The population of Texas is changing in ways that will influence the educational system, job force and financial health of the state.
Dr. Steve Murdock, former state demographer and director of the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas at Rice University, will examine dramatic population shifts between 2000 and 2010 during a talk Friday titled, “The Texas Challenge: Implications of Demographic Change for Education, the Labor Force and Economic Development.”
The lecture, set for 11:30 a.m. in the Alexander Clark Center, is a collaboration between the Office of Diversity and Community Engagement and the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences.
Murdock will discuss areas of population growth and decline, with particular emphasis on the changing racial makeup of Texas and the overall aging of the population.
He will delve into the socioeconomic factors of some groups and discuss how well their education needs are being met. Income, poverty and labor characteristics of various groups will be explored.
“Dr. Murdock’s talk will inform anybody in the audience and will create the awareness and the call to action needed to overcome the great challenges in our society in Texas and in the United States,” said Dr. Magaly Spector, vice president for Diversity and Community Engagement.
Murdock is the founding director of the Hobby Center and holds the Allyn and Gladys Cline chair in sociology at Rice University. He is the former director of the U.S. Census Bureau, state demographer of Texas, holder of a Regents Chair at Texas A&M University, The Lutcher Brown Distinguished Chair in Demography and Organization Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He is a the author of 13 books and more than 150 articles and analytical reports.