Reporting Texas
News and features from UT-Austin's School of Journalism
byNatalia Rodriguez
The University of Texas at Austin on Thursday announced plans to shutter seven departments in the College of Liberal Arts devoted to ethnicity, gender and international studies and to review curriculum related to those subjects.
UT President Jim Davis said in a campus-wide email that Mexican-American and Latino Studies, African and African Diaspora Studies, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and American Studies will no longer be separate departments but will be consolidated into one school called Social and Cultural Analysis. Likewise, a new School of European and Eurasian Studies is being created from the current departments of French and Italian, Germanic Studies and Slavic and Eurasian Studies.
The UT consolidation comes two years after it eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion programs and a month after Texas A&M University ended its women and gender studies program. Faculty there were told that 200 courses could be affected by a new A&M System policy restricting classroom discussion of race and gender.
bySamantha Rubin
As Democrats look to energize young voters ahead of a competitive primary, U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico urged University of Texas at Austin students Wednesday to reject political division and to help mobilize voters on campus.
bySamantha Rubin
Texans with dual citizenship are decrying the potential effects of a bill introduced by an Ohio senator that would force Americans who hold citizenship in another country to renounce one nationality or risk being treated as if they gave up their U.S. citizenship.
Legal experts said the proposal is unworkable. “There really is no good way to police this,” said Elissa Steglich, who teaches the immigration law clinic at the University of Texas law school. “There’s no actual benefit to the nation for people to relinquish citizenship to other countries.”
byAJ Muonagolu
Weeks after the federal government announced new dietary guidelines, Texas schools and food assistance programs are studying how the changes might affect their services.School districts like Austin’s are waiting to see how the new guidelines will shape their programs – especially when it comes to costs and federal reimbursement rates for student meals.
