Summary
The US onAir Network will be working with volunteers from Texas universities, colleges, and nonprofit organizations to oversee the curation and moderation of posts, aircasts (online discussions), and in person events for the Texas onAir Hub … related to federal, state, and local elections and government.
Our first outreach will be to University of Texas partly because of its proximity to the state capital. We have identified many of University of Texas’ civic engagement, academic, internship and research programs related to making democracy and civic responsibility a focus of higher learning on their campus … for students, faculty, staff, and local community. This post, over time, will have similar information on other collaborating organizations in the state.
Contact ben.murphy@onair.cc for more information on how to involve your organization.
OnAir Post: Texas Universities
About
The University of Texas at Austin’s onAir chapter will initially focus on training interested undergrad and graduate students on how to curate Texas onAir content especially submitting Top News articles, events, videos, and information and moderating forums in each post they curate.
Student curators will also work with state senate and house committee chairs to produce aircasts on issues being discussed and bills being proposed in their committees.
During election season, students with other other organizations like the League of Women Voters, will coordinate and produce aircasted debates with candidates.
University of Texas Austin
Source: About Texas
The University of Texas at Austin, founded in 1883, ranks among the 40 best universities in the world. It supports some 51,000 diverse students with top national programs across 18 colleges and schools. And as Texas’ leading research university, UT attracts more than $650 million annually for discovery.
Leadership
Portrait of President Fenves in front of UT Tower
Meet the executive team that is leading our university to new heights and lifting Texas by giving bright students from every part of society a top academic experience.
Global
UT student in Mexico atop the Pyramid of the Sun
What starts here changes the world. And what happens around the world changes us. Explore opportunities to learn and make a difference, both here and abroad.
Diversity
Our university is dedicated to attracting highly qualified students, faculty and staff with a wide range of backgrounds, ideas and viewpoints.
Facts & Figures
Get the facts fast about our student body, rankings, academics, research, athletics and campus.
Partnerships
We’re stronger when we work together. That’s why Texas values partnerships in education, research and other service — partnerships with businesses, community groups and other non-profits to make an even bigger impact on our city, state and world.
Public-Private
UT in the Community
History
Nearly 140 years ago, The University of Texas at Austin opened with one building, eight professors, and 221 students. Today, UT ranks among the top 40 universities in the world. Here’s the short version of how that happened.
Traditions
Why burnt orange and white? Why a longhorn steer. And where did the name “Bevo” really come from? Texas is rich in traditions that tell the story of our past, even as our eyes are always on the future.
Civic Engagement Programs
Source: Civic Engagement Alliance
Facilitated by TX Votes, the CEA is a network of organizations, institutions, and departments on campus, partnered to increase voter registration and education on campus. Our goal is to aid each member organization in registering their members to vote, provide nonpartisan election information, and support any events centered around civic engagement.
We have an array of member organizations, some politically-inclined, some not. Along with student organizations, the CEA also includes institutional programs, like schools, official UT athletic teams, honors programs, etc.
LBJ School Civic Engagement Program
The LBJ School of Public Affairs prepares students to be thinkers and doers. As part of that mission, the Civic Engagement Program, launched in fall 2020, offers students semester-long structured opportunities to participate in service learning — experiential education that engages them in direct action in their communities to produce social good.
Student Government
Source: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS STUDENT GOVERNMENT
OUR MISSION
Student Government (SG) was established in 1902 to serve as the official voice of the student body at The University of Texas at Austin. All students-including undergraduate and graduate students-are members of Student Government.
Internships
Source: The Texas Politics Project
The Texas Politics Project at The University of Texas at Austin provides this public web service for students seeking political and government internships, and for employers seeking to locate student interns. Employers can follow the “Post an Internship” directions to a submission form that enables them to submit an internship to be posted on the website.
For more information about the Government Department Internship Program at the University of Texas at Austin and to find the application form necessary to enroll in the course, visit the Internships link at the UT Department of Government’s website, then apply for the program using the Qualtrics application form. Dr. James Henson directs the Texas Politics Project and the Government Department Internship Program.
Political Science Programs
Source: Department of Government
Undergraduate Programs
As one of the liberal arts, Government – also called political science – teaches students how to think and communicate about politics. A Government major can dissect and evaluate actual or proposed courses of political action by analyzing the evidence for and against them, setting them in historical and comparative perspective, and relating them to ends that are prized or feared.
Government majors learn the philosophical and practical underpinnings of democracy, they study the causes and consequences of authoritarian and revolutionary political regimes, and are steeped in how constitutional orders, political party and electoral systems, government bureaucracies, judiciaries, militaries, and other institutions of governance affect political outcomes. Most simply, Government majors comprehend in a sophisticated way how the powerful and the powerless fare in the maelstrom that is politics.
Concretely, a Government major is an intellectual jack-of-all trades who is fitted for any career that demands thought, analysis, reading, writing, and speaking about complex organizational and public matters. He or she can write a business memo, understand and evaluate a Supreme Court decision, analyze a chain of command, comprehend the impacts of government policies on public and private domains, and see how the private and the public are entwined in all modern societies. Armed with such knowledge and skills, Government majors go on to become leaders in many arenas – the law, a host of governmental and non-governmental organizations, academia, the media, the military, political parties, and a great many social and political movements.
Graduate Programs
At UT, graduate students quickly become an integral part of a vibrant intellectual community. The Department is home to an eclectic and excellent faculty, with interests and methodological approaches spanning the breadth of political science. In this rich and diverse environment, new graduate students soon find a congenial group of professors and fellow students, and a wide range of resources to ease their entry into academic life.
The diverse interests of faculty and students structure the intellectual life of the department. Incoming students may find a cluster of colleagues and faculty who are interested in how institutions support both democratic and undemocratic regimes, or in the politics of Latin America, or in constitutions and courts from around the world. They may join a very strong group of students and faculty who meet regularly to discuss classic works of political theory. Others may find common ground with those who study public policy or political behavior in the US and abroad; still others will fit into our close-knit group of students of international relations. These interlocking, informal working groups hold regular meetings and workshops where students, faculty, and visiting scholars present and discuss research in progress. These interactions contribute to an environment in which both students and faculty regularly publish, often as co-authors, in the profession’s leading presses and journals.
Research Initiatives
Source: Collaborative Research Projects
Comparative Constitutions Project | Constitute
The Comparative Constitutions Project (CCP) is directed by Zachary Elkins (University of Texas) and Tom Ginsburg (University of Chicago). The project produces comprehensive data about the world’s constitutions in order to understand the origins and consequences of constitutional choices, and to assist those revising constitutions. Since the project’s launch in 2005, the CCP has collected and analyzed thousands of constitutional texts, and produced a series of datasets that the researchers update continually. In 2013, CCP partnered with Google Ideas (now Jigsaw) to create Constitute, a website that contains a richly indexed set of texts for nearly every national constitution in the world.
Innovations for Peace and Development
Since January 2013, Innovations for Peace and Development has provided a space for interdisciplinary, policy-relevant research on global conflict and peacebuilding, foreign aid, and poverty alleviation at the University of Texas at Austin. IPD democratizes engagement in academic research and policy work for students at all stages of their university education, with particular emphasis on the recruitment and training of women and underrepresented groups. IPD students learn valuable skills, ranging from geographic information system (GIS) mapping to randomized experimental methods, as they work on collaborative research teams and manage their own projects.
