POPULAR CHOICE. UTA set an all-time high for enrollment last fall with 25,297 students, surpassing the previous record of 25,135 in fall 1991. Over the past five years, the number of students choosing UTA soared by more than 33 percent. “After five years of dramatic enrollment increases, the University took important steps to better manage growth while strengthening the profile of the student body through higher admission standards for last fall’s entering freshmen,” said Provost Dana Dunn. At the MavsMeet Fall Convocation, President James D. Spaniolo welcomed “the best freshman class ever,” announcing that more than 20 percent of new freshmen graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school classes and 58 percent graduated in the top quarter.

GOING PUBLIC. Bob Wright, former director of communications for the Texas A&M University System, was named director of the Office of Public Affairs in November. Prior to his position in College Station, Wright was executive director of media relations at Southern Methodist University for five years and the director of college relations for the North Harris Montgomery Community College District in Houston for five years. He has worked in news management at NBC, ABC and CBS affiliates in Abilene, Beaumont/Port Arthur and Houston and since 1990 has been a corporate media communications instructor and consultant for The Ammerman Experience in Houston, one of the nation’s premier corporate communications counseling firms.

VICTORY LANE. UTA’s Formula SAE racing team recently took first place at the first international competition in Japan for student-designed, -built and -raced cars. The three-day meet featured 25 teams from Japanese universities, plus one from Leeds University in the United Kingdom, one from Yeungnum University in Korea and UTA. Scoring was based on several factors. In the static category, cars were evaluated for technical and safety aspects, design and a cost and manufacturing analysis, plus an oral presentation by team members. In the dynamic category, cars were judged for acceleration, handling on a skid pad, endurance, fuel economy and performance through an autocross.

WINNING ACTS. Theatre arts Professor Andrew Gaupp recently received the 2004 Molly Risso Outstanding University Faculty Award from the Southwest Theatre and Film Association. The SWTFA is a six-state professional organization serving theater artists and educators. It also presented Gaupp a Presidential Citation for extraordinary service to the organization. His wife, theatre arts Adjunct Instructor Natalie Gaupp, recently won first place in the Southwest Theatre Association’s 2004 National New Plays Contest for her full-length play Some of These Days.

MORE PUB FOR STUDENT PUBS. UTA’s student newspaper, The Shorthorn, in September was named the best college newspaper in the Texas-Oklahoma-Louisiana-Arkansas region by the Southwestern Journalism Congress. The award was presented at the SWJC’s annual convention. Renegade, UTA’s student magazine, was named best college magazine in the nation by the Society of Professional Journalists; the winning issue was the first issue, published in May 2003.

WELCOME HOME, BUBBA. School of Architecture students won the design competition sponsored by the Texas Society of Architects and judged at the TSA convention in October. The team of Ronnie Parson, Marcus McKenzie, Jane Teplitskaya, Tania Nuñez and Michael Garrett, with professors Steve Quevedo and Anthony Cricchio as advisers, competed against teams from the other seven architecture schools in Texas in the design of a marketplace facility in Houston. The competition trophy, the “Bubba Cup,” travels to the winning school for the year.

BEST IN TEXAS. UTA graduates had the highest passing rate among Texas universities with at least 10 candidates taking the new certified public accountant (CPA) examination. The Texas State Board of Public Accountancy recently released its analysis of candidate success rates for the April/May 2004 testing window. UTA candidates posted a success rate of 32.2 percent. The state average was 20.6 percent.