🆕 New Sixth Street designs

📰 City Staffers Have Been Playing Constituent Bingo at Meetings

A former city council staffer revealed to KXAN that the people who work for Austin City Council members play bingo during monthly meetings. Bingo categories have included: “Odd analogy,” “MAGA hat,” and, “police budget too small.” [KXAN]

🤔 Austin’s Growth Is Slowing

More and more people are leaving Austin and the number of new residents has also decreased in recent years. With new state laws affecting the lives of transgender Texans and women, many are beginning to wrestle with the question: Should I stay or should I go? [City Cast Austin 🎧]

🙏 3 New Sixth Street Designs Released

As the city continues its work to revamp Sixth Street downtown, officials are asking Austinites for their opinions on three new road designs. You can fill out a survey with your thoughts through Oct. 19. [KVUE]

🚒 Firefighter Contract at an Impasse

Contract negotiations between the city and the Austin Firefighters Association, the department’s union, have stalled out just days before the deadline to OK a new labor contract, after the union said a city offer wouldn’t give all firefighters wage increases. [KUT]

It can often seem like The University of Texas at Austin is king when it comes to higher education in Austin.

With the start of football season, focus on UT is at an all-time high. So, I figured it would be a great time for a refresher on some of the other colleges and universities we have that sometimes get forgotten in the sea of burnt orange. (Not mentioned here but also in our backyard: The 2-year-old University of Austin.)

Huston Tillotson University

Not only is Huston-Tillotson University Austin's only HBCU (Historically Black College or University, it’s also the oldest institution of higher learning in the city! The 19-acre campus is just off Seventh Street in East Austin and it’s beautiful.

Students can get undergraduate, four-year degrees in business, education, the humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, science, and technology. They also have an MBA, MEd, and adult continuing education programs. Basic tuition will run you $7,623 per semester and they have several scholarship and financial aid options.

My favorite cool thing about HT is its First Year Experience Program, designed to help their first-year students. They offer programming, internships, volunteer opportunities, and peer learning coaches to help students transition to HT. HT really seems to want to start students off on the right foot, which you don’t see in many universities.

St. Edward’s University

Nestled on a hill off South Congress Avenue is St. Edward’s University. The beautiful 160-acre campus was founded in 1885 and is a predominantly liberal arts school with programs in arts and humanities, behavioral and social science, natural sciences, business, and health sciences. There are 55 undergraduate programs, seven master’s degree programs, and a doctorate program.

They have all kinds of awards and recognitions, but what I think is the coolest is St. Edward’s is one of just 39 institutions in the U.S., to be recognized as an organization with a mission to accelerate Latino student success in higher education.

Now, in all honesty, the tuition is steep. Base tuition is $25,495, BUT with grants and scholarships you can get that down to $12,708 and 96% of their first year students receive those grants and scholarships.

My favorite cool thing about St. Edward’s University is its eight dimensions of wellbeing: intellectual, social, emotional, physical, financial, spiritual, environmental and vocational. Everything I’ve read drives home that they really invest in the wellbeing of their students and who doesn’t love that?