Kevin O’Connor Kommentary January 15

Filing Deadline Is Approaching For College Station And Bryan City Council And School Board Elections

The deadline is approaching to file in November’s College Station and Bryan city council and school board elections. As of Friday, August 16 at 5:200 p.m. There are three contested races for College Station city council. Seeking the place three seat are David White and Valen Cepak. Linda Harvell is not eligible to run again for the place three seat due to term limits. Seeking the place four seat are Aron Collins and Craig Regan. Running for re-election in place five is incumbent Bob Yancy. Seeking the place six seat are Tre Watson and Scott Shafer. Dennis Maloney is not eligible to run again for the place six seat due to term limits. On Friday afternoon (August 16), Craig Regan switched his candidacy from the College Station council’s place six to the place four position. The switch came after Shafer filed for the place six position. Click HERE to be directed to the city of College Station elections webpage. All four incumbent Bryan city council members have filed for re-election. Three of the incumbents have opposition. Incumbent Jared Salvato filed for re-election to single member district three. Incumbent James Edge, who has filed for single member district four, is opposed by Shane Savage. Incumbent Marca Ewers-Shurtleff, who has filed for single member district five, is opposed by Patrick Giammalva. Incumbent Kevin Boriskie, who has filed for the city-wide at-large position, is opposed by Justin Wager. Click HERE to be directed to the city of Bryan elections webpage. One person has filed for the College Station ISD school board. Darin Paine is seeking his second term as the at large place one member. Kristin Wilson has filed for the at large place two position. Click HERE to be directed to the College Station ISD elections website. Two people have filed for Bryan ISD school board. David Stennis has filed for the district wide at large seat. Ruthie Waller is seeking her fourth term representing BISD’s single member district four. Click HERE to be directed to the Bryan ISD elections website. The filing period continues through August 19th.

Arrest Made This Week From Gunfire At Two Local Residences In March

College Station police arrest a 17 year old Bryan man on charges of firing a gun inside a College Station apartment, then 90 minutes later firing a gun outside a Bryan residence. Jaylen Workman, who was picked up on Wednesday (August 14), remains jailed as of August 16th on charges of deadly conduct and evidence tampering from the gunfire that took place the early morning hours of March 11th. No one was hit by the gunfire at either location. The CSPD arrest report says nine people were inside the College Station apartment. The five month investigation by CSPD detectives included obtaining information from phone calls made from jail, along with text messages and social media posts. Workman is held in lieu of bonds totaling $70,000 dollars.

Eight Texas A&M “Schools” Are Now Called “Colleges”

Texas A&M issues a news release reminding everyone that name changes of eight academic units from schools to colleges are now in effect. The name change was brought up by president Mark Welsh during remarks to the university community last November. Click below to hear comments from Mark Welsh on November 29, 2023:   The name changes, which became official on Thursday (August 15), followed A&M getting approval last April from the Texas higher education coordinating board in April. The name changes reverses decisions made by former president Katherine Banks in December 2021. News release from Texas A&M: Texas A&M University is officially changing the names of eight academic units from “school” to “college,” following approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board earlier this year. The change, which goes into effect Aug. 15, was announced by Texas A&M Provost and Executive Vice President Dr. Alan Sams in an email to faculty. All seven units that transitioned to using the “school” label during the university’s academic realignment in 2022 will return to their prior status as colleges. In addition, the School of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts — created during the same realignment — will become the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts. “I appreciate your patience with the phased transitions as we graduated students this summer under the outgoing names so that we begin the fall semester with the now fully transitioned colleges,” Sams said in the email. The updated names of all affected units are as follows: • College of Architecture • College of Education and Human Development • College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences • College of Medicine • College of Dentistry • College of Nursing • Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy • College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts Among other changes approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences degree program will return to the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences after being moved under the College of Arts and Sciences during the 2022 realignment.