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Frank Bruni, a contributing Opinion writer, hosted an online conversation with Ann Coulter, who writes the Substack newsletter Unsafe, and Stuart Stevens, a former Republican political consultant, to discuss their expectations for the first Republican debate and the future of American politics.

Frank Bruni: Stuart, Ive done many of these political round tables, but never one at a juncture this titanically and transcendentally bizarre. The first Republican debate of the presidential election season is tonight, the party front-runner is absent, and hes running, oh, infinity points ahead of his Republican rivals despite two impeachments, 91 felony counts and unquantifiable wretchedness. Color me morose.

But also, illuminate me: Given Donald Trumps lead and its durability, does this debate matter, and how? Is there an argument that it could change the trajectory of this contest?

Stuart Stevens: If a candidate enters the debate with a strategy of taking out another candidate, it can change a trajectory. In the 2012 primary, Mitt Romney did this to Rick Perry in their first debate and again in a subsequent debate to Newt Gingrich. (I was the campaign strategist for that Romney campaign.) But you must go into a debate with the attitude one of us will walk off this stage alive. I dont think anyone has the nerve to do that.

Ann Coulter: I think this is Ron DeSantiss to lose. If hed just ignore the media and be the nerd that he is, hell do great.

Bruni: Stuart, do you agree that DeSantis has an underappreciated strength and that theres really a path for him to this nomination? And other than DeSantis, is there anyone on that stage tonight who could have a breakout moment and matter in this nomination contest?

Stevens: DeSantis is Jeb Bush without the charm. He is a small man running for a big job and looking smaller every day. If I were advising Tim Scott or another candidate, Id advise them to use the debate to attack DeSantis and blow him up. This is a man who lost a debate to Charlie Crist.

Coulter: Im sorry, but this just shows that you have zero understanding of the country, much less the party. Also, famous last words, but: I dont think Trump will be the nominee, but youd really do the country a solid if you could get Democrats to stop indicting him.

Bruni: Ann, in just a few sentences, why wont Trump be the nominee? Thats a renegade perspective. (Or, given recent Republican political history, should I say maverick?) Convince me.

Coulter: Trump can barely speak English. Hes a gigantic baby. The only reason he crushed in 2016 is because of immigration the wall, deport illegal immigrants, the travel ban (which imposed limits on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries). That is DeSantis this time without the total lack of interest in carrying it out.

Bruni: OK, but before we move on, is there anyone else in this debate who could break out and matter?

Coulter: No.

Bruni: Stuart, do you too believe Trump will not or might not get the nomination, as Ann does?

Stevens: Trump is what the Republican Party wants to be. Hes a white grievance candidate in a party that is over 80 percent white and has embraced its victimhood. Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson are alternatives, but there isnt a winning market for an anti-Trump message. Trump will be the nominee.

Coulter: I think youre both more focused on personalities and whiteness than the voters are. Its issues. And on the issues, Christie is totally out of step with the G.O.P. and Id say the country. He weeps about Ukrainians killed and raped by Russians, but doesnt seem to give two figs about Americans killed and raped by illegal immigrants in our country.

Bruni: Fair point about personalities, Ann, so lets indeed turn to issues and larger dynamics. Youve identified Ukraine as an issue getting too much attention. What else is getting lots of attention but largely irrelevant to this races outcome, and whats hugely relevant and being overlooked?

Stevens: It is actually all about race. Eighty-five percent of the Trump coalition in 2020 was white non-Hispanic in a country that is about 60 percent non-Hispanic white, and less since weve been chatting. The efforts in 2020 to deny votes was focused in places like Atlanta and Philadelphia. Why? Thats where a lot of Black people voted.

Coulter: So you think the G.O.P. is racist. Wow, never heard that before.

Stevens: In 1956, Eisenhower got about 39 percent of the Black vote. In 2020 Trump got 8 percent. A majority of Americans 15 years and younger are nonwhite or Hispanic white. This is what terrifies Republicans.

Coulter: This is just your excuse for your candidate losing a winnable election in 2012.

Bruni: You and Stuart are both hugely down on Trump as a human and as a candidate. Do you think he loses to Biden despite Bidens age and low approval ratings, or is this a jump ball if Trump gets the nomination?

Coulter: If Trump gets the nomination, I say he will lose. I know it, you know it, the American people know it (to paraphrase Bob Dole).

Stevens: Trump could win. In 2020, he lost by a combined 44,000 votes in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin. Otherwise, he would still be president. Biden needs to win by 4.5 percent to carry the Electoral College. So it is inevitable it will be close.

Coulter: Nah. OK, maybe. I think Trump loses, but who knows? Hes not the Trump he was in 2016 its the same old thing over and over and over again. Shifty Schiff, perfect phone call, we won BIG, strong, strongly, strong zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Bruni: Theres sustained chatter that someone significant Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, Georgia governor Brian Kemp could join and upend the Republican field at a late moment, presented as a savior. Do you foresee that? How would it play out?

Stevens: There is this need among some in the donor Republican class and the National Review types that the Republican Party can revert to being a normal party. Thats insane. Take Glenn Youngkin. He endorsed Kari Lake for her Arizona gubernatorial run. Youngkin didnt change her; she changed him.

Coulter: I hope it doesnt come to that because DeSantis is head and shoulders above every other G.O.P. presidential candidate (or politician) on the three most important issues: immigration, crime and the Covid response. Unless the prime minister of Sweden is running in this race, no one beats DeSantis on the Covid response. Thats the 3 a.m. phone call every state and world leader faced the exact same unseen-before virus. Only those two got it exactly right.

Bruni: Ann, I have to ask you this simply because your pom-poms for DeSantis are so large and exuberantly shaken. How are you comfortable with how negative, vengeful, naming of enemies, slaying of enemies his whole shtick and strategy are? Dear God, you are the biggest Reagan lover I know, and theres no Its Morning Again in America from the Florida governor. Its the darkest night, all the time.

Coulter: So glad you asked that. As I describe in my book In Trump We Trust about the greatest presidential campaign in history (followed by the most disappointing, wasted presidency in history) this Im optimistic! talking point that campaign consultants feed their candidates is absurd. Ronald Reagan was not optimistic in 1980 it was only after four years in office that it was Morning in America. He was not positive or optimistic in 1980 at all.

Its nauseating to see candidates try to pull off the Im optimistic nonsense which I promise you they will in the debate, especially Tim Scott.

Bruni: Well, Im not optimistic, for what thats worth.

Coulter: Yes, Frank youre like most voters! Thats why the Im optimistic idiocy falls so flat.

Stevens: Republican donors looked at a model for Republican success as a big-state governor: Reagan, George W. Bush and Romney won the nomination. But all of those candidates were optimistic, expansive candidates. DeSantis is an angry little man who cant articulate why he wants to be president. He got in a fight with the Happiness Company, Disney, and lost. He created a private police force at a cost of over $1 million to go after voter fraud in his own state, which he had claimed had a perfect election. They arrested 20 people and convicted just one.

Bruni: I still prefer candidates who, I dont know, tell us to try to find the good in, and common cause with, one another rather than identify whom to hate and how much. Im old-fashioned that way. To return to the debate: Is there any chance Trump is hurt by his decision to skip it? Or is he showing considerable smarts? By choosing tomorrow to turn himself in in Georgia, he will compete with and shorten the medias post-mortems on the debate. He will, in his signature manner, yank the spotlight back toward himself!

Coulter: The only reason Trump will stay in the news is that the media keep him there. The weird obsession liberals have with Trump is driving normal people away from the news. Even I, MSNBCs most loyal viewer, cannot watch it anymore. The same words, same arguments, same info, same topics for over two years now! We almost lost our democracy!

Trump is a bore. Please stop covering him.

Bruni: Lets do a lightning round. Fast and quick answers. If something happened soon and Biden couldnt or didnt run, which nationally known Democrat would be the partys fiercest presidential candidate, assuming that candidate had just enough runway to take off, and in a few phrases or one sentence, why?

Stevens: Gavin Newsom. Hes a skilled politician who can build the coalition it takes to win. Its not a bad exercise to ask, Could this candidate win X state as governor? Newsom is someone you could see as governor of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Ohio.

Coulter: No one the Democrats would ever nominate for example, Connecticut governor Ned Lamont, Colorado governor Jared Polis, possibly Ohio senator Sherrod Brown.

Bruni: Why?

Coulter: Because theyre all white men.

Bruni: Is the widespread belief that Kamala Harris negatively impacts Bidens prospects for re-election overstated or understated?

Stevens: Overstated. Has anybody actually looked at her record as a candidate? Shes won big, tough races. Until her presidential bid, she never lost.

Coulter: Understated. I heard a discussion on MSNBC yesterday about how shes fantastic one-on-one, a laugh riot, a charm offensive. That just doesnt come out when shes in front of a crowd, you see.

The last person they tried that with was Al Gore, who apparently reached comedic highs alone in his bathtub.

Bruni: Should Clarence Thomas be impeached?

Stevens: Is that a rhetorical question? A Supreme Court justice who acts like an oligarchs girlfriend, flying around on special vacations. Of course. Hes a disgrace.

Coulter: No, he should be made czar of our country. For decades, liberals were mostly OK with the Supreme Court as it was inventing rights like abortion or Miranda or throwing out the death penalty. But now, suddenly theres a major ethics issue about a justice whos gotten the lefts goat since he was nominated.

Thomas votes and writes opinions exactly as his judicial philosophy would predict. The idea that he ruled a certain way because someone took him on a fishing trip is ludicrous.

Bruni: Lastly, rank these American institutions in the order of influence they might have over the final results the winner of the 2024 presidential contest: Fox News, Facebook, The New York Times, the Supreme Court.

Coulter: Fox News: almost zero, unless the nominee is Trump then you can blame Fox. Facebook: 2 percent. New York Times: 8 percent, maybe 10. The political economist Tim Groseclose wrote a book (Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind) estimating the influence of the media on elections and concluded it was about 8 percent. But that was roughly 10 years ago. Its probably more now. The Supreme Court: hopefully zero.

Stevens: The Supreme Court by far. In the history of the country, only five justices were confirmed by senators representing a minority of the countrys population. All five are on the court today. It is completely out of step with the majority of the country, and the results played out in 2022.

I dont think Fox created the Republican Party; the Republican Party created Fox. For the most part, Fox didnt support John McCain, didnt support Romney, didnt support Trump in his nomination campaign. They couldnt affect the outcomes with their own base.

Facebook has the potential to impact the race, as it did in 2016.

I dont think The Times has played a major role in a presidential campaign, and I think thats a good thing its not their job to play a major role.

Bruni: Thank you both for your time, your insights and your energy.

Coulter: Thank you, Frank. Thank you, Stuart.

Stevens: Thanks, all!

Source photograph by Mark Wallheiser/Getty.

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Frank Bruni is a professor of journalism and public policy at Duke University, the author of the book The Beauty of Dusk and a contributing Opinion writer. He writes a weekly email newsletter. Instagram @FrankBruni Facebook

Ann Coulter is the author of the Substack newsletter Unsafe.

Stuart Stevens (@stuartpstevens), a former Republican political consultant who has worked on many campaigns for federal and state office, including the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and George W. Bush, is the author of the forthcoming book The Conspiracy to End America: Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy.

Originally posted here:
Opinion | 'I Don't Think Trump Will Be the Nominee': Three Writers ... - The New York Times

To former Vice President Mike Pence, hes Vih-veck. To a Fox and Friends panelist on Thursday morning, he was Vee-veck. And to some Iowa voters, its Vy-vick if they said his name at all.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a tech entrepreneur running for president who has climbed the polls in recent weeks, has branded himself as a political newcomer who, despite participating in his first Republican debate Wednesday night, seemed at ease bringing the event to near-chaos several times as he sparred with the likes of Mr. Pence and Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor.

A different hurdle he may face, however, is getting others to say his name correctly.

The son of Indian Americans, Mr. Ramaswamy has both leaned into and away from his racial background. He has often expressed gratitude that his parents immigrated to the greatest nation on Earth, and on Wednesday, he echoed a line from former President Barack Obamas speech onstage when he introduced himself as a skinny guy with a funny last name. (Mr. Ramaswamy has said that Vivek rhymes with cake and pronounces his last name Rah-muh-swah-mee.)

When Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, asked after the debate why Mr. Ramaswamy hadnt corrected the mispronunciation sooner, the candidate laughed and said, I appreciate best efforts.

Karthick Ramakrishnan, the director of AAPI Data, said that because Mr. Ramaswamy is running as an insurgent candidate with radical ideas, it wouldnt make sense for him to start policing, or suggesting how others should be pronouncing his name. (One of the 10 commandments in Mr. Ramaswamys platform asserts that reverse racism is racism.)

Its a recognition that different people may be at different stages along the way in terms of even knowing who he is and how to pronounce his name, Mr. Ramakrishnan said. He is trying to activate a generational kind of debate and divide in America that needs to be addressed and to move away from racial identity politics.

Nicole Holliday, a linguistics professor at Pomona College, attributed the struggle for some to pronounce names correctly to a number of factors, including a sentiment that English speakers in general expect to be accommodated everywhere in the world and a lack of foreign language training in the United States from an early age.

Past presidential candidates from diverse racial backgrounds have faced racist insults related to their names. In 2020, David Perdue, then a senator from Georgia, faced a backlash after he appeared to make fun of Kamala Harriss name at a rally just before the November election: Ka-ma-la, Ka-ma-la, Kamala-mala-mala, I dont know, whatever. And some critics of Mr. Obama often invoked his middle name Hussein to falsely claim that he was Muslim.

Of the few prominent South Asians in G.O.P. politics, many have used names friendly to a less-diverse voter base. Bobby Jindal, the former Republican governor of Louisiana, changed his name from Piyush to Bobby when he was young. And Nikki Haley, another Indian American in the 2024 presidential race, has long used Nikki, her middle name, instead of her first name, Nimarata.

While the overwhelming majority of Indian Americans are Democrats, a 2020 survey of Indian American voters found that almost 60 percent said they would be open to supporting an Indian American candidate regardless of their party affiliation.

Mr. Ramaswamys name mispronunciations are all too familiar for South Asian Americans, said Sara Sadhwani, a political science professor at Pomona College. But, she noted, the acknowledgment of such mispronunciations by Mr. Hannity and others may point to a slow recognition among Republicans that not only do we need to diversify, but well have to be respectful to some extent of the folks who were able to bring to the table.

Beyond his name, Mr. Ramaswamy may hit a ceiling as a result of his Hindu faith, predicted Mr. Ramakrishnan, the AAPI Data founder.

On Wednesday, the conservative commentator Ann Coulter made a comment largely condemned as racist, on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, that Nikki and Vivek are involved in some Hindu business, it seems. Not our fight. (Ms. Haley was raised Sikh but later converted to Christianity.)

Ann can tweet whatever she wants to, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Ramaswamy campaign, said of the comment. Vivek has traveled this country and is very grateful for the warm support he has received from Christian voters across the country.

Original post:
Vivek Ramaswamy Is Happy to Be Talked About, Even if His Name ... - The New York Times

After an initial burst of indignation at the Supreme Court for taking on the unpleasant task of informing college admissions offices that race discrimination is unconstitutional, the medias main focus quickly shifted to their favorite topic: blaming white men.

True, it was going to be difficult to turn a case finally ending 50 years of discrimination against whites into a story about how whites are oppressing Blacks, but you dont know our media. The fact that the plaintiffs in this case were Asian didnt even slow them down.

Within hours, everybody was talking about legacies. The children of alumni are apparently the ne plus ultra of whiteness. The New York Times called them white, wealthy and well-connected. And thats how legacy entered the vocabulary as an epithet for white men, joining frat boys, rich, privileged, Chads and lacrosse players.

Unfortunately, much like #BlackLivesMatter, this latest orgy of hatred for whites is going to end up hurting Black people the most.

We have been assured that preferences for the children of alumni are exactly like racial preferences for Blacks and Hispanics except given to whites. Thus, Kenny Xu, one of the plaintiffs in the affirmative action case, sneered that preferences for legacies disproportionately privilege white applicants. (These arent your allies, white people.)

Then, days after the decision was announced, race activists filed a complaint against Harvard for giving preference to the children of alumni, saying that legacy admissions have nothing to do with an applicants merit and were an unfair and unearned benefit.

Lets look at how big a benefit being a legacy actually is.

Comparing three preferences given to college applicants legacies, athletes and Blacks/Hispanics the children of alumni got the smallest boost, according to a 2007 Princeton study of 4,000 students entering 28 selective colleges in 1999. A majority of legacy admissions had SATs above their colleges average. Even those below the average were only slightly below it, 47 points out of a possible 1,600.

By contrast, 77 percent of Blacks and Hispanics had scores below their colleges average, and 70 percent of athletes did. Combined, their average gap was 108 points.

A 2009 Harvard study found that legacy applicants to the top 30 most selective colleges had a mean score 10 points higher on the reading SAT than non-legacy applicants and six points higher on the math SAT.

About a decade later, Naviance, a college software provider, examined 15,402 legacy applications from 2014-17 and found that 82 percent of legacy applicants have SAT or ACT scores at or above their colleges average for accepted students.

Apparently, the dumb kids of alumni dont bother applying to their parents schools, and the smart kids are pressured into applying, even if their academic qualifications are good enough to get them into a better school.

The Harvard study also found that the legacy preference is strongest for applicants with perfect SAT scores. (In 2007, Harvard rejected more than a thousand applicants with perfect math SAT scores; Princeton rejected thousands of students with perfect GPAs.)

For the past week, the media have bombarded us with data claiming exactly the opposite that being a legacy confers a huge advantage, comparable to that given to Blacks and Hispanics simply for being Black or Hispanic. You will notice that these claims never refer to the children of alumni in isolation. Legacies are invariably thrown in with other, completely different categories, like whose parents donated money, athletes or children of university employees.

E.g.:

Most colleges have long resisted eliminating a much-criticized admission practice: giving a boost to the children of alumni, donors and faculty. The New York Times, June 30, 2023

[One] analysis found that 43% of Harvards white admits in 2019 were legacy students, recruited athletes, children of faculty and staff or were applicants affiliated with donors. USA Today Online, July 3, 2023

The records revealed that 70% of Harvards donor-related and legacy applicants are white. The Associated Press, July 3, 2023

Grouping dissimilar things together can give you any statistic you want. Dozens of humans are killed every year by grizzly bears and Dachshunds.

The grizzly bear in these lists is donor-related.

I hold no brief for legacies, but I do know that I.Q. is heritable, and the kids of alumni are in a wholly different category from the kids of big donors. One is Aage Bohr, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics 53 years after his father, Niels, did. (They are among seven parent/child Nobel winners in the sciences.)

The other is Jared Kushner, whose father bought his kids way into Harvard, despite his not being remotely qualified, as a track 3 high school student. (By the way, Republicans, your outrage at Hunter Bidens criminality would be more credible if you ever mentioned the $2 billion Jared got from the Saudis.)

If Harvard didnt discriminate on the basis of race, instead of a student body that is about 43 percent white, 19 percent Asian, 11 percent Black and 10 percent Hispanic, it would be 43 percent Asian, 38 percent white, 0.7 percent Black, and 2.4 percent Hispanic, a 2013 study by the university found.

If Harvard didnt discriminate in favor of legacies, the average SAT score of its undergrads would be lower, as some perfect-scoring alum kids go elsewhere.

As much fun as youre having bashing whites, media, the boost given to legacies is not in the same universe as the preferences given to Black and Hispanic students. On the other hand, judging by Jared Kushner, the preference given to the kids of big donors is every bit as humongous as the affirmative action plus factor, but it would take the U.S. Marines to get colleges to cough up that information.

Ironically, getting rid of preferences for legacies will hurt Black applicants the most. Recall that colleges have been giving gigantic racial preferences to Black applicants since the 1960s, which means we have more than half a century of Black graduates whose children and grandchildren are ... guess what? Legacies!

Children of alums who got in to college on the basis of anything other than merit, as a group, will tend to be less qualified than the children of alums who got in on merit.

Get rid of the legacy preference, and its the kids of affirmative action alums who wont get in.

Read the rest here:
Ann Coulter: The truth about legacies | Opinion ... - Marshall News Messenger

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Ann Coulter: No biggie, just the end of civilization - Northwest Georgia News

STEPHENVILLE Tarleton State University recognized 12 distinguished educators last week with induction in the Crystal Apple Society.

In 2012 the College of Education, under the leadership of Dr. Jill Burk, established an award to honor educators who make a positive impact on students. Since then, Crystal Apple Society Award winners have been identified annually.

This years honorees are Bret and Monica Barrick, Dalta Ann Coulter, Jody Fain, Kevin Ferguson, Max Glauben, Dr. Russ Higham and Debby Hopkins-Higham, Dr. Beck Munsey, Diane Pokluda, Dr. Beth Riggs and Michel Wimberly.

These 12 outstanding educators are making a positive impact across our great state! Tarleton President James Hurley tweeted after the ceremony.

Bret Barrick

A Tarleton graduate, Barrick coached and taught in the Mineral Wells Independent School District and is now transportation director. In his nomination form retired Tarleton Associate Provost Dwayne Snider and student Connor Spencer lauded Barricks encouraging coaching style. Spencer said Barricks personable approach as a baseball coach helped ease his transfer to Mineral Wells High School as a junior, and observing his passion for the job encouraged Spencer to pursue coaching. Dr. Snider said Barricks recognition of players not just for being the best but for their willingness to work hard and improve is something all teachers should do.

Monica Barrick

Also nominated by Dr. Snider, Monica Barrick teaches mathematics at Mineral Wells High School and taught his niece. Dr. Snider praised Barricks patience and positive attitude as well as the effort she makes for each student, which helped his niece navigate transferring to a new high school as a senior and feel supported from the outset.

Dalta Ann Coulter

Coulter graduated from Tarleton with an education degree and taught for 34 years in Breckenridge, Moody, Killeen and Bruceville-Eddy schools. At BEISD she started Preschool Programs for Children with Disabilities and taught special education for 29 years before retiring in 2015. She was nominated by Jo Ann Kern, who noted that Coulter was not only a passionate advocate for her students with special needs but skillfully advised their parents on overcoming difficult challenges.

Jody Fain

Stephenville health science teacher Jody Fain was nominated by four of her students, who touted the positive impact her cheerful, caring nature and active communication had on them, even inspiring one to go to medical school.

Kevin Ferguson

Ferguson has taught sixth-grade science since 1992 at Gilbert Intermediate School in Stephenville, where he is lead teacher and department head. He has taught two generations of theKen Howellfamily, who nominated him. His passionate teaching style make him stand out as an educator, said the elder Howells, while both daughters agreed that although science was not necessarily their favorite subject, Ferguson made it fun.

Max Glauben

Glauben was nominated by the Tarleton Department of Psychological Sciences for his contributions to education and humanity. As a teenager Glauben survived the Nazi invasion of Warsaw, five concentration camps and a death march from the Flossenbrg concentration camp to Dachau. His parents and younger brother died. After he was freed and moved to the United States, he served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and became a tireless advocate for establishing a Holocaust museum where survivors stories could be shared in the hopes that such atrocities would never happen again. What started in the Jewish Community Center in Dallas became the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, where a holographic image of Glauben relates his experiences. He spent much of his life traveling and educating on the dangers of discrimination and the importance of tolerance, and in 2018 he visited Tarleton to share his story. He died in 2022, and his son Phillip accepted the award on his behalf.

Debby Hopkins-Higham

Now retired from Tarleton, Hopkins-Higham was instrumental in the professional development partnership with Waco ISD and two separate campuses. Retired professor Dr. Ann Calahan, who nominated her, lauded Hopkins-Highams collaborative partnerships with area schools, administrators and teachers and her care for each students field placement throughout the educator preparation program.

Dr. Russ Higham

Dr. Higham, an educational leadership and policy Associate Professor at Tarleton-Waco, was nominated by the late Dr. Don Beach, who worked with him more than 20 years and praised his positivity, always knowing his students names and keeping up with them in their careers. We need educators like him because they show they care for students, and in doing so it helps students become more successful, Beach wrote in his nomination. Hes just a good life coach.

Dr. Beck Munsey

Dr. Munsey, head of the counseling department at Tarleton, was nominated by Dr. Annette Albrecht, who heralded him as an exemplary educator. He has taught hundreds of counseling students who in turn have graduated and worked with thousands of young adults across Texas and beyond. Dr. Munsey brings real-life experiences into the classroom from his private practice and is considered a superb mentor for his excellent counseling traits and the ability to impart them to students. He was the first Tarleton faculty member to record best teaching practices in diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging for use in professional development. His commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion won him accolades from the SAIGE Division of the American Counseling Association.

Diane Pokluda

Retired Crowley ISD teacher Diane Pokluda was nominated by Tarleton Professional Educators for her work as Region 9 and 11 specialist for the Association of Texas Professional Educators. Lauded as a rock star among professional educators, she and her husband, Steve, also a retired educator, share the benefits of ATPE membership in newsletters and special events on school district campuses. ATPE has supported the Tarleton Professional Educators student organization for over 12 years.

Dr. Beth Riggs

Dr. Riggs was nominated by Dr. Kathy Smith, head of the mathematics department, who praised Dr. Riggs skills as an educator who helps math majors complete their degrees in a timely manner. Dr. Riggs, a mathematics Associate Professor and the department associate head, has prepared Tarleton preservice teachers and provided professional development for in-service teachers across Texas.

Michel Wimberly

Student accolades fill the nomination form for Melissa Middle School percussion teacher Michel Wimberly:

Through his incredible teaching and musical gifts, Mr. Wimberly undoubtedly makes a lifelong impact on the students he serves, added Dr. Lesley Leach, who nominated him. We honor his dedication to his craft and his students.

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Tarleton State Honors Educators with Crystal Apple Awards - The Flash Today