INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – St. Edward's University Athletics has been named a recipient of the Presidents' Award for Academic Excellence for the second year in a row, as announced by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on Thursday.

Forty-two Division II member schools are recipients of the Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence, presented to member schools earning an Academic Success Rate of 90% or higher. St. Edward’s is the only Lone Star Conference school to earn the distinction.

The award is presented to Division II schools earning an academic success rate of 90% or higher. The Hilltoppers produced a four-year academic success rate of 91%.

St. Edward's is the only Division II school in the state of Texas and the Lone Star Conference to achieve an academic success rate of 90% or higher.

"Our student-athletes are leaders on this campus," St. Edward's Associate Vice President for Athletics Debbie Taylor said. "This award is another opportunity to show that our student-athletes are committed to their academic performance as much as their performance in athletic competition. We are committed to providing the highest levels of support to our student-athletes in both arenas."

The academic success rate is the percentage of student-athletes who graduate within six years of initial collegiate enrollment.

For Division II graduation rates, the NCAA in 2006 developed the academic success rate (ASR), which is similar to the Division I graduation success rate (GSR) but also includes freshmen who did not receive athletics aid but did participate in athletics.

By Jena Heath, associate dean at the School of Arts & Humanities at St. Edward's University

AUSTIN, Texas — So much about this election year has been bizarre and unprecedented, but one thing remained the same: I spent hours crushing the dreams of friends and family from around the country by telling them that, no, red-hot Texas wouldn’t go blue.

I shouted into a gale force wind of speculation from pundits in and outside the state, powered by hopeful polls and statements like these: “Texas is competitive this year, and it’s much more competitive than we’ve seen for 20 years.” (James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin). "Turnout is completely unprecedented, and you better bet that the folks who are turning out are not turning out to keep the status quo.” (Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo). "Hell yes." (Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Manny Garcia, asked whether this was the year Texas would go blue.)

Friends in New York, where I grew up, were surprised when I told them that a state they regard as redeemable if only folks here will see things their way ... just don’t. At least not yet.

Texas is changing but still conservative

It gave me no pleasure to be right. President Donald Trump handily won the state’s 38 electoral votes. Texans returned Republican John Cornyn to the U.S. Senate. 

The chorus of hopeful voices predicting that Democrats would pick up anywhere from nine seats in the state House, which they needed to take the majority, to an outlandish 16 seats, was snuffed out. When legislators return to Austin in January, Republicans will hold 83 seats and Democrats 67, the same partisan split as two years ago. Democrats gained one seat in the state Senate, but Republicans still hold an 18-13 majority. All statewide offices are still held by Republicans.

I moved to Austin from Washington, D.C., in 2002 after traveling the country covering George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign and then covering him at the White House. Before that, I reported in North Carolina, where I lived in Raleigh and covered the statehouse, and I have watched from afar as Republican dominance has become entrenched there. It was no surprise that my former home also went for Trump, its swing state status swinging to the Republicans in five out of the past six presidential elections. 

My experience living in two capitals in states that are changing but still essentially conservative has taught me that sweeping predictions are perilous. Change may well be coming to Texas, but it will arrive step by step, one forward, one back, a reality the hyperbole obscured. The Trump signs just a one-hour drive in any direction from the liberal capital of Austin — including Johnson City, the childhood home of Democratic titan Lyndon B. Johnson — were a reminder for anybody who needed one.

Longtime Democratic stalwarts understand this reality. My neighbor, a 70-something lifelong Democrat who served as the elected Travis County tax assessor-collector, never stops sending fundraiser invites for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot. A well-qualified and highly respected district court judge ran for chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court this cycle. The uphill, losing battle was a step in the march toward the someday of having just one Democrat on the state’s highest court.

Nothing to lose:I'm from Texas and here's my advice for Democrats: Go for it.

There are reasons to be hopeful, but it’s important to analyze them without seizing on hope over experience. For each step forward, there is a step back:

►Trump’s margin of victory — 52.1% to 46.5% — shrank from 2016, when he beat Hillary Clinton by 9 points. That said, the softened support at the top of the ballot did not translate to great gains for down-ballot Democrats.

►Democrats held on to Hispanic and Latino voters in South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas-Mexico border. That said, the margin was less than half of Clinton’s in 2016 (my husband, a Texas native and longtime politics reporter, groused that the constant texts asking for money should have been parlayed into on-the-ground, if socially distanced, campaigning in this important region for Democrats). 

Trump and GOP dominate rural Texas

►Joe Biden won the state’s four major metropolitan areas — Bexar, Dallas, Harris and Travis counties — and picked up the last Republican urban stronghold, Tarrant County. He also won the suburban counties of Hays and Williamson, outside of Austin. The last Democrat to carry any of these three counties was Johnson, in 1964. That said, these victories did not overtake Trump’s overwhelming dominance in rural Texas.

►The state’s population is continuing to shift from rural to more urban and suburban. But whether this shift is moving fast enough to pay off for the next Democratic presidential candidate remains an open question.

Real working class voted Biden:Republicans as a multicultural working class party? That's Trump-level delusional thinking.

►Voter turnout was dramatic, but it didn’t translate to big wins for Democrats. Smarting from 2018, when Democrats took 12 seats in the Texas House and two seats in the Texas Senate and almost lost Sen. Ted Cruz’s seat, Republicans came roaring back.

►Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to extend early voting probably benefited Democrats. At the same time, the abolition of the one-punch straight ticket voting likely worked to the advantage of some Republican legislative candidates, encouraging voters who were wary of Trump to reject him but say yes to them.

I have come to love Texas, and I am rooting for it to become a more equitable place. I want to stop grinding my teeth over the woefully underfunded public schools and having the highest percentage of residents without health insurance. Will that day be closer four years from now when my phone starts buzzing with questions about a Democratic presidential candidate winning the day?

Maybe, but I’m not betting the farm on it.

Jena Heath is an associate dean at the School of Arts & Humanities at St. Edward's University, an associate professor of Journalism and Digital Media and coordinator of the Journalism and Digital Media program. Previously, she was reporter who covered cops, courts, local and state government, and the 2000 Bush campaign and White House. Follow her on Twitter: @JenaHeath2

This op-ed first appeared in USA Today.

Washington, D.C. — Richard Kopec, professor of Computer Science and Chemistry at St. Edward’s University, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as a AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

This year, 489 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. 

This year’s AAAS Fellows will be formally announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on 27 Nov. 2020. A virtual Fellows Forum — an induction ceremony for the new Fellows — will be held on Feb.13, 2021.

As part of the AAAS Education section, Richard Kopec was elected as an AAAS Fellow for distinguished contributions to transforming institutional STEM curricula and for leadership in the STEM institutional change community.

Kopec has received three grants from the National Science Foundation since 2010, which so far have collectively resulted in nine publications. Through these grants, Kopec has designed and implemented several projects intended to recruit and retain STEM majors, particularly students from underrepresented groups.

Kopec holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry/Chemical Physics (minor in Physics) and a master’s degree in Computer Science. He has served as a member of the faculty in the School of Natural Sciences for 35 years, serving as dean and associate dean of Natural Sciences, director of Undergraduate Research, chair of Computer Science and Forensic Science, coordinator of general education science, president of the faculty senate, and PI for several National Science Foundation grants over the years from CCLI, GOALI, STEP, S-STEM and IUSE, plus grant awards from other sources. He has participated in numerous professional development workshops and has presented in several venues, including the World Council on Curriculum and Instruction (WCCI), SIGCSE, American Chemical Society, and First Year Engineering Experience (FYEE) conferences. Kopec co-authored a textbook on computer science. He served as a mentor for the PKAL Summer Leadership Institute in 2015 and 2016.  He also served as section secretary for the San Antonio section of the ACS.

The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Currently, members can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by the steering groups of the association’s 24 sections, or by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members (so long as two of the three sponsors are not affiliated with the nominee’s institution), or by the AAAS chief executive officer. Fellows must have been continuous members of AAAS for four years by the end of the calendar year in which they are elected. The AAAS Fellow honor comes with an expectation that recipients maintain the highest standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity.

Each steering group reviews the nominations of individuals within its respective section and a final list is forwarded to the AAAS Council, which votes on the aggregate list.

The council is the policymaking body of the association, chaired by the AAAS president, and consisting of the members of the board of directors, the retiring section chairs, delegates from each electorate and each regional division, and two delegates from the National Association of Academies of Science.

AAAS encourages its sections and Council to consider diversity among those nominated and selected as Fellows, in keeping with the association’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.  

# # #

 About St. Edward’s University:

St. Edward’s University is a private, liberal arts university in the Catholic, Holy Cross tradition with approximately 4,000 students. Located in Austin, Texas, it is one of the top universities in Texas and offers more than 50 undergraduate and 10 graduate programs. With a network of partner universities around the world, St. Edward’s delivers a premier, highly personalized education that helps students explore their own transformational pathways to knowledge, experience, understanding and success. St. Edward’s has been recognized for 18 consecutive years as one of “America’s Best Colleges” by U.S. News & World Report and holds the #8 spot among Best Regional Universities in the West in the U.S. News 2020 and 2021 rankings. For more information on St. Edward’s, visit stedwards.edu/about.

* * *

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science, as well as Science Translational Medicine; Science Signaling; a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances; Science Immunology; and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes more than 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement, and more. For additional information about AAAS, see www.aaas.org.