Compiled by Public Affairs Interns Nye Howard ’22 and Marissa Graf ’22.
International and National Media Highlight
Street Insider | September 2, 2020
The Business-to-Business-for-Employees travel management platform CWT announced a new operating structure aimed to accelerate innovation, transformation, and growth. With immediate effect, Michelle McKinney Frymire ’89 is appointed President of Strategy & Transformation and Chief Financial Officer.
Dallas and Regional News
NBC DFW| September 25, 2020
Chris Miller ’21 was diagnosed with COVID-19 on August 31 and developed a cascade of complications that left him unconscious and reliant on a ventilator. In recent days, he has made progress toward recovery.
Local Media Highlights
KXII News| October 22, 2020
To the cheers of nurses, doctors, and hospital staff who have been by his side since day one of his battle with COVID-19, 21-year-old senior Chris Miller ’21 is finally headed home.
Herald Democrat | September 29, 2020
An Austin College student is on the road to recovery following a month-long battle with COVID-19. Family members of senior Chris Miller ’21 said he has had positive progress in recent days.
KTEN News | September 30, 2020
A device typically used to treat drowning patients has saved the lives of COVID-19 patients at Texoma Medical Center in Denison, including Chris Miller ’21. After a period of relying on the device to breathe, Miller is in recovery. He was removed from the ECMO device and waved to his family for the first time in weeks.
KTEN News | September 14, 2020
Austin College student Chris Miller ’21 was hospitalized at Texoma Medical Center in late August after contracting COVID-19.
KTEN News | September 10, 2020
Just two weeks after ringing in the school year, Austin College reports that just 51 students and one employee have tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus—less than 4%. The administrators of the college said they were pleased with the slow escalation of cases.
KXII News| September 18, 2020
Twenty-one-year old Chris Miller ’21 was in critical condition in his fight with COVID-19. It all started when Miller told his family he noticed a loss of taste and smell.
KXII News | September 10, 2020
Austin College has been tracking COVID-19 cases on campus since the school year began. As a precaution, students and employees are required to screen themselves daily for Coronavirus symptoms through the Austin College mobile app.
Blogs and Online Media
Austin College News | September 30, 2020
Dr. Keith Kisselle, associate professor of biology and environmental science, will present “Threats to the Canadian Boreal Forest: My Sabbatical with the National Resources Defense Council” on October 7. The lecture is part of the Bernice S. Melvin Sabbatical Series hosted by the College’s Robert and Joyce Johnson Center for Faculty Development and Excellence in Teaching.
Austin College News | September 29, 2020
Senior Nancy Pineda-Gama ’21 of Dallas, Texas, has been awarded a IME BECAS/ HACEMOS Dallas Scholarship for this academic year. This prestigous scholarship is designed to assist Mexican students and/or students of Mexican origin residing in the United States who have displayed academic achievement, personal strength, and leadership.
Austin College News | September 9, 2020
Dr. Kevin Gannon, director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and history professor at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, presents the 2020 A.J. Carlson Lecture via Zoom. His lecture is titled “Hope Among the Hopeless: The Fierce Urgency of the Liberal Arts in a Time of Crisis.”
Cision PRWeb | September 3, 2020
U.S. Dermatology Partners is excited to welcome Dermatologist Dr. Arathi Ramamurthy Rana ’11 to its Sherman and Paris offices.
North Texas eNews| September 30, 2020
The fifth annual TEDxAustinCollege offers community and campus members a virtual opportunity to hear from this year’s speakers on a diverse mix of “ideas worth spreading.” Videos of the talks will be posted on TED.com, to be shared with viewers worldwide.
North Texas eNews | September 28, 2020
English Professor emeritus Dr. Jerry Lincecum recalls John Wayne’s last film, The Shootist (1976), and discusses Wayne’s appearance in over 170 films, which made him one of America’s biggest box office stars.
North Texas eNews | September 17, 2020
Environment Texas has again recognized Austin College for its commitment to renewable energy. The group recently released a report that lists Austin College as one of more than 40 colleges and universities around the country that have achieved 100% renewable energy use for its electrical needs.
North Texas eNews | September 11, 2020
Dr. Elena Olivé, Austin College Spanish professor, is one of 10 recipients around the world of the “Josep Maria Batista i Roca – Memorial Enric Garriga Trullols” Award from the Institut de Projecció Exterior de la Cultura Catalana (The Institute of Foreign Projection of Catalan Culture).
North Texas eNews | September 7, 2020
Dr. Jerry Lincecum explains that Americans began living longer in the 20th century, thanks to better sanitation and more effective vaccines and medicines, but growing old means an increased vulnerability to other ailments, such as heart disease and cancer. He questions the idea of being immortal and what that would mean to us as a society.
North Texas eNews | September 4, 2020
Dr. Greg Kinzer, Austin College English professor, has been appointed Dean of Humanities. The three divisions of Humanities, Sciences, and Social Sciences each have a dean appointed for a six-year term by the president upon advice from the vice president for Academic Affairs, who consults with each division’s faculty.
North Texas eNews | September 4, 2020
Austin College President Steven O’Day has announced that Gillian Grissom Locke ’07 is the college’s new vice president for Institutional Advancement. She had held the role of interim vice president for several months and had worked since 2016 as associate vice president for Institutional Advancement and executive director of leadership gifts.
The Observer| September 28, 2020
The Austin College community will have access to COVID testing beginning September 15, 2020. It will be mandatory for all students, faculty, and staff on campus.
The Observer| September 28, 2020
Austin College students, faculty, and staff are invited to participate in TEDxAustinCollege 2020 Seeing Beyond virtually or in-person in the newly renovated Sally and Jim Nation Theatre in Ida Green Communication Center.
The Observer | September 28, 2020
It is no surprise that this semester looks very different from the last one. Faces are covered by masks, hand sanitizer stations are everywhere, and student gatherings are few. The biggest difference of all might be the way students—and professors— learn.
The Observer| September 28, 2020
She is young, ambitious and goal-driven: Meet Amanda Handsbur, our new director of student activities at Austin College.
Texoma’s Homepage| September 17, 2020
One Wichita Falls man is closing the books on his 50 years as a local attorney. Price Smith ’65 started practicing law 50 years ago and he will bid farewell to the job he adores this October.
News ’Roos Can Use
Inside Higher Ed | September 22, 2020
Democrats in tight, key races in moderate states are shying away from supporting Joe Biden’s debt cancellation and free college plans. When they proposed last week that the next president knock $50,000 off all student loan borrowers’ debts, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren pitched the idea as a political winner for Democrats. A recent poll by a progressive think tank shows that “forgiving student debt is extraordinarily popular with voters and that it enjoys broad, bipartisan support,” Schumer, of New York, and Warren, of Massachusetts, wrote in a post on the site of the group Data for Progress.
Inside Higher Ed | September 21, 2020
Survey of Admissions Leaders: A Mess of a Year. Inside Higher Ed‘s 2020 Survey of College and University Admissions Officers was conducted in conjunction with researchers from Gallup. “These results confirm that 2020 will be a year that all of us in college admission will be happy to get through in one piece,” said David Hawkins, executive director for educational content and policy at the National Association for College Admission Counseling.