UTA has selected Wayne Atchley to be the inaugural vice president for regional campuses, overseeing the development of UTA West and the Fort Worth Center, UTA announced in a press release Monday. Atchley previously worked as the vice president for academic affairs at Tarrant County College Trinity River and helped implement enrollment and academic advising initiatives at Tarleton State University, bringing over two decades of leadership in higher education. UTA president Jennifer Cowley said in the press release that Atchley is a highly respected educator with deep roots in West Fort Worth. “When I first met him, it was obvious to me that he has the connection and appreciation for that community, which is critical for building a solid foundation for the new UTA West and a vision for our UTA Fort Worth Center,” Cowley said. After breaking ground in April, UTA West is set to begin enrollment in 2028. The new campus will help UTA work toward its mission to provide students with affordable higher education, according to the press release. Atchley said in the press release that he is excited to have the opportunity to help shape the future of his hometown. “I am looking forward to leveraging UTA’s prestigious R1 status and excellent academic reputation to expand educational and workforce opportunities in west Fort Worth and Parker County,” he said. @wall035203 news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Dallas-Fort Worth residents can expect one more round of rain before hot and dry weather takes over for the rest of the week. Matt Stalley, National Weather Service lead meteorologist, said Tuesday brings about a 20% chance of rain showers. Temperatures are expected to rise steadily throughout the week. Highs will stay in the low-to-mid-90s during the middle of the week and could reach 98 or 99 degrees by the weekend. Looking ahead to next week, Stalley said the forecast doesn’t show any major changes, just continued heat and low rain chances. “It looks mostly hot and dry,” he said. @samip.parajuli.54 news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Arlington Mayor Jim Ross will be hosting a series of Town Hall meetings throughout the next six months to cover key updates around the city, starting Tuesday at the Bob Duncan Center. The Arlington Works public Town Hall meetings will cover several topics, including bond-funded projects, public safety and infrastructure investments and the city’s current and projected budget for fiscal years 2025 and 2026. The meetings take place from 6 to 8 p.m. and are free and open to the public. Mayor Ross said the meetings will be an attempt to bring everybody up to speed on what's happening in Arlington, from the city’s perspective. The series will provide a more community-centered, intimate approach in addition to Mayor Ross’s traditional State of the City address, according to a press release from the city. Residents will be able to ask questions and engage with city leaders after each meeting’s presentation. “It gives people, the average person in Arlington, an opportunity to question the mayor,” he said. “‘What's going on with the new police substation up on Lamar? What's going on with the renovation of [Fire Station No. 8], What's going on with Randall Mill Road?’ That type of stuff.” Ross said a lot of people are tired of the federal, state and local government, and Arlington Works is an attempt to better educate residents on their local situation. “In spite of everything else going on all over the country, we're functioning just fine here in Arlington, and not only are we functioning fine, but Arlington is thriving right now,” he said. @wall035203 news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

UTA will be implementing fees for excessive and repeated credit hours beginning this upcoming fall, the Division of Business Affairs announced in an email Thursday. Resident undergrads and doctoral students who exceed the credit hour limit — which allows for 30 additional hours beyond the minimum in a degree plan — will be charged $300 per credit hour. Students who first enrolled in a public Texas public institution before 2006 will be subject to more lenient limits or none at all. Undergrad students who enroll three or more times in a course will be charged $100 per credit hour. All attempted credit hours count, including failed, dropped and repeated courses, withdrawals and transfer credits from other institutions, may be included in the total hours recorded. Classes dropped or withdrawn before census day do not count. The fees will be introduced on student account statements once fall charges are posted by the end of July. This move aims to align UTA with two Texas statutes: Tuition for Repeated or Excessive Undergraduate Hours and Tuition Rates for Certain Doctoral Students. Current undergraduate students with at least 90 credit hours and doctoral students with at least 60 credit hours completed by the end of the summer 2025 will be exempt from the excessive hours fee for the duration of their enrollment at UTA. This does not apply to the repeated hours fee. Students enrolled in Accelerated Online programs are also excluded from excessive and repeated hours fees. Students can appeal the fees if they have special or extenuating circumstances by completing a form before the deadline. An appeal is only valid for a single semester, and students will need to resubmit each term if applicable. Students can track completed credit hours through their MyMav Student Service Center or by meeting with their academic adviser. More information is available online. news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Jame Nguyen has been financially preparing for his freshman year at UTA. His father is unable to work, and his mother doesn’t have a high-paying job. When he starts studying industrial engineering in the fall, Nguyen will receive the maximum Pell Grant of $7,395. “It's definitely a lot helpful,” he said. “But it also made me realize, ‘Dang, college is expensive,’ and that it's a real financial toll on my family and me.” Nguyen’s maximum amount, however, will soon change. He is one of the tens of thousands of UTA Pell Grant recipients who will be affected by changes to the program in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. UTA leaders are bracing for an impact, too. Starting in the 2026-27 academic year, the maximum Pell Grant award will be $5,710 — a $1,685 decrease and the lowest amount in more than a decade. The cut will be “devastating” as the maximum amount has remained steady for three years, said Karen Krause, UTA’s executive director of financial aid. For the fall 2024 semester, 75.1% of recipients at UTA qualified for the maximum federal Pell Grant amount. “There just are pieces of this that we're not going to know for a while, and that's frustrating,” Krause said. “And I know it's frustrating. It's frustrating for us too.” Roughly 40% of undergraduate students nationwide rely on Pell Grants, which are given to those who demonstrate financial need on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Work-study funds earned through part-time jobs often help cover additional education expenses. The Pell Grant is the largest source of grant aid in Texas. More than 480,000 recipients in the state — 34% of enrolled students — will be affected, according to The Education Trust, an organization advocating for low-income Black and Latino students. The American Council on Education estimated the state could face financial aid losses between $353 million and $493 million. The budget, signed by Trump on July 4, includes provisions that provide $10.5 billion to stabilize the program and leaves out a requirement from the original House version that would have required students to take 15 credits per semester instead of 12. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was approved with only Republican support. Other changes to Pell Grant eligibility include excluding those who receive a full-ride scholarship to a university and adding individuals who enroll in workplace training programs. Lawmakers also changed the student aid index, a formula used to calculate students’ Pell Grant eligibility. A student is now ineligible if their student aid index is more than double the maximum grant amount, higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz said. Almost all of UTA’s current Pell Grant recipients remain eligible under the double student aid index requirements, Krause said. Now the student aid index takes into account families’ foreign income, which was previously excluded. If a student has a family farm that meets certain criteria or a small family business, they can be excluded from adding those to the Pell Grant calculation, Krause said. ‘So many unknowns right now’ As the Pell Grant changes, UTA anticipates an overall tighter fiscal situation. President Jennifer Cowley recently announced the university is bracing for budget cuts due to decreased federal funding. Students without legal status may not be eligible for in-state tuition. The recent travel ban may also push students to choose a different country for their education. “At this juncture, it's just premature to know what options the university might be able to explore and implement,” university spokesperson Joe Carpenter said. Krause said multiple departments at UTA are monitoring state and federal changes to financial aid. Her team will continue to provide workshops and presentations to help students and parents keep track of updates. Also, students submitting documents by deadlines is becoming even more important, she said, as it helps UTA to manage its funds. The good news is, Krause said, no financial change, including to Pell Grants, is expected for the 2025-26 academic year. As for 2026-27? “I don't think we're ready to make that kind of a proclamation to say, ‘OK, we're going to replace X dollars’ or anything like that because there's just so many unknowns right now,” Krause said. Nguyen, who took a gap year after high school and is taking 15 credit hours for his first semester, said he doesn’t have the experience yet to know if he’s ready for the workload. But his friends are pushing him to pursue education. His boss already promised support. So, he’s going for it. He’s looking for other resources to pay the remaining tuition amount and also to prepare for the changes to the maximum grant amount in the 2026-27 academic year. His mother also agreed to help. “It's just —” he said, pausing. “I'll try to find any way I could help my mom not have to chip in.” @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu

Clarification: Fire Station No. 8 was was demolished and is being fully rebuilt. It is not a renovation. Arlington has made significant headway on its $13.9 million rebuild of Fire Station No. 8. The new facility is being built from the ground up to replace the old station, which originally opened in 1978 and has been demolished. Since the groundbreaking ceremony in January, the project has been underway and is expected to be completed in November. The 10,000-square-foot two-story building will include three drive-through apparatus bays, dorm rooms, a day room and kitchen. It will also incorporate cancer awareness best practices with extractors to wash the firefighters' bunker gear, a system to remove exhaust fumes and a cascade system for filling breathing air cylinders. Lt. Adam Evans, Arlington Fire Department public information officer, said the original station was becoming a safety hazard. Though it was remodeled in 2005, the nearly 50-year-old building could not meet the growing space needs and had become dilapidated. “[It got] to where the cost of trying to repair it and update it and do things just didn’t outweigh what it would be to go ahead and build a new, more energy-efficient fire station that could actually house all the equipment we have,” Evans said. The building’s new frame and exterior are complete, and now the focus is on moving gear and equipment inside, like trucks and extractors. The construction team is also finishing up the masonry work. While the new Fire Station No. 8 is being constructed, firefighters are currently operating out of the surrounding fire stations 5, 11 and 17. These stations have helped cover calls in the area, and response times have not been affected despite the construction, Evans said. “We just appreciate our city using the resources to keep our guys safe,” he said. news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu