Academics

Two University of Texas at Austin employees have been elected officers and board members of Envision Central Texas (ECT), an organization dedicated to managing future growth in Central Texas.

John Daly, a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, has been named a distinguished scholar — the highest honor bestowed by the National Communication Association (NCA).

University of Texas at Austin alumnus and CarMax founder Austin Ligon and his wife, Samornmitr “Pan” Lamsam, have committed $200,000 to the Plan II Honors program over the next four years to support students studying abroad and encourage other alumni to support the program.

Event: The University of Texas at Austin is celebrating International Education Week with film nights, foreign language sessions, cultural workshops, travel seminars, music and dance performances, art exhibits, study abroad events and international trivia competitions.

As an undergraduate engineering student at the University of Connecticut, Sheldon Bish participated in the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates at The University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Robert M. Metcalfe, an icon of entrepreneurial engineering and inventor of today’s local-area networking standard, Ethernet, has been selected to lead innovation initiatives at The University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering.

Event: Millennials-the generation born between the early ’80s and ’90s-are digital natives who are constantly connected and ready to consume information day and night.

University of Texas at Austin students will celebrate Thanks Day on Nov. 10, to express appreciation to alumni, faculty, family, donors and the state for supporting their education.

The Austin Housing Authority has funded a new intensive mentoring and college readiness project called It Could Be U, a collaboration among Intellectual Entrepreneurship — a program in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin — the Media Communications Council and its parent organization, the Texas Diversity Council.

When Dr. Nina Fredland was an elementary and middle school nurse in Houston children came to her clinic with vague complaints such as headaches and stomach aches.

Many low-income and diverse student learners soon will have principals and superintendents who are better prepared to address their specific learning needs, thanks to a $730,000 grant to The University of Texas at Austin’s University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA).

Seven new department chairs have been appointed in the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin this fall.