Our faculty are weighing in on everything from the mask mandate to the political divide and being featured in the news for their art exhibits and podcasts. Check out the latest roundup of newsworthy Frogs.

INSTITUTIONAL

Intelligent.com 2021 Best Interior Design Degree Program
March 9, 2021
Commercial Construction & Renovation

Intelligent.com recently listed TCU in its Top 50 Interior Design Degree Programs for 2021. Each program was evaluated based on curriculum quality, graduation rate, reputation and post-graduate employment. The list was reported alphabetically.

The Best Master's in Liberal Arts Degree Programs
March 8, 2021
intelligent.com

Intelligent.com evaluated master’s in liberal arts programs on the basis of flexibility, faculty, course strength, cost and reputation and calculated an “Intelligent Score ” for each program on a scale from 0 to 100. TCU ranked No. 30.

FACULTY

TCU Professor and Graduate Student Collaborate in a New Podcast About Life, Race and Reconciliation
March 16, 2021
Dallas Weekly 

Frederick Gooding, Jr., associate professor of African American Studies in the John V. Roach Honors College, co-hosts Reconcile This! with Marcellis Perkins, a graduate research assistant. The academic podcast associated with the university’s Race & Reconciliation Initiative is now available on Spotify and other platforms.

2021’ s Most & Least Innovative States
March 16, 2021
WalletHub 

Some of the biggest innovations the U.S. has produced recently are the COVID-19 vaccines. But certain states deserve more credit than others for America’s dominance in the tech era. To help struggling local economies become more like successful tech-centric cities, a panel of experts provided advice on stimulating innovation. The panel included Thomas Allison, associate professor of entrepreneurship in the Neeley School of Business.

How Racism and White Supremacy Fueled a Black-Asian Divide in America
March 16, 2021
Vox 

Against the backdrop of anti-racism protests last summer, racist violence was surging in Chinatowns and Asian American communities across the country. " What we need to realize is that there’ s this timeless structure, in which there’ s always one group on top and another at the bottom," Scott Kurashige, professor and chair of comparative race and ethnic studies, told Vox.

A Space Between Time
March 13, 2021
COWGIRL Magazine 

The exhibition opening March 27 at Artspace 111 underscores the mutual transference of creativity and inspiration that is inherent to the teacher/student relationship. Jim Woodson, retired TCU art professor, created a path for young artists through technical training and guidance. As his student, Carly Allen-Martin BFA ’07 used these tools to further develop a path that he pioneered, resulting in her own prolific practice that is prized in private collections across the world. A Space Between Time is an exhibit from the two artists that conveys the cultivation of techniques, ideals, correlations and juxtapositions of teaching and discovery.

Nursery Guide LIVE Announces Keynote Speakers
March 11, 2021
Lawn & Garden Retailer

Dave Malenfant, director of outreach and partnerships at the Center for Supply Chain Innovation, will discuss supply chain logistics in his keynote presentation, “ Future Trends in Logistics: Partnering for Success,” during the Nursery Guide LIVE Virtual Marketplace March 17-18. Shipping the perishable products grown by nurseries require specialized equipment, but the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically disrupted supply chain logistics. Malenfant will share his knowledge and predictions about the future of logistics. He has studied the transportation of products for more than 35 years.

Blind Eye Toward Domestic Terrorism?
March 10, 2021
Fort Worth Weekly 

Federal, state and local authorities have identified and charged more than 230 suspects in the Jan. 6 raid on the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead, including one U.S. Capitol Police officer. Federal prosecutors said more than 400 investigations remain active. One former FBI agent, Adjunct Professor Samuel Simon, said growing political divisions among U.S. citizens have fueled extremism on both ends of the political divide.

Southlake, Fort Worth Design Companies Collect Magazine Awards
March 10, 2021
CandysDirt.com 

Three design companies each picked up two awards in Fort Worth Magazine’s home edition 2021 Design Awards. Amy Roel, associate professor and interior design program coordinator, served as a judge.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's Month from Hell: Power Outages, COVID-19 and Republican Discontent
March 6, 2021
The Register-Herald

The night of March 1, Greg Abbott ratcheted up suspense with an announcement on Twitter. "I will have some exciting news for you tomorrow," he said, as if the last two weeks had not been eventful enough. The next day he'd announce the reopening of Texas and lift his statewide mask order. "Those two events are two of the most—maybe the two most—momentous events in his governorship so far,” said Jim Riddlesperger, political science professor, of the outages and Abbott's COVID-19 response.

Gov. Abbott, Where’s the Evidence it’s Safe to End TX Mask Rule?
March 6, 2021
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Faculty of the Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences, Gina K. Alexander, Carol Howe, Sharon B. Canclini, Pamela J. Frable and Danielle Walker, helped pen an editorial along with local officials. In response to Governor Greg Abbott’s lifting of the state mask mandate, the authors ask: What evidence did the governor use to change policy? “We know that public health policy has been far more effective in dealing with the pandemic than individual actions alone,” they wrote.

Big Ten Presidents Kept Return-to-School, Football Communications Out of Public Eye
March 5, 2021
The Washington Post

When the presidents and chancellors of the 14 Big Ten universities began discussing the prospects of students returning to their campuses last fall amid the coronavirus pandemic and with football season looming, they weighed many considerations, from public health to financial impact. But emails obtained by The Washington Post through public records requests reveal another priority: keeping their discussions from ever entering public view. “ This is not new,” said Chip Stewart, professor of journalism and an attorney. “ Ever since new forms of communication have been developed, public officials have been trying to use them to get around open meetings and open records laws.” 

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Proposes Latino Films For National Film Registry
March 4, 2021
Latin Post

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are nominating Latino films to be included in the National Film Registry to be represented as a community on the big screen. The movement represents the ongoing issue clouding the media industry when it comes to minority groups. Researcher Emily Farris, associate professor in political science, has said that "the media's choice of words and images shape the way that people perceive and evaluate policies, particularly with respect to racialized issues.” Farris added that "the quantity and quality of press coverage also can influence the extent to which individuals both interpret and prioritize a given policy issue.” 

ALUMNI

A Conversation with Local Singer-Songwriter Rob Baird
March 9, 2021
Austin Monthly 

As he prepares to release his fifth album, Rob Baird ’09 is getting comfortable with displaying his true self in his music. Throughout his life, Baird has spent time in cities like Memphis, Fort Worth and Nashville, but has recently settled down in Austin. “I was in college and I started off at this place called The Aardvark in Fort Worth,” he said. “I originally went to TCU to get a ranch management degree. I started playing music, which is something that was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to do.”