Signing to change the world. The November signing of a dual-degree agreement with the Universidad de las Americas in Puebla, Mexico, marked another footprint as TCU steps across cultural and geographic boundaries. The agreement, signed by UDLA Academic Vice Rector Jorge Welti and TCU Chancellor Michael R. Ferrari, allows students from the two universities to earn degrees in communication from both institutions simultaneously. As part of the program, students spend one of their upper-class years at the sister school.

Critical care. “We’re looking at a shortage of more than 400,000 nurses by the year 2020,” nursing workforce scholar Peter Buerhaus told a crowd gathered for the keynote speech during the Lucy Harris Linn Institute in November. “This is really a social problem, one the profession alone cannot solve.” This shortage will occur when the first of the 78 million baby boomers begin to retire and have greater health care needs, Buerhaus said government should assist by offering greater economic incentives to prospective students.

One tuition fits all. The TCU Board of Trustees executive committee approved in February a new pricing structure that better aligns TCU with other prominent private universities and reflects the value of the complete “TCU experience,” said Chancellor Michael R. Ferrari. Beginning Fall 2001 with entering students, tuition and fees will be covered by a single, inclusive tuition and university fee charge of $7,500 per semester.

The advantages to the new pricing structure, Ferrari said, include a higher four-year graduation rate, a major goal of all private institutions. The single-fee pricing structure also encourages students to explore a wider variety of courses and subjects without the barrier of significant added costs. The comprehensive fee also follows sound admissions practices by more clearly informing parents and students from the outset the cost of a TCU education.

“Nearly all private universities in the United States offer a semester fee pricing structure to reflect the complete experience of private higher education, which takes place both in and out of the classroom,” he said. “At TCU, the total experience is an uncommon balance of four factors.

“First, TCU offers the strengths and choices of a major university tempered with the true humanity of a small college.

“Second, TCU is a friendly, caring community where our faculty are teacher-scholars who conduct and publish research, but focus primarily upon teaching and mentoring.

“Third, we have a special church relationship that does not seek to impose a particular religious point of view, but instead challenges students to consider what he or she believes. And fourth, we emphasize the development of the individual in a liberal arts based, global-minded curriculum. TCU students are learning to change the world.”