PRESS CLIPPINGS

William Fisher

University of Texas senior Thuan Phan switched majors from computer science to geological sciences, figuring the field trips would make it more fun. Now his degree turns out to be lucrative, too. "Big Oil" has been doing some big recruiting on U.S. campuses this year — as have many smaller companies in the petroleum and natural gas business. Phan accepted a $55,000-per-year offer in Houston at Schlumberger Ltd., an oilfield services firm. "The pay's really good, and it's just exciting," says Phan, who may pursue a master's degree while he works. Prominent geoscience programs, including those at Texas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Colorado School of Mines, are reporting more companies interviewing on campus. William Fisher, dean of UT's Jackson School of Geosciences, saw something this year he'd never seen before: a student got a signing bonus — for a summer internship. "My guess is the demand for geoscientists is roughly twice the supply," Fisher says.                 

The Washington Post
Big oil makes push in on-campus
recruiting (April 11) 

Joshua Howton has relied on loans, scholarships, and grants to pay for his five years at the University of Texas-Austin. But he has also put in long hours of hard work. "My family did not contribute to my education at all," says Howton, who will graduate this spring with a degree in communications. "By working, I was able to finance my living expenses and pay for books and clothes." With total costs expected to average $32,000 this fall at private schools (and roughly half that at in-state public universities), more and more students are working to help pay the bills. Take Howton, who doesn't simply answer phones or file papers at the University of Texas-Austin's career center. Over the past three years, he has designed and run advertising and marketing campaigns to draw more students to the center. After three years on the job, he now pulls in $10.50 an hour.

U.S. News and World Report
For many undergraduates, work is as much a part of the campus experience as cramming and pizza (April 17)  

High atop a desert ridge near this prim hamlet, South Africa has built a world-beater. The Southern African Large Telescope, inevitably known by the acronym SALT, promises to revolutionize astronomy in this part of the world. From the start, officials at Cape Town's South African Astronomical Observatory, which led the SALT project, decided to leverage every cent of their limited telescope budget to create spinoff benefits in both science and education. And rather than build a conventional single-mirror telescope, whose weight and complexity can lead to astronomical costs, the team copied a pioneering telescope, the Hobby-Eberly telescope, at the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas at Austin.                                                

The New York Times 
In South Africa, star telescope could stir young scholars (April 7)

As the early front-runner for the GOP nomination, Senator John McCain is no longer the outsider, nipping at the heels of his party's anointed presidential successor. He's the main show. The question is, can he maintain his image as a straight-talking maverick, with broad appeal to independents and some Democrats, even as he reaches out to religious conservatives and raises hackles on both the left and right with moves that his critics call "unprincipled"? "It seems what McCain is doing is the classic move that Richard Nixon patented — run right during the primaries, then run center for the general," says Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. "He's doing what he has to do. To a purist it doesn't smell right, but find me someone who hasn't done that who won."

The Christian Science Monitor
Political risk of John McCain's
rightward pitch (April 6)

In the wake of a series of gaffes this month involving incorrect scores on the SAT reasoning test, some students who are preparing to take the test on Saturday already are worried. And growing skepticism about the College Board's handling of the matter is prompting more colleges to consider making standardized test scores optional in admissions. College Board communications vice president Chiara Coletti says criticism was expected, but overall "people have been so kind and understanding, mothers and fathers and the kids." Others, too, say the College Board has acted appropriately. "It's not totally unexpected that, from time to time, when you use technology you're going to have glitches," says Bruce Walker, vice provost and director of admissions at the University of Texas in Austin. Even officials at rival testing company ACT agree. "Any time humans and machines are involved, an occasional error will occur," spokesman Ken Gullett says.

USA Today
SATs score big on headaches (March 27)

A study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that for children of obese parents, too much television watching may increase a child's risk of being overweight. "You can't think about the impact of television and obesity as uniform for all children," study author Dr. Elizabeth A. Vandewater, of the University of Texas at Austin, told Reuters Health. "Television viewing becomes a real risk in adolescence among kids who are at familial risk of obesity."  Thus, reducing television time to combat a child's overweight risk may only be effective for some youngsters.

Reuters news service
TV time linked to overweight risk
for some kids (April 17)