Texas Tidbits

TBM volunteers describe the activity of God. God has honored Texas Baptist Men volunteers in recent months by using them to bring people to Christ, speakers reported at a TBM Rally held at Second Baptist Church in Amarillo on the eve of the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting. Ralph Rogers, a member of Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo, said the church's disaster relief teams have served in a number of places, including Amarillo, Possum Kingdom, Bastrop, Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Minot, S.D. More than 4,000 homes were affected by flooding in Minot, and Paramount mud-out teams served for 30 days there, assessing damage, cleaning homes, praying with victims and sharing the gospel where possible.

HSU holds line on tuition. Hardin-Simmons University trustees voted to keep tuition for new incoming full-time or part-time students at the current $715 per semester hour rate. The action represents a double-freeze, HSU Vice President for Enrollment and Marketing Management Shane Davidson noted. "No. 1, tuition will not go up for freshmen and transfers, and No. 2, students can lock in the rate as long as they remain full-time students," he said. Since the fall 1993 semester, HSU students have been able to lock in their freshman tuition rate until they graduate and may continue at the same rate even in master's-level classes. Some current students studying for their master's degrees still are paying the $535 per semester hour tuition rate they paid in 2007, Davidson noted.

Elshtain joins Baylor institute. Jean Bethke Elshtain, recent recipient of the Democracy Service Medal from the National Endowment for Democracy, has joined the Baylor University faculty as visiting distinguished professor of religion and public life at Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion. Elshtain—a prolific author—also serves as the Laura Spelman Rockefeller professor of social and political ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Elshtain is a past recipient of the Goodnow Award, the highest honor bestowed by the American Political Science Association for distinguished service to the profession. She has served on the board of the National Humanities Center and on the President's Council of Bioethics. Currently, she is a member of the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Scholars Council of the Library of Congress. At Baylor, Elshtain will conduct and produce new scholarship about the intersection of religion and public life, working alongside faculty as well as undergraduate and graduate students from political science, philosophy and the Honors College.