Last year, President and Chancellor Renu Khator represented UH during the Texas Tribune Festival’s “Chancellor Confidential” segment. | File photo/The Daily Cougar
UH President and Chancellor Renu Khator will discuss the future of higher education at The Texas Tribune Festival at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the University of Texas at Austin. This is the second year Khator will attend the festival.
The annual three-day festival attracts the state’s prominent public figures and offers panels and one-on-one discussions about politics and government. The topics include “Higher Education in 2038,” “The Shale Boom: What Now?” and “Governance and the Role of Regents.”
Also representing the UH System is UH-Victoria President Phil Castille, who will be a panelist in “Meanwhile, Back at the Non-Flagships.”
Ticket prices range from $130 to $160, but students can get discount tickets for $50 and have full access to the #StudentsAtTheFest Lounge. The event kicks off with a one-on-one discussion with United States Senator Ted Cruz at 6 p.m. and is followed by the Party on the Plaza.
UH faculty making MOOC
The interdisciplinary graduate course combines biology and geomorphology. | Courtesy of UH.edu
Along with faculty members from universities across the nation, biology and biochemistry professor Steve Pennings and civil and environmental engineering assistant professor Kyle Storm are contributing to a massive open online course that is being offered for credit at nine universities.
The graduate course, “Linking Biology and Geomorphology in Coastal Wetlands (and Other Habitats),” is also being used as an educational device for members of more than 30 educational institutions, nine National Estuarine Research Reserves and two Federal Agencies. More than 15 scientists are delivering the lectures on a video-conferencing forum.
“We’re very happy about the high level of interest in the course,” Pennings said in a press release. “It would be difficult for a single university to offer a specialized graduate course like this one that allows students to interact with so many experts in a field.”
