From a podcast interview on Asian-American violence to a historical fiction series, our faculty, staff, students and alumni are being featured in the news. Check out the latest roundup of newsworthy Horned Frogs.

INSTITUTIONAL

Anonymous Donor Pays Medical School Tuition for an Entire Class 
March 22, 2021
KDFW-TV

An entire class of 60 students at the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine will receive free tuition for a year. The school said a couple who wishes to remain anonymous provided the gift for students who started their medical school training this past July.

Also featured in Fort Worth Business Press, Philanthropy News Digest and Medscape, among others.

TCU Podcast on Race, Reconciliation Now Available to Stream 
March 19, 2021
Fort Worth, Texas Magazine

TCU is one of more than 60 colleges and universities around the world taking part in the Universities Studying Slavery Consortium. TCU started the Race & Reconciliation Initiative in September 2020 to lead the investigation into the school's relationship with slavery, racism and the Confederacy, according to the university.

FACULTY

The Atlanta Shooting Put a Spotlight on the Vulnerability of Spa Workers. Many are Still Routinely Arrested Across Georgia
March 31, 2021
USA Today

The board that oversees massage therapists in Georgia voted last month to educate its members about human trafficking. “These places continue to operate with complete impunity and you’re arresting the victims,” said Vanessa Bouche, associate professor and author of several reports on the illicit massage industry. “You’re arresting the people with no power whatsoever to change anything.” 

Residents Near Eagle Mountain Lake Seek Tree Protection After Developer Clears Forest
March 30, 2021
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

As more developers arrive in Azle, a group of supporters are pushing city officials to adopt a tree preservation ordinance to protect the large oaks. At least 60 municipalities across Texas have adopted tree preservation ordinances, including 28 cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington region, according to a 2019 academic research paper published by Brendan Lavy, assistant professor of environmental sciences.

Fort Worth Startup Finds New Funding as it Joins Faith-Focused Accelerator Program
March 30, 2021
Dallas Business Journal

OCEAN Programs has unveiled its 2021 accelerator cohort, and a Fort Worth startup is joining the lineup. Animal Cloud Device Connectivity, a TCU-based startup developing and commercializing a vital monitoring platform to help keep law enforcement animals safe and healthy in the line of duty, is joining the seventh cohort of the Cincinnati-based faith-focused accelerator program.

The Story of Tracy Walder - The Unexpected Spy | Ep. 48
March 30, 2021
losspreventionmedia.com

Tracy Walder, adjunct professor of criminal justice, is a former staff operations officer at the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center and a special agent at the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office specializing in Chinese counterintelligence operations. In this podcast, she shares details of her experience from the attacks of September 11th working in the CIA Vault through the invasion of Iraq, while also illuminating her experiences as a woman in a male-dominated field both abroad and at home. 

Legendary Lawman
March 28, 2021
Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Marshal Bass Reeves, one of Arkansas’ first Black deputies, rides into the American ethos in the historical-fiction trilogy by Sidney Thompson, professor of creative writing and African American literature. “To honor his story, I believed I needed to summon his spirit, so to speak, and to do that, I needed to remain as faithful to the historical record as I possibly could, and then fathom the rest,” Thompson said.

Also seen in the Denton Record Chronicle.

Larry McMurtry, Novelist of the American West, Dies at 84
March 26, 2021
The New York Times

Larry McMurtry wrote his first novels while teaching English at TCU. In Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show and dozens more novels and screenplays, he offered unromantic depictions of a long-mythologized region.

Gary Patterson on TCU's Chemistry, Transfers, Remote Recruiting and College Football's Big Picture
March 26, 2021
The Athletic

Gary Patterson is always going to tell you exactly what’s on his mind. The TCU coach is outspoken about issues and often leads the conversation in coaches’ meetings and calls about rule changes. He’s the second-longest tenured head coach in the FBS and a past president of the American Football Coaches Association, which means his words carry some serious weight. Right now, transfers are a major topic in the sport, and he’s dealing with the myriad associated issues first-hand.

The Truth About Lying
March 25, 2021

Knowable Magazine

Apparently, you can’t tell a liar by looking. Charles Bond, retired psychology professor, helped review studies and found that neither law enforcement experts nor student volunteers were able to pick true from false statements better than 54 percent of the time — just slightly above chance. In individual experiments, accuracy ranged from 31 to 73 percent, with the smaller studies varying more widely. “The impact of luck is apparent in small studies,” Bond says. “In studies of sufficient size, luck evens out.”

Also featured in Smithsonian Magazine.

The Next Coronavirus Challenge: Balancing Safety and Quality of Life 
March 24, 2021
The National Interest

Amy Anderson, DNP, RN, FAAN, professor at the Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences and the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine, recently authored a piece on handling life amidst COVID-19. “Just as Americans must not ignore the lives lost to the virus and the struggles and sacrifices their health care workers are making, so, too, must they not ignore the quality of American life,” she wrote. “As America emerges from the dark shadow of the coronavirus, wise and courageous governors and other public officials need to take the necessary steps to restore Americans’ personal liberty and pave the way for their return to a normal social and economic life.” 

Screams And Silence
March 24, 2021
NPR

Asian American organizers and influencers have been trying to sound the alarm over a dramatic spike in reports of anti-Asian racism over the last year and have been frustrated by the lack of media and public attention paid to their worries. Scott Kurashige, chair of Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies, was interviewed on a recent Code Switch podcast on the topic. “What I try to do as a scholar and what I call on our policymakers and our figures in media to do is to put this in proper historical context,” he said. “We have in the dominant culture in this country a tendency to discount the death and suffering of Asians.”

Student Experiences During COVID and Campus Reopening Concerns 
March 24, 2021
Inside Higher Ed

Many students experienced the impacts of pandemic-related changes differently. According to the health belief model in social psychological professions, those who don’t feel susceptible to health risk are less likely to change behavior or take precautions. Students may have assumed schools would make changes impacting “other people,” like faculty and staff, explained Eric Wood, director of the Counseling & Mental Health Center. “Many students knew something would change but didn’t think about what the changes would be or how it might affect them personally.”

Communication Researchers Form New Group in Nigeria 
March 23, 2021
Premium Times

Nigerian teachers and researchers from more than 100 tertiary institutions have formed a new group to hone the development of research and scholarship in mass communication in Nigeria. The Association of Media and Communication Researchers of Nigeria was formed by 280 researchers and practitioners, and members include Uche Onyebadi, chair and associate professor of journalism.

Look to Next-Gen Oil and Gas Leaders to End North America’s Energy Stalemate: Experts
March 21, 2021
Battlefords Now

Richard Denne, Hunter Enis Endowed Chair in Petroleum Geology, said what used to be a diehard Texas student body is increasingly from liberal-minded California. “We’re starting to pivot to include much more of the renewables,” Denne said in an interview, noting that one of his geology classes, once focused primarily on petrochemicals, is evolving. 

Michael Kruger, Ph.D., Named Dean of TCU College of Science & Engineering 
March 19, 2021
Fort Worth Business Press 

TCU appointed Michael Kruger, Ph.D., dean for the College of Science & Engineering, the second-largest college at TCU. Kruger has served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Dakota since 2017, overseeing 17 departments and nine centers and institutes.

Study Examines the Impact of Transition to Online Learning on Students with Disabilities
March 18, 2021
News Medical

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic changed the higher education experience for students across the country. One of the positives was the shift to online communication with disability service providers. "There were lots of universities that responded by saying, 'well, you aren't on campus anymore, so how do we get you changes to your accommodations?’" said study co-author Michael Faggella-Luby, professor of special education. “We can't do it the old way, where, you come in and meet with us, we write you a letter, you take the letter to your professor, they sign it. We can't do this anymore, so some universities responded by moving the whole process online. Well, now everybody wins. It's much easier to do those things."

Anti-Asian Attacks Give Rise To Calls For Solidarity
March 18, 2021
NY1

Reports have indicated a growing number of anti-Asian attacks across the country. “We have stories going viral that make it seem that the majority of the perpetrators are African American," said Scott Kurashige, chair of Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies. "In fact, the problem we need to address is the tendency in the dominant culture to reinforce the idea that the perpetrators are predominantly African American or non-white because that fulfills the purpose of the model minority myth, which is to put the focus on tensions and conflicts amongst communities of color rather than the systemic problem with white racism and white supremacy.”

ALUMNI

This Running Professor Keeps Turning in Fast Times, But Doesn’t Necessarily Have Pro Ambitions
March 29, 2021
Runner's World

McKale Montgomery '07 almost always finds a way around a challenge. To fit 100-mile weeks around a full-time academic career and parenting a 2-year-old, the nutrition professor gets up at 5 a.m. She runs dirt roads around her Stillwater, Oklahoma, home with a headlamp or on the new treadmill her husband, Scott, bought her for Christmas. On the way to October’s Prairie Fire Marathon in Wichita, Kansas, Montgomery graded papers in the car.

Dallas Elementary School Students March Toward Their Future
March 26, 2021
KXAS-TV

Paul L. Dunbar Learning Center in South Dallas is not just about books. It's about boot camp, too. Four years ago, physical education teacher Teno Myles '05 started SLAC, which stands for Service Leadership Academics and Courage. He noticed students were getting suspensions and referrals on a regular basis, hampering teachers' ability to teach.

How UTA’s Diversity Program Can Benefit Any Career 
March 24, 2021
The Shorthorn 

As the push for inclusion in the workforce grows across the country, the diversity minor and certificate offered by UTA’s School of Social Work allows students to gain knowledge in the interactions of race, gender, sexuality, economic inequality and more. The intention is that students who complete the minor, regardless of their degree, will be able to utilize their new knowledge and skills in their career field, Allison Tomlinson '07, social work assistant professor, said. As an undergrad at TCU, she participated in a leadership program related to diversity, equity and inclusion. She said she gained insight through those courses as well as her personal experience of being a woman of color. 

Miracle Fishing: The Truth About Miles Hargrove's Relationship With Tom Hargrove 
March 23, 2021
Grunge

The new documentary Miracle Fishing, streaming on Discovery+ this month, takes a very intimate look at a family in crisis. When Miles Hargrove '99 got news of his father’s kidnapping, he was a sophomore at TCU. Miles said he had no intention of making a movie out of his family's whole ordeal. Picking up the camera was his coping mechanism.

Alamo Announces New Executive Director to Lead Museum Fund-Raising, Plaza Project 
March 23, 2021
San Antonio Express-News

Kate Rogers '91, the newly named Alamo executive director, has no doubt she’s in for a challenge. Improving the historic site will be an immense undertaking. Rejuvenating a stalled project trapped in a maelstrom of discontent and competing viewpoints will be even more daunting. “But all those many years ago, the Alamo was there for the people for Texas, especially for the defenders when they were fighting for their independence. Rogers has a bachelor’s degree from TCU and master’s in public affairs from the University of Texas at Austin.

100 Best & Brightest Business Majors Of 2021
March 29, 2021
Poets & Quants

Entering its sixth year, the Best & Brightest features seniors who personify the best in business education. TCU Neeley students RJ Finley and Ashley Servais made the list.