Ryan Beaty, Ph.D.

Returning to this platform *tentatively* with the goal of making this an account that focuses on my areas of research. If you are interested in organizational communication, particularly within churches and other nonprofits, this may be the place for you.

Today I was privileged to participate in classroom observations for two colleagues. I am amazed at how far classroom instruction has changed since I was an undergrad. Technological advances are profoundly obvious, but pedagogical growth is very evident.

Congratulations to @UTKnoxville for being ranked among the world's best universities by Time Magazine! #33 among American Public Universities #64 among All American Universities #157 among Worldwide Universities It's great to be a Tennessee Volunteer! time.com/7358185/top-un…

Requiring people to pay $165 for a passport in order to vote sounds a lot like a poll tax that was eliminated by the 24th Amendment in 1964.

Every year for vday her dad always took her on a date and this year since she was in college, they planned a virtual date where she would fit him when she could. She went out to eat and when she sat down a few minutes later he walked up beside her and said "how about we have dinner together" and she absolutely lost it. THE BEST SURPRISE EVER! What a cool dad! ❤️

Roses are red, Violets are blue, When you omit me, Chaos ensues. With love, warmth, and wit, The Oxford Comma

Happy #ValentinesDay ❤️

sure...

The House is voting on the SAVE Act this week. I've generally supported voter ID, but this bill looks wildly unworkable for reasons I explain ⬇️ Registering to vote would require proof of citizenship - usually from a current passport or birth certificate (drivers’ licenses would typically no longer count). It would also eliminate mail-in registration, etc. The problem is that 47% of voters do not have a current passport with their current name. As for birth certificates, 11% of Americans lack access to the document, and 57 million women have new last names from marriage - requiring an updated birth certificate to vote. And anyone whose applied for a passport or tried to get a new or updated birth certificate from your home state knows that it is not always an easy process (and can be a financial burden for low earners). Many just won't bother. But what about all the non-citizens voting in federal elections? Well, a national USCIS audit found about 1 in 2,500 registered voters to be non-citizens. States like TX, GA, OH, MI, UT, and KS did their own audits - and non-citizens ranged from 1-in-6,800 to 1-in-2 million of their registered voters. And many of them did not actually vote (seems like an odd felony to risk). When Kansas did a version of this law, it purged approximately 40 registered non-citizens from the rolls and prevented 31,000 legal citizens from registering. That's 775 legal citizens stopped for every 1 non-citizen. This not only fails the cost-benefit test, it crosses into voter suppression. The people thinking “if you won’t jump through all these hoops then you shouldn’t vote” likely underestimate how intimidating the passport and birth certificate update processes can be, especially given these govt offices’ tendencies to turn applicants away on technicalities (not to mention the deluge of new applications they’ll face). Some people can jump through all the govt hoops, some cannot, and many will decide it’s just not worth it ("well, my vote probably won't determine the election anyway, sigh"). It’s ok for voting to require some initiative - and some form of voter ID is important. But turning away 775 citizens for every 1 non-citizen shows that the burden here is too high. At minimum, there must be a process to easily (and free) secure these documents for all citizens. Or better yet, base voter ID on drivers’ licenses etc, current because the SAVE ACT is non-workable.

The trees are going to war!

Did I understand a single word of it? I did not. Was it a vibe? It was.

Happy Birthday to the illustrious John Williams!

Many of the Epstein survivors were threatened. Their families were threatened. There’s emails threatening to kill young girls and bury them on Trump’s “back nine”. Savannah Guthrie was the first journalist to interview Epstein survivors. Her mom just went missing.

The Super Bowl was originally a pagan holiday

BREAKING: The Epstein survivors are releasing this ad on this Super Bowl Sunday to send the message that they will not “move on” from the largest sex trafficking scandal in the world. #standwithsurvivors

This is Pink She's a Border Collie who absolutely owns the Westminster agility course blazing through with a flawless 31.23-second run and zero faults. Pure focus, incredible Border Collie speed and Agility. What a legendary good girl!

The evolution of the Super Bowl ring 💍 Super Bowl LX– Sunday 6:30pm ET on NBC Stream on @NFLPlus + Peacock

We @TexasMonthly are dropping this month's cover story on Texas A&M by @cd_hooks early. It is a must read, tracking the school's earliest days and revolutionary mission to its decision today to end Women's Studies. It is worth your time

The pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was murdered by the Nazis for resisting their tyranny. Shortly before his execution, he wrote these words:

Respondents were asked to place themselves on a scale that ran from very liberal to very conservative. Then do the same for the Republican and Democratic parties. The top graph is how white evangelicals see the political landscape. The bottom is everyone else's perception.

@AdamSchefter @SethWickersham @DVNJr This level of petty and journalistic self-importance is one of the reasons media trust is declining.

Bill Belichick, the 8-time Super Bowl-winning HC, is not a first-ballot Hall of Famer, per @SethWickersham and @DVNJr. Belichick fell short of the 40 out of 50 votes needed for induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. espn.com/nfl/story/_/id…