A team of researchers led by Zhifeng Ren, director of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH, has reported an oxygen evolving catalyst that takes just minutes to grow at room temperature and is capable of efficiently producing both clean drinking water and hydrogen from seawater.

FEATURED ARTICLES

Five Foundations Team Up to Help Regional Partners Address Challenges Facing Students in the Gulf Coast
UH has been awarded $900,000 in grants to launch the Houston Guided Pathways to Success (Houston GPS) equity initiative—Equity Walk: Building a Postsecondary Blueprint for Equity in the Texas Gulf Coast Region. This new initiative will help institutions go from just talking about the barriers that lead to inequitable student outcomes to taking actions aimed at dismantling those barriers.  

UH Special Collections Receives ‘Prince of Players’ Gift
UH Libraries received a gift from opera composer Carlisle Floyd to UH Special Collections. The former Moores School of Music professor’s gift of the Prince of Players score and accompanying materials coincides with two 2021 Grammy nominations for Best Opera Recording and Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Floyd debuted Prince of Players at Houston Grand Opera in 2016.

Applications Open for Elizabeth D. Rockwell Conference Funding Program
Applications for the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Conference Program are now being taken for the 2021-22 academic year, including the summer of 2022. The $25,000 award is open to a UH faculty member, a group of faculty members, or a department or college to organize a conference on some area of ethics and leadership. The deadline for submission of awards is April 1. 

Faculty Fellows Program Accepting Applications
Applications for Faculty Fellows are now being taken for the 2021-22 academic year. Sponsored by the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Center on Ethics and Leadership at the Hobby School of Public Affairs, the Faculty Fellows program buys out one course each for two UH faculty members to conduct research on ethics and/or leadership during the 2021-22 year. Faculty Fellows will be expected to present their work during the year in the faculty seminar series and participate in other EDR Center events. The deadline for submission is March 15.

FEATURED EVENT

La Cenerentola (Cinderella)
Friday, Jan, 29 and Sunday, Jan 31
Moores Opera Center presents Rossini’s comic retelling of the Cinderella story. The performance will also be live-streamed for our patrons and supporters who prefer to enjoy the concert from the comfort and safety of their home. Performance take place at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 29 and at 2 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 31.

Grant Writing Workshop
Thursday, Feb. 11 
The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences invites the UH community to a grant writing workshop with National Endowment for the Humanities Deputy Director Russell Wyland. During the session, participants can learn and ask questions about grant opportunities with the National Endowment for the Humanities. The session begins at 4 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 11. Preregistration is required.

Note: Views expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Houston.

Inside Higher Ed

Land-Grant Universities Tell Congress They Lost $17 Billion During Pandemic
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ 199 public research universities have lost $17.7 billion in revenues during the pandemic and had to spend another $3.1 billion to take safety measures last fall. However, they have only received $5.7 billion in help from the CARES Act and the COVID relief package approved in December, the association wrote members of Congress on Tuesday, asking for more aid.

Higher Ed Dive 

Will More Public Colleges Freeze Tuition for Next Year?
The California State University system is freezing tuition for the 2021-22 academic year, Chancellor Joseph Castro said this week. Cal State will join several other public institutions that aren't raising tuition during the pandemic, but higher education experts say colleges in budget-strapped states may struggle to take this approach.

Chronicle of Higher Education    

The Heavy Cost of an Empty Campus
Nearly a year has passed since COVID-19 tore up higher education’s playbook, and the ghosts of past decisions are haunting its leaders. Just as the pandemic laid bare longstanding health and economic disparities in the United States, it has exposed the ramifications of choices made by flagship universities as they responded to years of state disinvestment.

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