BikeTexas is delighted to announce that University of Texas at Brownsville and University of Texas at Austin campuses debuted BikeTexas’ new College Active Transportation Safety (CATS) program at the first in a series of new student orientations at Texas colleges and universities this summer.
Many thanks to Charles Hart, lecturer at UT Brownsville (UTB) for delivering the very first BikeTexas CATS presentation, and Beth Rosenbarger, graduate student in Architecture for following suit at UT Austin (UT) in the afternoon yesterday June 7, 2012.
This spring, BikeTexas staff traveled to the Lower Rio Grande Valley. We learned about the growing bicycling culture there and reconnected with BikeTexas’ Safe Cyclist Certified Instructor Susan Hart at UTB. This summer, Dean of Students, Dr. Mari Fuentes-Martin and her staff placed the CATS curriculum on the UTB Orientation agenda. We hope the program encourages even more UTB students to ride the trails along Brownsville’s beautiful resacas!
At UT, BikeTexas CATS presentation compliments some great bicycling programs already underway on UT campus sponsored by the Parking & Transportation Services (UT-PTS) Department and the UT Bicycle Campaign. We’re delighted to be working with bike-friendly campus pioneers at UT — Bicycle Coordinator, Sam Cortez; Director of Alternative Transportation, Blanca Juarez; BikeTexas Safe Cyclist Certified Instructor & Lecturer in Education-Kinesiology, Teresita Ramirez; as well as two very helpful graduate students, Kate Bedford and Beth Rosenbarger.
We are excited to see the program evolve during the summer orientation sessions each week. We’re now ready to bring the program to 5 more Colleges and Universities across the state of Texas this year…looks like the Aggies are next!
If you would like the BikeTexas CATS presentation to be a part of your school’s incoming student orientations this Summer or Fall, we have a 15-minute Overview, as well as 7 more in-depth presentations on specific subjects available.
Contact us, and we’ll be more than happy to work with you and your school to set this up!
Blanca Juarez, UT Austin Alternative Transportation Manager; Teresita Ramirez, Lecturer – UT Austin Kinesiology & Health Education; Donna Hoffman, BikeTexas CATS Program Manager; Beth Rosenbarger, UT Austin Graduate Student and CATS Presenter; Juliana Furioso, BikeTexas CATS Communications Assistant & Student Coordinator; Samuel Cortez, UT Austin Bicycle Coordinator
