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Issue 127, Volume 75
thedailycougar.com
UH opens Education dean steps down to teach Wimpelberg says campus in college has come a long Humble way since he took over gg
By Michael Baerga The Daily Cougar
By Nzinga Tchameni The Daily Cougar
The UH System is offering Houston’s northwest region a new distance program for students in the Humble area. UH signed a five-year leasing agreement with Lone Star College on March 25 to utilize 41,500 square feet of classroom space at the Lone Star College -University Park campus. Rent for the space has been fixed at $674,375 annually. “I’m so excited that the UH system is coming to a campus that is actually accessible to me,” Lone Star College communication junior Dustin Burke said. “When I first entered college, I wanted to originally attend the UH School of Communication, but since it was way too far outside of my area, I just decided to attend a closer college.” This new addition to the University will provide more accessible higher education to current UH commuter students who travel from the Tomball and northwest region of Houston and students who attend community colleges in the area. “To wake up three hours prior to my class’s start time to beat traffic and handle the parking situation in the morning is ridiculous, but I’m willing to make this sacrifice for the degree plans offered at UH,” dance senior Christina Pratts said. According to a 2009 poll conducted by the UH Office of Institutional Research, an estimated 32 percent of the student body live outside of Harris County. “This seems like a great idea for the extension of the University. I feel as though I will be able to get the same teachers and classes from a higher level college such as UH,” theater senior Yahute Casteneda said. “My only concern is geared towards transferring credits between universities.” The signing of this lease will bridge the curriculum provided at UH and UH-Downtown to the Lone Star College-University Park campus and make UH degree programs adaptable and available to out-of-district students so that they may graduate with a UH diploma. The curriculum provided includes professional certifications, undergraduate
After a decade of serving as the dean of the College of Education, Robert Wimpelberg will be stepping down. Wimpelberg’s decision to step down from the administrative position is motivated by his desire to contribute to the College as a faculty member. “I’m highly interested in joining faculty for the first time,” said Wimpelberg, who will leave his post Sept. 1. “Primarily, I want to spend more time on a project that I have gotten more and more involved with. It is a project around the idea of developing kids and youth.” The project is called “C3 Alliance: Cradle to College and Career,” and it will involve working with the community and getting community-wide stakeholders committed to helping raise children. It is expected to launch June 2. Wimpelberg said the aim of this initiative is not to provide
see LONE STAR, page 3
steven oster The houstonian
College of Education Dean Robert Wimpelberg will step down Sept. 1 to become part of the UH faculty and to focus on a project titled “C3 Alliance: Cradle to College and Career.” a single solution to the varying educational issues found in different communities, but rather to provide continuous quality improvement through the use of data.
“We are doing this work in Houston, in a kind of hub-andspokes model, so that we have a central group driving the whole thing that is being co-chaired by Renu Khator,” Wimpelberg said.
In addition to working as director of this initiative, Wimpelberg plans to remain in the domain of educational leadership see DEAN, page 3
Students weigh in on transferring process By Paulette Ehmer The Daily Cougar For many students, transferring to a campus as large as UH is both exciting and intimidating. The last thing a new student wants or expects is the unnecessary frustration that can stem from delayed or halted transcript evaluations. Transfer students generally expect to receive credits for grades
they have earned from other colleges and to have the ability to view how these credits have been applied, yet this is not always the case. Transferring from three different colleges, Adrienne Tran said it has taken a long time to have her transcripts evaluated. “Sometimes when I called they said they didn’t have it, or they couldn’t find it,” she said. “So I walked it in and gave it to them, and
when I would call back they would still say, ‘Oh, we don’t have it.’” Many students have the misconception that sending both a paper copy and an electronic version of their transcripts will expedite the process; this is a fallacy. According to the Office of Registration and Academic Records, students are required to submit official transcripts to UH. Photocopies, faxes and Web
printouts are not accepted. Students should request that their previous institutions send all transcripts to UH electronically, as these types of submissions result in a speedier evaluation and turn around. There is no set processing time for transcript evaluation because the processing times of all transcripts vary depending upon application and admission see TRANSFER, page 3
UH organization receives $100k in scholarships By Neal Dasgupta The Daily Cougar The National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program awarded $100,000 in scholarships to the UH teachHouston program, which focuses on attracting aspiring math and science teachers to public classrooms. Mathematics majors Maria Gonzales and Maria Martinez, biology student Maria Villegas,
and biochemistry major Keri King received the Noyce scholarships, each for $10,000. King also received the award in 2009. “TeachHouston has been a wonderful experience. It’s benefitted me in preparing me for a classroom right from the start,” King said. “Being able to enter the classroom and learn the ins and outs of lesson planning, classroom management and seeing learning theory come to life in the
classrooms (has) been the best part.” The teachHouston program is modeled after the University of Texas at Austin’s UTeach program. One of its goals is to provide urban-area schools with secondary teaching personnel while giving its students in-classroom teaching experience. Martinez said the program keeps her focused as she finishes her final semester. “After graduation, my choice
was to work in a high-needs school, even if I wasn’t awarded the Noyce scholarship,” Martinez said. “Education, for me, means everything, and because this is my last full semester, I wanted to put more focus on my studies.” Over the past two years, teachHouston students have received more than $100,000 in scholarships from the Noyce program. see TEACH, page 3