quinn College Business Office, Room 219 in the John Hurst Adams Building of the campus. Each guest will be limited to obtaining a maximum of five tickets per visit to the Business Office. For more information regarding tickets, please call 214-379-5560.

About Paul Quinn College

Paul Quinn College, a finalist on the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll and the 2011 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) of the Year, is a private, faith-based, four-year liberal arts-inspired college founded by and affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The College was founded in Austin, Texas, on April 4, 1872, and is one of the nation’s consortium of HBCUs. The college provides a quality, faith-based education that addresses the academic, social, and Christian development of students and prepares them to be servant leaders and agents of change in the global marketplace. Members of the college’s student body, alumni, faculty and staff, called Quinnites, embrace the institutional ethos of “WE over Me” and are dedicated to honoring the “Four Ls of Quinnite Leadership,”: Leave places better than you found them; Lead from wherever you are; Live a life that matters; and Love something greater than yourself.

This announcement provided by Eddie Francis at Paul Quinn College who may be reached at 214.379.5598 or via email at efrancis@pqc.edu for more information.

Where:  N. Austin Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, Round Rock, Texas (about 20 minutes North of Downtown Austin; 17 minutes from ABIA on Tollway 45  East)

Hotel Accommodations: $88/night (with Sunday check-in and Tuesday check-out by noon) will be on a first-come/first-serve basis. This special rate  for summit attendees will expire when hotel bloc is filled so please be sure to register as soon as possible. Hotel registration is now open.  Please click on this link to reserve the incredibly low rate of $88/night to attend TDECRS2013.

When:  July 15-16, 2013 (Monday and Tuesday)

Why:  A recent spate of accountability measures being pushed by Texas state officials that are scheduled to take effect as early as this fall have left higher education officials scrambling to meet all the new requirements. One of the latest efforts to increase student success in college includes the Developmental Education Course Redesign. With more than 41 percent of all incoming college freshman currently requiring some form of remedial education, Texas higher education officials have mandated all 2- and 4-year public  institutions of higher education (IHEs) to implement a series of prescriptive measures designed to decrease the amount of time incoming under prepared students must complete before successfully attempting their first credit-bearing college course.

The guidelines are out there, but let’s face it:  there remains a lot of confusion about the implementation and execution process. We’ve heard your voice loud and clear. You serve a high population of minority and/or at-risk students and you desperately need solutions that are not only effective, but are also cost-friendly and PRACTICAL to meet your needs — not the needs of much larger institutions with fewer under prepared students.

The P-20 Institute for African American Student Success is committed to providing independent, research-based support to public and private IHEs with high numbers of minority student enrollment. That’s why we’re hosting this event:  to assist minority education practitioners like you in your efforts to collaborate and share best practices that have demonstrated the most promise in keeping students on track to achieving their higher education goals in a timely manner. We’re excited to bring in national experts as well as a host of your peers from both 2- and 4-year institutions with similar student characteristics to share what has worked well in the critical areas of Developmental Education math, reading and writing. We’ll also explore a series of other topics that are critical to increasing overall student success. Click here for more information.

How:  You are invited to attend both jam-packed days of discussions and presentations for the low price of just $325/person. As an incentive for your prompt commitment, we are also offering an Early Bird Rate of only $295/person when you register by 5 p.m. CST on May 17, 2013. We look forward to seeing you there for this unique professional development event! Click here to register now.

CONGRATULATIONS to each of the institutions who made this list! We look forward to spotlighting your best practices for minority success for our readers  in upcoming editions of the Texas Higher Education Journal. In doing so, we hope more universities around the state will work to replicate your models of success to increase minority graduation rates across Texas.

“Because when they achieve, EVERYONE WINS!”

Our Mission:  To enhance the achievement outcomes for African American students in education from preschool through graduate studies through advocacy, communications and research-based principles, with an emphasis on 1. overall male student success and 2. increased female participation and success in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Our Purpose: Through the cooperative efforts of our members, business and community stakeholders, we will:

1. Encourage high standards in African American learning and educational achievement from preschool through graduate school.
2. Foster cooperation on a statewide and national basis with educators, community, government, and other organizations active in education innovation for students of color.
3. Use research-based practices and principles to strengthen understanding of issues by education practitioners, government, business and civic leaders surrounding the reinvention and/or systematic improvement of the African American education delivery process.
4. Identify and promote effective techniques for the organization and management of research, development, and support of promising practices for African American student achievement and success in Texas education and beyond.
5. Promote an understanding of the value of programmatic and thought leadership-driven innovation to enhance the learning outcomes of African Americans and the exponential benefits to students of color, their families, the economy, community, and society.
6. Monitor and clarify government policy issues that relate to African American education participation, retention and success innovation, act as an effective source of information to the Texas government, as well as the U.S. government and business and civic communities, and afford member institutions the opportunities to influence policy.
7. Provide members a forum for building a network of community and contacts among their peers by seeking speaking, board, committee and/or taskforce participation opportunities for our esteemed members.

P-20 Institute Advantage:

The P-20 Institute for African American Student Success provides advocacy and support service for students of color and their academic achievement. The P-20 Institute accomplishes its goals by focusing on research-based best and promising practices for minority student academic preparation, participation, retention and success.

The P-20 Institute serves as an umbrella organization for academic subject matter experts in various education fields who are actively engaged in innovative research surrounding minority student achievement and/or effective education delivery methodology.

We assist a growing number of minority researchers in the promotion and dissemination of their original and/or collaborative research findings and of other written materials created to advance understanding of prevailing minority education issues. Much like a traditional speaker’s bureau that looks for opportunities for their clients, the P-20 Institute is committed to placing our members on important state and national boards in the education, philanthropic, government and business sectors. Interested researchers should contact the Texas Higher Education Journal at contact@txhejournal for more information on becoming a member of this growing association of scholars from Texas and throughout the United States.

The P-20 Institute for African American Student Success is an all-inclusive, multi-faceted education support and advocacy firm that is dedicated to helping education delivery professionals to improve academic outcomes for our most AT-PROMISE students. As such, we are well positioned to serve as a “one-stop shop” for our clients. This leads to a more comprehensive and cohesive approach to the development and implementation of activities designed to respect the time and resources – both financial and professional – of our clients who are seeking to positively impact education delivery services for all students.

For more information about activities and events for the P-20 Institute for African American Student Success, please visit our website at http://www.txhejournal.com/p-20, email contact@txhejournal.com or call 512.797.6989 for more immediate assistance.

According to a recent report by the National Center for Education Statistics, there are several known predictors that are linked to education attainment. These predictors include socioeconomic status indicators (e.g., poverty, family income, and parents’ education), parental involvement, student disabilities, and native language. Among these, poverty poses one of the most serious challenges to a child’s ability to succeed in school. Research has suggested that living in poverty in early childhood is associated with lower than average academic performance that extends through elementary and high school and can lead to lower than average rates of school completion at all education levels. (Black, Hess, and Berenson-Howard 2000; Brooks-Gunn and Duncan 1997; Campbell et al. 2001; Entwisle, Alexander, and Olson 2005; Lee and Burkman 2002). Further, growing up in poverty is negatively correlated with children’s physical health, as well as their working memory, possibly due to the chronic psychological stress of living in poverty (Evans and Schamberg 2009). To see the full report, click here.

Percentage of Children Ages 0-18 Living In Poverty in U.S. by Race

2010 U.S. Census Bureau statistics

Texas

According to data from the 2010 U.S. Census, there were 4,824,778 students enrolled in public education in Texas.

2010 U.S. Census Data

Texas Education Agency Data

Economically Disadvantaged: 45%
Not Economically Disadvantaged: 59%

*Students who enroll in college in the fall immediately following HS graduation

THECB at http://reports.thecb.state.tx.us/approot/hs_college/hs_college_main_launch.htm

THECB Data at http://reports.thecb.state.tx.us/approot/hs_college/hs_college_main_launch.htm

Texas Public 2- and 4-Yr Institutions

The Poor in College in Texas

According to a recent state report, these Texas public institutions of higher education have done the best job in retaining disadvantaged students who entered college the fall immediately after high school graduation (summer 2009 to fall 2010):

Information from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Online Data Resources: http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/reports/PDF/2416.PDF?CFID=27078506&CFTOKEN=70078892

Information from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Online Data Resources: http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/reports/PDF/2416.PDF?CFID=27078506&CFTOKEN=70078892

As mentioned, there are many social and economic factors that may affect a student’s ability to stay in college once enrolled that go beyond academic preparation. We’d like to hear from the universities who made this list to learn more about what is being done on the respective campuses to keep more economically disadvantaged students enrolled. Please send your submissions to contact@txhejournal for maximum consideration for publication.

Understand how Developmental Education could impact your college career BEFORE you ever set foot on a college campus.

So, you’ve made the decision to go to college in the fall after you graduate high school. But now what?

Ask anyone who’s done it, and you’ll find that there are a lot of really important things you have to do before you ever set foot in a college classroom.

We’re not going to spend a lot of time on what you have to do to apply to college, like order your high school transcripts and fill out your FAFSA. We’ll review things like that in another article. Instead, we’re going to use this time to focus on some critical activities that come once you’ve been admitted to an institution of higher education that have to be done before you may attempt to earn even your first college credit.

Let’s start with the basic assessment public colleges use to determine if you’re ready to take college level classes.

Texas Success Initiative Assessment (TSI)

At some point after registering to attend a public community college or after being accepted to a 4-year college, most likely you’ll have to take a test that measures college readiness. Up until recently, colleges could use one of four approved tests: the Accuplacer, COMPASS, ASSET or the THEA. But starting this fall, everyone will have to use a new standardized test that’s being developed by the state to replace the old ones. For now, we’ll continue to call it the Texas Higher Education Assessment (THEA) – but remember, it’ll probably be a lot different from its predecessor when it’s expected to be implemented statewide in fall 2013.

Like the old tests, the new THEA will measure your knowledge of math, English and writing. What’ll be different is the way it lines up with all the things you were supposed to learn in high school as well as include a way to measure exactly how much remedial work you may actually need — if you need any at all. And, in Texas, there’s a good likelihood you will. According to state data, in fiscal year 2011, only 49.5 percent of all first-time-in-college students (FTICs) were college-ready in all three areas of assessment. That means you have slightly more than a 1 in 2 chance of needing remediation (another word for developmental education) in at least one subject area.

If you don’t want to spend valuable time taking classes you’ll have to pass but that won’t earn you a single semester credit hour, then you’ll want to be sure to meet the minimum score requirements for each section.

Sidebar:  Most of the time it will take 120 semester credit hours (sch) to get a 4-year degree. For a few majors, like Engineering or Pharmacology, for example, it may take more hours, but you’ll learn all about that when it’s time for you to declare a major – usually after you complete your first 2 years of college. Until then, you most likely will be taking general education courses as part of the required core curriculum.

For FTICs in Texas, being referred to developmental education (DE) at the beginning of your academic career could signal a death knell (look it up) to ever achieving a degree.

Consider this:  For every 71 students who entered college for the first time in the fall of 2007 and who needed a remedial course (noncredit-bearing) in English, only 52 attempted a credit-bearing course at all and only 38 had succeeded three years later. In writing, 45 out of every 63 students needing DE attempted a for-credit course, but only 33 had passed a college course in writing in three years. That means that in the time it takes most students to become juniors in college, half in DE were still trying to gain the skills to pass their first college course for credit! That’s a long time to be in college and have nothing to show for it!

If you think that’s bad, you might want to sit down for this one: for every 83 students who enrolled in DE for math, at the end of three years, only 21 had attempted to pass an actual credit-bearing math course and only 15 were successful. YIKES!

(Note: You may ask why we we’re using numbers from as far back as 2007 to make our point. Well, we use 2007 data because that’s how the state measures how long it should take a student to graduate from a college or university with a 2- or 4-year degree:  three years for community colleges and 6 years for a 4-year university. Got it? Good!)

And, keep in mind, DE courses are not free. They must be paid for out of financial aid in most cases which means that the amount of money you may have available to you that comes from the state in TEOG and TEXAS Grant funding and from the feds in the form of the PELL Grant will be a lot less than what you may actually need to graduate with a degree later. That’s because both Texas and the U.S. government now have lifetime caps on the amount of financial aid each person can get to use towards their education. In Texas, that cap is equal to 150 semester credit hours (sch) and for the PELL, that translates to 12 semesters of fulltime aid. (If you’re a full-time student in college for the fall and spring semester of each year, you will have used eight semesters of PELL Grant aid at the end of your fourth year of college. This is great news if you never take less than 12 sch, fail or drop a class, get an incomplete or change your major. Not so much if you have…)

Now add into that financial aid you have to pay or loans you have to repay if you take classes that don’t count towards graduation. Ouch! That’s going to hurt for a lot of people who may get stuck in Developmental Education Limbo.

The Good News: TSI Exemptions

There are things you can do to avoid ever having to take a DE class. It starts with using your time wisely to prepare for college while you’re still in high school. Remember this saying: “IF YOU STAY READY, YOU’LL NEVER HAVE TO GET READY!” Not only would this sound GREAT on a T-shirt, it’s a cool thing to remember in life as well. What it means for kids who want to go to college is that you’ll have to start taking the harder classes as early as possible – definitely by the 7^th and 8^th grades. Do what it takes to make college readiness part of your everyday expectations for yourself. Basically, if you even think you might want to go to college someday, take Algebra instead of basic math. (Be careful. A lot of times basic math is called something that sounds a lot more important but still won’t give you what you need to be college-ready in the long term. If it’s not Algebra, it’s not getting you ready for college). Sign up for dual credit classes. Most schools now offer dual credit classes and the best part of it is it’s FREE (or at least nearly free) while you’re still in high school. That’s right. You can earn college credits without it costing you or your parents a dime! Some kids now even graduate high school and community college at the same time! Why can’t you be one of them?  Talk with your high school counselor or a trusted teacher to learn how.

Another option is to enroll in pre-Advanced Placement and regular AP classes instead of taking the easier classes. Sure, you’ll probably have a lot more homework and you won’t be able to count on that easy A you might otherwise have gotten, but you’ll definitely be better prepared to get higher scores on the SAT, ACT and/or the dreaded End-of-Course exams.  An extra benefit to AP classes is that you can sign up to take the AP exam at the end of each year. If you make a 3 or higher on a 5 scale, there’s a good chance you won’t have to take that class in college! Either way, if all these ideas are done right, it will help you get exempted from even having to take the TSI once you enroll in college. And one less high-stakes test to take is a good thing, right?

It’s taken a long time, but people are finally starting to admit that the old way of boosting college readiness hasn’t worked so well. Texas bigwigs are looking for ways to get more colleges and universities to cut the amount of time a student spends in developmental education and get them into regular credit-bearing classes. One of the ways is to tie a percentage of how much funding the state gives to colleges to how many DE students successfully pass a class for credit. To learn about some of their other ideas, click here.

This is a lot to take in, so we’ll stop for now and revisit this and other topics about what to expect for college in our new series entitled “College:  What You Need to Know Before You Go.” In the meantime, share this information with your friends and feel free to post any questions or comments you may have here. Whenever possible, we’ll make sure to get a subject matter expert to answer them for you.

Next article, we’ll talk more about changes to Developmental Education as well as what students should do from the moment they sign up for their first college course to make sure they’re not wasting time or money while pursuing a college degree.

Until then,

“Work hard now so you can play hard later…or you will surely play hard now and be forced to work hard later!”

A device co-developed by a University of Houston (UH) physicist to detect the spread of breast cancer and allow physicians to better plan intervention is extending its market reach, bringing it another step closer to clinical trials in the U.S.

The SentiMag is a novel intraoperative probe that enables surgeons to more effectively locate the sentinel lymph node – the first lymph node to which a tumor’s metastasizing cancer cells drain. The highly sensitive SentiMag instrument and its associated Sienna+ tracer combine nanotechnology and advanced magnetic sensors. Their patented technology removes the need for radiation, speeds up the process and puts the detection of the sentinel lymph node directly in the hands of surgeons.

Co-developed by Audrius Brazdeikis, a research associate professor of physics in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at UH, and his colleagues at the University College of London (UCL), the device has been in use for more than a year in Europe and will now be distributed in the Middle East and Africa. Brazdeikis says approval for use in the U.S. is not far behind.

This most recent development of distribution beyond Europe is the result of an agreement signed between Sysmex Europe GmbH, a leading international company designing and producing diagnostic solutions for medical laboratories worldwide, and Endomagnetics Ltd., a UH spinoff medical devices company. Brazdeikis, who heads the Biomedical Imaging Group at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH (TcSUH), formed Endomagnetics with physics professor Quentin Pankhurst and systems engineer Simon Hattersley from UCL to bring their technology to the marketplace.

“The most rewarding aspect in this adventure has been taking our original idea and seeing it through to market introduction,” Brazdeikis said. “The biggest challenge wasn’t the technology or research or science, but actually developing collaborations across the science and business interface to make this commercialization happen.”

Current protocol for locating the sentinel node involves injecting a radioactive isotope several hours before surgery, followed by the surgeon using a highly directional Geiger counter, called a gamma probe, in the operating room to locate the lymph node with the highest radioactivity. Alternately, the SentiMag from Endomagnetics uses a detection system based on magnetics rather than radiation, with the radioactive tracer being replaced by the magnetic nanoparticle tracer and the handheld magnetic sensor replacing the gamma probe.

“This new method requires a surgeon to simply inject the area around a tumor with the Sienna+ nanoparticle, wait 30 minutes for the tracer to accumulate in the lymph nodes and then scan the area of interest using the SentiMag probe to locate the sentinel nodes,” Brazdeikis said. “In contrast to the radioactive tracer, a typical magnetic tracer has a shelf life of many months. There are no staff safety issues or disposal of radioactive waste, which lifts regulatory burdens. It also reduces overall cost for the hospital by improving surgery scheduling and, therefore, is more accessible to all patients.”

Initially funded by the UK-Texas Bioscience Initiative, the SentiMag system is currently in use in eight European Union countries – the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, France, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland. When used together with the injectable Sienna+ nanoparticle, SentiMag gives physicians the ability to better gauge the extent to which cancer has spread.

Sysmex being granted the exclusive right to provide sales and support for this revolutionary system across the European, Middle Eastern and African regions will provide a strong platform for further investment and growth. This is Endomagnetics’ first multi-region agreement, and it promises to extend widely the clinical use of the company’s technology.

“We are extremely pleased with initial customer feedback,” said Eric Mayes, CEO of Endomagnetics. “Partnering with a group as strong as Sysmex gives us the geographic scope and customer support we need to really make an impact.”

For more information, contact Lisa Merkl, UH Media Relations, at 713.743.8192 or by email at lkmerkl@uh.edu.

Biology major Maxwell to be honored for international achievement

Elisabeth Maxwell, Beaumont biology major and Lamar Ambassador

Elisabeth Maxwell, Beaumont biology major and Lamar Ambassador, will receive the Marian Beane/Charles Gliozzo Domestic Student Award for International Achievement. This is an award given by the Phi Beta Delta International Scholars Honors Society to one student member at the national level. Maxwell will accept the award at the society’s national convention in North Carolina April 11-13.

Maxwell spent three months on the coast of South Africa working with a shark conservancy in 2011 and spent the summer in Mozambique working with a Marine Mega Fauna field research station in 2012 as part of her research for the Beck Fellowship, Lamar’s most prestigious undergraduate honor.

Maxwell said she was surprised and honored when she received word she was selected to receive the award.

“I feel like this award is more about all of the people who have helped me to get to where I am,” she said. “I didn’t get myself to Mozambique. A lot of others worked really hard to get me there, and I was just able to have the experience. So this is not just an award for me, but for everyone who helped me and celebrating their work as well.”

Catalina Castillon, president of the Lamar University PBD Beta Xi Chapter, said the award is a great accomplishment for Maxwell and the Beta Xi Chapter.

“It is a great honor for our Beta Xi chapter,” she said. “It fills us with pride and places us in the international map. Elisabeth competed at the National level against students from other universities with PBD chapters. We are very proud and happy for Elisabeth and our chapter.

The Beta Xi Chapter will also honor Maxwell at its annual induction ceremony Monday, April 15th, at 2 p.m. in the University Reception Center of the Mary and John Gray Library.  Nine faculty members and nine students will be inducted during the ceremony, being recognized for their outstanding international academic work.

Uliana Trylowsky, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Jefferson County, will receive an honorary induction into the chapter for international service. Trylowski will speak at the ceremony.

For more information, contact  Louise Wood, media specialist, University Advancement, (409) 880-8415.