Higher Ed: 175 Years of History in 11 Minutes

You may have been running into this problem, too - all the stores I've tried in Central Texas are out of 175th birthday cards! First, the City of Austin celebrated its 175th birthday in December 2014. Now, Southwestern University in Georgetown is celebrating its 175th anniversary.

In the latest episode of KUT's podcast "Higher Ed," KUT's Jennifer Stayton and Southwestern's President Dr. Ed Burger explore the history of Southwestern University on its demisemiseptcentennial. Or as some call it, the quartoseptcentennial. It's also known as the septaquintaquinquecentennial. Do Ed and Jennifer even try to say those words?! Listen on to find out.

This week, Ed and Jennifer offer up a decidedly un-boring history lesson about Southwestern University's 175 years. How did four colleges morph into one university? And it turns out Southwestern's history is very much intertwined with the history of higher ed in Texas. Also, get ready for a light bulb moment with the solution to last episode's puzzler about light switches and lights bulbs (posted on January 26). It's much more cunning than you might have guessed!

http://kut.org/post/higher-ed-175-years-history-11-minutes

The podcast is at http://cpa.ds.npr.org/kut/audio/2015/02/Dr._Ed_Burger_and_KUT%27s_Jennifer_Stayton_on_the_History_of_Southwestern_University_and_Higher_Ed_in_Texas_in_Higher_Ed_Episode_Four_1.mp3