61° Fort Worth
All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

TCU 360

All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

Students discuss religious topics in a small group. (Photo courtesy of tcuwesley.org)
Wednesday nights at TCU’s Methodist campus ministry provide religious exploration and fellowship
By Boots Giblin, Staff Writer
Published Mar 27, 2024
Students at the Wesley said they found community on Wednesday nights.

Faculty Senate meets for first time

Faculty+Senate+meets+for+first+time

The university is working with the city of Fort Worth to put a traffic light at the intersection of Stadium and Bellaire drives.

"People disagree what sort of signal should be there, but we're working with them to figure out what our options are," Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Kathy Cavins-Tull said during the Faculty Senate meeting Thursday.

Concerns have been raised over the increased pedestrian traffic at the intersection because of the new residence halls in Worth Hills.

"We have a police officer out there everyday right now who is directing that traffic," Cavins-Tull said.

New housing figures show residence halls opened at 108 percent capacity, including the 400 new beds in Worth Hills, she said. 

The numbers swelled with 1,934 first year students, the largest entering class in TCU history, she said. 

"It's a good problem to have," Cavins-Tull said, "I've certainly been at universities on the other end of that."

On-campus housing will be in "ebb-and-flow" over the next few years with renovations, a multipurpose building to add more dining options, a parking garage and a third residence hall in Worth Hills, she said. 

In other business from the meeting, Cavins-Tull said TCU's internship scholarship program awarded about $2,000 each to 151 students who had unpaid summer internships.

Ed McNertney, an associate professor of economics, and Catherine Wehlburg, assistant provost of institutional effectiveness, discussed the status of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accreditation process.

The university's reaccreditation process hit a snag in the spring when the team reviewing TCU's performance said the university's program was not detailed enough.

TCU complied with 94 of the 98 minimum standards and sent back a response to SACS's recommendations last week, McNertney said.

Wehlburg said the university has refined its Quality Enhancement Plan or QEP.QEP is a new standard set by the SACS that requires universities to develop a plan that ensures an institution is focused on improving student learning and success.

The revised QEP title is "Discovering Global Citizenship: Building the Foundation for Comprehensive Internationalization."

Wehlburg hopes to implement measurements of qualities such as cultural empathy, the ability to discuss global issues, and responsible decision making across the student body.

"We're doing something others aren't doing, at least from a measurement perspective," said Wehlburg. 

More to Discover