From the recognition of world-class facilities to alumni achieving the American Dream to faculty speaking on local elections and the silent treatment, TCU and its faculty alumni are being featured in the news. Check out the latest roundup of newsworthy Horned Frogs.
INSTITUTIONAL
TCU to honor Dr. James Cash, school’s first Black student-athlete, with statue
April 21, 2021
The Dallas Morning News
James Cash ’69, the first Black student-athlete at TCU, will be honored with a statue in front of Schollmaier Arena, the school announced Wednesday at the Reconciliation Day event. Cash is one of five players in TCU men’s basketball history with at least 1,000 points and 800 rebounds and led the Horned Frogs to the 1968 Southwest Conference championship. His jersey was later retired by the school.
Also seen in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
TCU confronts its history with the Confederacy, racism on campus
April 28, 2021
The Dallas Morning News
In July of last year, TCU launched a Race & Reconciliation Initiative to study and document the school’s relationship with slavery, racism and the Confederacy. After about nine months, the university released its first report that noted its founders’ ties to the Confederacy shaped TCU’s culture from the beginning by embracing white dominance. Now school officials want to make the campus environment better for students and faculty of color.
Meet the Finalists: The top DFW projects benefiting their communities
April 19, 2021
D Magazine
The TCU School of Music was a named a finalist in the Community Impact Award category of the 2021 Commercial Real Estate Awards. The School of Music got a new home in the Music Hall and the Van Cliburn Concert Hall. The two-story, 62,000 square-foot building contains a 7,000-seat concert hall and practice facilities, a band hall, classrooms and a banquet hall. The hall was designed to mirror a grand concert hall. The LEED Certified building has adjustable acoustics that can be modified to fit the nature of any performance. In 2021, TCU will host the world’s most prestigious piano competition, Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, at the Van Cliburn Concert Hall. The competition is expected to draw international audiences to Fort Worth. Todd Waldvogel, associate vice chancellor for facilities, and Brooke Ruesch, manager of construction projects, were recognize as key players.
Fort Worth Report set to launch this spring
April 19, 2021
Editor & Publisher
Fort Worth and Tarrant County will soon have a new source for local news: a digital nonprofit news organization called the Fort Worth Report. The nonprofit hopes to collaborate with others. Publisher and CEO Chris Cobler said he is already in talks with KERA (an NPR member station serving North Texas) and TCU’s Department of Journalism.
FACULTY
Complexity Leadership and Followership: Changed Leadership in a Changed World
April 27, 2021
Taylor & Francis
“All who have experienced the global pandemic of 2020 can tell you that we live in a changed world. People no longer question whether we are in complexity, that reality has been made explicitly clear. What they want to know now is, what do we do about it, and what does it mean for how we need to lead differently?” reads the abstract of the research by Mary Uhl-Bien, the BNSF Railway Endowed Professor of Leadership.
Mayoral candidate Lily Bao wants to make Plano great again
April 26, 2021
The Texas Observer
This month, Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Senator Angela Paxton, made an appearance at a fundraiser for Bao in Plano. Although it’s not unheard of for state-level officials to endorse local candidates, it’s usually predicated on a personal friendship, said James Riddlesperger, political science professor, who studies local politics. “But these endorsements normally have been very carefully nonpartisan, and now I think you’re seeing more partisan undertones in all of that,” he said.
Low voter turnout means few will decide Fort Worth mayor
April 26, 2021
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
With 10 candidates in the field for mayor and three council districts without an incumbent, more interest has been generated than in years past, said James Riddlesperger, a political science professor who has been tracking Tarrant County politics. Still turnout will likely be low enough that a relatively small group of supporters could turn the tide for a candidate.
Does the silent treatment work?
April 25, 2021
True Median
Confronting a loved one about their upsetting behavior is difficult. Rather than risking potential conflict, it can sometimes feel easier to rely on the “silent treatment.” But does it work? If you’re just trying to communicate that you’re upset — and don’t care about producing meaningful change in the relationship — then yes, said Paul Schrodt, professor of communication studies. “Oftentimes, the silent treatment will get the other person’s attention,” Schrodt told Live Science. “Most partners or family members will notice when they’re being given the cold shoulder.”
GAISA partners with Hanover Research
April 23, 2021
The PIE News
The Global Alliance of International Student Advancement has announced a partnership with Hanover Research to conduct a study into attitudes and perceptions of current international students enrolled in American colleges and universities. “Our research has a primary focus on not only being timely and relevant but producing best practices and tool kits that colleges and universities can use as a model to support and graduate international students,” said John Singleton, director of international services.
Ted Cruz maintains ties to right-wing group despite its extremist messaging
April 23, 2021
The Washington Post
Amid brewing backlash, the Northeast Tarrant Tea Party posted an undated testimonial from Sen. Ted Cruz wishing the group a happy 10th anniversary as it rebranded itself as True Texas Project. James Riddlesperger, political science professor, said Cruz appears to have “turned a blind eye” to the group’s most extreme rhetoric. “From a political standpoint, there probably isn’t a downside for him supporting this group because they represent a large segment of the Republican Party in Texas,” he said. “So Cruz sees no downside, but he does see the upside because they have organization and can bring votes.”
Public corruption? Paris burning? Fort Worth mayor’s race takes negative turn
April 22, 2021
fortworthreport.org
In a campaign mailer, Dr. Brian Byrd claims City Hall is being run by a shadowy network of powerful individuals who take advantage of “corruption.” He refers to them as “downtown insiders” making “backroom deals.” The negative campaign strategy is turning heads in the race for Fort Worth mayor, a nonpartisan office usually devoid of attacks more commonly seen in state and national races. “I mean, he’s in the middle of City Hall. So if he hasn’t been able to fix that as a member of the council, he’s kind of pointing the finger at himself,” said Jacqueline Lambiase, professor of strategic communication.
What's an Oscar really worth? Career boost is 'not the same' for Black actors, experts
say
April 20, 2021
USA Today
This month's Academy Awards could be a watershed moment for Black talent.
At the recent Screen Actors Guild Awards, a reliable indicator of future Oscar glory, actors of color won all four acting prizes for the first time ever. "I think this speaks to the larger mechanism of, how do we value the visibility of African Americans? Are they (considered) viable products in and of themselves?" says Frederick W. Gooding, associate professor of African American studies in the John V. Roach Honors College and author of Black Oscars: From Mammy to Minny, What the Academy Awards Tell Us about African Americans. Despite the recent successes of films like Black Panther, Creed II and Straight Outta Compton, internationally, there's still a tired notion in Hollywood that Black-led movies don't sell overseas – a myth that's been busted time and time again by robust box office receipts. Yet compared with white A-listers like, say Tom Cruise, the career trajectories of minorities are "just not the same. The bottom line is, the race of the winner ultimately influences their marketability by Hollywood."
2020 Lazardis award for the Journal of Business Venturing’s best paper
April 20, 2021
Journal of Business Venturing
As part of the Journal of Business Venturing’s campaign to promote the highest quality scholarship in entrepreneurship, the editorial board recently decided to reinstitute best paper and best reviewer awards. The winners of the best reviewer award include Thomas H Allison, associate professor of entrepreneurship.
Virtual event revisits slaying of Detroit's Vincent Chin amid surge of violence against
Asian Americans
April 20, 2021
Detroit Metro Times
In 1982, just eight days before Chinese-American automotive engineer Vincent Chin was to be married, two white men brutally beat him outside a club where he was celebrating his bachelor party. The case is the subject of a 1987 documentary, Who Killed Vincent Chin? that explores the case and how the incident was a catalyst in the fight for Asian-American rights. This will be at the heart of a virtual event that includes an online screening of the documentary, followed by a panel of speakers that includes Scott Kurashige, a Detroit-born professor and chair of Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies.
Newsmakers: New Science and Engineering dean at TCU
April 19, 2021
Fort Worth Business Press
Teresa Abi-Nader Dahlberg, provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, has appointed Michael Kruger, Ph.D., – dean for the College of Science & Engineering, the second-largest college at TCU.
Aledo ninth-graders’ ‘slave auction’ of Black classmates should be a wake-up call
to all white parents
April 16, 2021
The Dallas Morning News
A recent commentary pleaded for a racist event in Aledo ISD to prompt parents to talk to their children about racism. Historian Max Krochmal, associate professor of history and founding director of Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies, said he sees these recent incidents as “the tip of the iceberg” of the much deeper systemic racism in public education, especially in suburban districts that were largely the creation of white flight.
Fort Worth's low voter turnout in city elections 'a systemic problem'
April 16, 2021
Fort Worth Report
Fort Worth has had abysmal turnout in its city elections dating back to the 1990s. Among the 30 largest cities in the nation, Fort Worth was ranked 29th in voter turnout. Emily Farris, a political science professor who studies local elections, said, “Fort Worth is unique in how low voter turnout is, but not unique in the sense municipal elections that tend to be off-cycle and nonpartisan generally have lower turnout than the ones people typically think of.”
ALUMNI
How one leader infused his Fortune 500 roles with meaning
April 19, 2021
Forbes
Trip Tripathy MBA ’87 is a strategic and operational business leader with a wealth of experience, both in the U.S. and globally. He has worked for Fortune 500 companies such as PepsiCo and Macy’s, most of the time in C-level roles. Following a childhood and early accounting career in India, Tripathy moved to the United States in the 1980s. His story could be held up as a classic example of achieving the iconic American Dream. How did he do it?
Tarrant County Water District board election draws challengers, Panther Island at
center of debate
April 19, 2021
The Texan
Up for re-election is James Hill MBA ’06, who has served on the TRWD board since 2017. Hill serves as a bank executive in Fort Worth and has an MBA from TCU. Hill believes he has a responsibility to serve the community and told The Texan that his “professional experience and financial background allows me to address challenges facing the District from that same business-focused perspective.”