Releases

It happens every fall. A football team that was at the top of pre-season rankings and predicted by sportswriters to have a winning season loses several games a few weeks after the season begins -- perhaps being defeated by a team that was ranked lower in the conference or division.

Devoted fans of the formerly top-ranked team become upset and disappointed, knowing that they probably won't see the team play in a major college bowl game or win a playoff game.

Dr. Karen Cogan, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of North Texas and counselor in UNT's Student Counseling Center, says it's not uncommon for fans to get so attached to following a team that they feel a personal sense of loss when the team has a big loss.

"Fans may even begin to feel that they know the players," she says. "It's normal to feel disappointed when something that you care about doesn't go the way that you wanted. But the first step to overcoming this sadness is realizing that you are not the team or not the athlete."

She said the single most helpful thing that frustrated fans can do is to realize what they can and can't control. They can control their responses to the team not living up to expectations -- but they can't control how the team or players react to the losses.

"If you're a fan, you should remember that you're along for the ride, but it's up to the team to make wins happen. If a win doesn't happen, you can decide if you want to be disappointed for a whole week, or just for a few hours before you focus on something unrelated to the team," Cogan says. "You should also remember that if a team has good coaching, there's no reason why it can't use mental strategies and other strategies to pull itself out a slump mid-season."

Avoiding others' criticism of the team by not listening to sports talk radio or not reading newspapers may be helpful to some fans, but "some find it more helpful to talk about their feelings with other disillusioned fans."

Cogan may be reached at her office phone number at 940-565-4798, or by e-mail at Karen.Cogan@unt.edu.

Cogan is also available to do on-camera interviews via Skype by request. The UNT News Service can provide you with broadcast quality video, allowing you to interview faculty experts without leaving your studios. To schedule a Skype interview with Cogan, contact Nancy Kolsti in the UNT News Service at 940-565-3509 or Nancy.Kolsti@unt.edu.

EDITOR'S NOTE: UNT now offers interviews directly to you via Skype.  You can record a video interview with available experts from your office, saving you the time and travel.  To use the system, your station will need a Skype account, which is free to download from www.skype.com. Skype-to-Skype calls are free. There are versions for PCs, Mac, UNIX and other systems.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and incumbent Gov. Rick Perry appear to be heading for a clash over the Republican nomination for Texas governor. Several Democrats also have declared their candidacy, including colorful country musician Kinky Friedman, who placed fourth in the 2006 gubernatorial election as an independent.

As you prepare for coverage of the 2010 Texas gubernatorial election, consider these University of North Texas faculty members who are available to discuss the race during the six months leading up to the primaries in March, which will likely include several debates between the candidates.

Dr. John R. Todd is the chair of the UNT Department of Political Science. He has researched political party preference in Texas for more than 20 years and is the author of Texas Politics: The Challenge of Change, which encompasses his research. He can discuss this year's gubernatorial election in an historical context.

Todd notes that Democrat Richard Coke's election as Texas governor in 1874, following the tenure of extremely unpopular Republican governor Edmund J. Davis from 1870-1874, began 104 years of Democratic dominance in the governor's office. Texans turned their backs on the Republican party for generations after blaming the party as a whole for the state's abusive government during reconstruction, he says.

Texas Democrats were more conservative than their counterparts in other states during most of the 20th century, Todd says. Migration waves of Northerners to Texas during the 1950s and again during the 1970s evolved parts of the state into Republican strongholds, and resulted in William Clements becoming the first Republican governor in the century in 1978, he says. George W. Bush became Texas' first Republican governor ever to serve two consecutive terms when he was reelected in 1998, and incumbent Gov. Rick Perry is seeking an unprecedented third four-year term, after first being elected in 2000 to Bush's unexpired term.

Todd may be reached at:

Office phone number: 940-565-4233

E-mail address: John.todd@unt.edu

Dr. Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha is an assistant professor who teaches American government. He says the overarching theme of this year's gubernatorial race is Perry appealing to the right wing of the Republican party and Hutchison appealing to moderate Republicans and even some Democrats. In recent months, Perry has given homage to states' rights and made a fleeting reference to secession, which could please voters on the far right edge of the Republican party.

"Kay Bailey Hutchison is trying to tap into Perry's conservative views, saying that the Republicans can be a broader party and appeal to more people if the party was more moderate," he says.

Eshbaugh-Soha says Hutchison can also use Perry's long tenure as governor against him.

"The potential concern is that Perry has gotten too cozy with his job and isn't working hard enough for Texas," he says. "The obvious criticism of Hutchison is that she has been in Washington in the Senate too long, and doesn't know Texas, but she can turn around and ask if voters really want Perry to be governor for four more years."

Eshbaugh-Soha may be reached at:

Office phone number: (940) 565-2329

E-mail address: mes@unt.edu

Dr. John Booth, Regents Professor of political science, is a Texas native who has been teaching Texas politics since 1974. He says Perry will take credit for Texas' good economy, which has fared better than those of other states during the current recession. However, Booth says his opponents may criticize him for not being a good steward with Texas' money, and for issuing an executive order, which was later overturned, that mandated that Texas girls be vaccinated against some strains of the human papilloma virus that causes cervical cancer.

"He may also be criticized for using state resources and contracts to reward his political friends," Booth says.

Booth calls the Democratic party in Texas a "sleeping giant" because of the increased urbanization and diversification of the state's population.

"The percentage of African Americans living in cities, and young professionals of all races who are living in urban areas, will drive the Democratic vote in the future," he says. 

Booth may be reached at:

Office phone number: 940-565-2084

Cell phone number: 940-368-9498

E-mail address: booth@unt.edu

Todd, Eshbaugh-Soha and Booth are all available via Skype by request; contact Nancy Kolsti or 940-565-3509 to schedule an interview.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – President Obama recently suggested that American school children need to spend more time in school in order to compete with students around the globe, which has parents and experts debating the value of extending the school day, or even the school year.

Dr. Donald Easton-Brooks, an assistant professor in the University of North Texas' Department of Teacher Education and Administration, says that the effects of lengthening the hours that students put in at school might be minimal.

"Research suggest that schools can only account for at the most 8 percent of the difference in academic outcomes and as much as 92 percent scores are influenced by factors outside of the schools," says Easton-Brooks.

According to Easton-Brooks, research indicates that lengthening the school year is preferable to lengthening the school day because of the amount of knowledge that students lose during summer vacation.

"I do agree that our children would benefit from receiving more quality academic content. However, this content can be gained by possibly increasing the school year, rather than the school day," says Easton-Brooks. "Research has found that during summer vacation, students lose a significant amount of knowledge. Therefore schools typically spend the first two-week getting students back on task. Minnesota has increased their school year from 172 to 200 days, and a number of other areas have toyed with the idea of increasing the academic school year."

Easton-Brooks also points out that lengthening the school year could cause unintended economic impacts.

"While I agree that more quality academic content can benefit our students, the move to longer school days or longer school years can have a negative economic impact on schools with low funding. However, these students are possibly the students who would benefit the most from more quality academic content."

Easton-Brooks can be contacted at 940-369-7452 (office), 940-435-2025 (cell) or Donald.Eastonbrooks@unt.edu. He is also available via Skype by request; contact Alyssa Aber at Alyssa.aber@unt.edu or 940-565-3510 to schedule a Skype interview.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – The Conference Board, an organization that makes economics based-forecasts, released a report today stating that the Leading Economic Index for the U.S. increased 0.6 percent in August.

The Leading Economic Index provides an indication of how well the economy will be performing in about six months. The August increase follows an increase of 0.9 percent in July and a 0.8 percent rise in June.

Dr. Terry Clower, director of Center for Economic Research and Development at the University of North Texas, says that this increase is good sign for the U.S. economy.

"This continues a string of increases we have seen for the past five months and is another sign that the economy is starting to turn upward possibly ending the current recession," says Clower.

However, Clower also warns that there is still reason to remain cautious about the outlook for the U.S. economy.

"Many forecasters are talking about there being an extended recession with a ‘false' recovery in the middle," says Clower. "Concerns include continued tight lending standards for businesses and consumers, the reluctance to resume hiring, which leads to consumers remaining very cautious with household spending, a new wave of residential mortgage defaults and increasing commercial real estate loan defaults as banks refuse to refinance existing loans."

Clower says that if the U.S. economy were in a hospital, doctors would be describing its condition as "guarded" – not getting worse, some signs of improvement, but still very vulnerable.

Clower can be reached at can be reached at his office at 940-565-4049, on his cell phone at (214) 202-4692 or by e-mail at tclower@unt.edu. He is available via Skype by request; contact Alyssa Aber at Alyssa.aber@unt.edu or 940-565-3510 to schedule an interview.