From an investigation at the U.S. Postal Service to the meaning of Waxahachie, TCU and its faculty, staff, students and alumni are being featured in the news. Check out the latest roundup of newsworthy Horned Frogs.
INSTITUTIONAL
Digital Seat Media to enhance fan experience at TCU football
Sept. 2, 2021
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Fans attending TCU football games at Amon G. Carter Stadium will find a new feature at their seats that
gives them access to everything from TCU-inspired Instagram filters to downloadable
coupons from sponsors to live stats. Athletic director Jeremiah Donati is announcing additional game day enhancements on his social media throughout the
week. “Every year we strive to gather feedback and make enhancements to the game day
experience,” Donati said. “Even coming out of a year with a lot of restrictions and
limited capacity, it was no different this offseason. We continue to move the ball
forward.”
Saints announce practices to be temporarily held in TCU's Fort Worth facilities
Sept. 1, 2021
USA Today
It’s a good day to be a Horned Frog. On Wednesday, the New Orleans Saints announced
their agreement with TCU to temporarily hold practices as well as strength and conditioning sessions in Fort
Worth while New Orleans continues to recover from the impact of Hurricane Ida.
Fort Worth organization distributes almost $1 million in scholarships in past three
years to send young Latinas to college
Aug. 31, 2021
Fort Worth Report
This year, TCU offered 40 full-ride scholarships to students in the community dubbed Community Scholarships
totaling $1,757,391. Through a partnership with the Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas’
Fort Worth chapter, the university granted a roughly $260,000 scholarship to Joceline Rojas. “It’s a privilege to be the first generation. Knowing that you’re the first in your
family to change generations that are yet to come, it’s like, ‘Yeah, Miss, you have
to go to college,’” Rojas said. “I have some cousins who weren’t even considering
college, and right now they’re seeing that we can do it.”
FACULTY & STAFF
The legacy builders: Donors give strategically to their favorite groups
Sept. 1, 2021
The Dallas Morning News
Development professionals from many of Dallas’ nonprofit organizations say planned
giving, which allows donors to bequeath a portion of their estates to organizations
they care about, is a great way to express your values and to create a legacy. Melissa Villegas, senior director of gift planning, said, “It’s good to educate people as young adults,
talk about their mortality and the legacy they want to leave behind. You can often
amplify your gift in a tax-smart way. And you can often give more if you give strategically.”
Donors often want their kids to see the importance of giving, said TCU’s Villegas. It instills the family’s values.
USPS has shorted some workers’ pay for years, CPI finds
Aug. 31, 2021
Associated Press
The Postal Service has long been one of the largest employers of African Americans
in the United States. During the civil rights era, it was a place where Black workers
could advance their careers without as many barriers as the private sector, said Frederick Gooding, African American studies professor. “The (Postal Service) was in many ways a beacon
of hope and opportunity,” said Gooding, author of the book “American Dream Deferred:
Black Federal Workers in Washington, D.C., 1941-1981.”
Also seen in U.S. News & World Report and multiple national outlets.
Passing voting bill priority in last days of second special session
Aug. 31, 2021
Texas Standard
As the second special session of the Texas Legislature winds down, Gov. Greg Abbott
and Republican lawmakers are looking to finally pass measures that died in previous
sessions. James Riddlesperger, political science professor, said Abbott’s priority this session was passing voting
legislation. “The Democrats retreated to Washington, in part, to bring symbolic coverage
to the movement, not just in Texas, but nationwide,” he said. “Everyone knew that
it was a futile effort except for the public relations exposure that it got.”
Tarrant County’s growing racial diversity in suburbs outpaces urban core
Aug. 30, 2021
Fort Worth Report
As Tarrant County’s population has grown in the past decade, so, too, has its racial
and ethnic diversity. But that diversity is greater in suburban areas rather than
urban ones, experts observed from the latest census data. Kyle Walker, director of urban studies, said the census showed the white population was increasing
only in “gentrifying urban cores,” like the Fairmount-Southside Historic District.
Greater diversity is in newer suburban developments like those off of Chisholm Trail
Parkway and to the south of the city toward Crowley, he said. “The typical idea about
suburbs is that they’re sort of homogenous and segregated,” Walker said. “Those places
do exist. But really the areas where you have racial and ethnic mixing tend to be
outside of Loop 820.”
Curious Texas: What’s the meaning of ‘Waxahachie’, and what happened to the American
Indians there?
Aug. 27, 2021
The Dallas Morning News
It’s been said that Waxahachie is derived from American Indian words — The Dallas Morning News reported in 2018 that the person who named the city may have pulled inspiration from
the Waxhaw tribe. Scott Langston, Native American nations and communities liaison and instructor of religion, said
the battle probably opened up the Waxahachie area for white settlement, but there
isn’t substantial evidence of that. While there wasn’t a specific American Indian
settlement in the area, Langston noted the Waxahachie region falls between areas where
Wichita and Caddo tribes lived.
Moral injury: the cost to vets of leaving Afghan partners behind
Aug. 27, 2021
The Dallas Morning News
In the past two weeks, we’ve seen reports about the harm America’s withdrawal from
Afghanistan is bound to bring for women, girls, journalists and allies. But one group
that hasn’t received much attention is American veterans whose tours of duty have
long since ended. Experts say the news coming out of Afghanistan is likely to reopen
emotional wounds for many of them. Nancy Ramsay is director of the Soul Repair Center, a clinic at Brite Divinity School that offers
training for chaplains and religious leaders caring for veterans. “What I’m hearing
is that there’s great anxiety on the part of vets who know that they were protected
by these persons and feel an obligation, understandably, to make sure our commitments
to them were fulfilled,” Ramsay said.
Berkeley Research Group adds four academics as senior advisors
Aug. 26, 2021
consulting.us
Consulting firm Berkeley Research Group has welcomed four business school professors
as senior advisors, adding expertise in the fields of accounting information, financial
reporting, real estate finance and credit risk. Karen Nelson is the M.J. Neeley professor of accounting in the Neeley School of Business. Nelson
specializes in financial reporting and disclosure issues, including the role of regulators,
auditors and private securities litigation in monitoring financial reporting quality.
Paving a new way: Fort Worth looks for successors to Old Guard
Aug. 26, 2021
Fort Worth Report
Mary Uhl-Bien, BNSF Endowed Professor of Leadership in the Management and Leadership Department,said
she knows there will be new leadership in Fort Worth but has concerns about the transition. The
recent national political environment is aimed at keeping a party in power and representing
that party’s interests, she said. “Then, there is an advantage to having divides,
among the populace,” Uhl-Bien said. “So, parties and politicians are winning by trying
to divide the populace and get more support for their position. That then serves the
politicians and the party, but not necessarily the community or the country. So as
a result, the challenge of bipartisanship is greater than ever.”
ALUMNI
New self-help book emphasizes alternative treatments and empathy for mental health
sufferers
Sept. 1, 2021
Benzinga
Mental health awareness is critical now more than ever with the prevalence of mental
illness increasing in individuals. Author Shawn T Murphy MBA ’89 has been studying mental health for over 45 years. He has recently published "Torn
Between Two Worlds: Modern Medicine and Spiritual Healing" to bring attention to alternative
treatments and causes of mental illness and to encourage others to have empathy for
silent sufferers. Murphy completed his master's in business administration from TCU in 1989.
Dalton embraces chance with Bears, knowing Fields behind him
Aug. 30, 2021
Seattle Times
Andy Dalton ’10 is embracing his opportunity with the Chicago Bears. He's not too concerned prized
rookie Justin Fields is right behind him. “I’m focused on me and what I can do, helping
this offense and helping this team,” he said Monday. “So, I’m looking forward to Week
1." The Bears are sticking with their plan to open the season with Dalton as their
starting quarterback.
STUDENTS
'Generation 9/11' ditches the real story for political posturing
Aug. 31, 2021
The Federalist
“Generation 9/11,” a PBS documentary, is ostensibly about the children of the 105 pregnant
women widowed in the Twin Towers and Pentagon attacks. The most in-depth backstory
we get from a subject is that of Luke Taylor. His Delta Force father died at the Pentagon. His cancer-ridden mother died two years
later. He is now an Army ROTC candidate at TCU. “I have the opportunity … to fight
the same war that started because my dad died,” Luke says.
Meet the people pursuing menstrual equity in North Texas
Aug. 30, 2021
Fort Worth Report
This year, more than two in five people with periods in the U.S. said they’ve struggled
to afford products like pads or tampons at one point or another, a 35% increase from
the same data in 2018. When Lauren Grace Perry started at TCU on the pre-law track last fall, she launched DUO, which stands for ‘do unto others,’
a reference to the golden rule her parents taught her when she was a child. She sells
goods like hoodies and hats and gives 30% of her earnings to a different period equity
organization each month. Since January, she thinks she’s donated close to $1,000.
Her central goal is to start a dialogue about what it means to do unto others. For
her, that looks like destigmatizing periods, one conversation after another.
ATHLETICS
TCU athletic director on realignment: The Big 12 needs to begin playing offense
Sept. 1, 2021
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The Big 12 appears to be on life support with flagships Texas and Oklahoma heading
to the SEC by the summer of 2025, at the latest. But TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati offered a different perspective this week, saying the league is stronger than it’s
being perceived these days. “This is a strong conference with a lot of tradition and
history,” Donati said. “We are in a position to strengthen this conference and I know
we will do that.” Donati said it’s important that the conference “begins playing offense
and flips this narrative.”
Obinna Eze is chasing his American dream with TCU football. Why failure isn’t an option
Aug. 27, 2021
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Obinna Eze, from Nigeria, has emerged as TCU’s top left tackle since arriving on campus in January.
He’s shown leadership traits in his short time with the team and has earned praise
from coach Gary Patterson throughout fall camp. “When you come over here, you come here with a drive and a
motor to be successful,” Eze said. “I’m here at TCU to take on bigger challenges,
you know what I’m saying? To serve in whatever role the team needs me to.”