Texas Senate Staffers Learn About UT Dallas

From left: UT Dallas students Murtaza Joher, Victoria Solis, Karina Vazirova and Igor Shneider; Senate Education Committee staffers Susie Strzelec and Von Byer; and UT Dallas students Molly Wurzer and Jessie Harpham.

UT Dallas recently hosted key staff members from the Texas Senate Education Committee for a day of campus briefings and tours.

Capitol staffers Von Byer, committee director for the Senate Education Committee, and Susie Strzelec, higher education policy analyst for Sen. Florence Shapiro, visited the University on April 1 to learn more about its programs and its strategic efforts to become one of the nation’s top public research universities.

After an admissions and financial aid discussion with university executives, Mr. Byer and Ms. Strzelec had the opportunity to visit with UT Dallas innovators such as Dr. Ray Baughman, director of the Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute at UT Dallas; and Dr. Tom Linehan, the director of the Institute for Interactive Arts and Engineering.

They also toured the Natural Science and Engineering Research Laboratory (NSERL) and had lunch with President David Daniel and Vice Presidents Amanda Rockow and Susan Rogers. 

A group of students met with the Austin visitors to discuss the reasons they elected to enroll in UT Dallas and their plans for the future.  The visit concluded with a presentation at the Center for BrainHealth.

The University will continue to work with these key staff members before and during the 81st Texas Legislature, which will convene in January 2009.

Media contacts: Jenni Huffenberger, UT Dallas, (972) 883-4431, jennib@utdallas.edu;
Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, newscenter@utdallas.edu