The University of Texas at Arlington has once again solidified its reputation as a national leader in online education, earning significant gains in the 2025 U.S. News & World Report Best Online Programs rankings released today, including the College of Education’s online programs placing in the top 5% nationally. UTA’s online master’s in education ranked 15th out of 313 institutions, and those programs tailored for military veterans and military-connected students jumped to No. 5, up from No. 10 in 2024. This marks the seventh consecutive year that the College of Education’s online master’s programs have ranked among the top 60 in the nation. 

With research specialties at the intersections of energy, climate and environmental politics, UC Santa Barbara professor Leah Stokes has no shortage of timely topics to talk about, and get others to think of. There’s climate change, water policy, renewable energy, voting behavior. And that’s just her research, published in top journals and distilled into her 2020 book, “Short Circuiting Policy” (Oxford University Press).

Recently created Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas (LSMPAs) like Revillagigedo in Mexico are potentially large enough to protect highly migratory species like tuna, especially bigeye tuna, possibly leading to increases in catch rates for tuna fisheries operating outside their boundaries. The findings were published in Science on Dec. 12, 2024.

A new book takes readers on a guided tour of Maya history as narrated by an anthropologist who has spent more than 35 years salvaging and exploring the remains of ancient Maya cities, farms and sacred spaces. “Maya Wisdom and the Survival of Our Planet,” by Lisa J. Lucero, is also a call for a radical transformation of contemporary society from its careless and wasteful ways to a more sustainable social order modeled on the Maya’s worldview.