CC confers honorary degree on Chisum

Clarendon College conferred an honorary degree on State Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) during a reception for the long-serving legislator last Thursday.
More than 100 people were in attendance when CC President Bill Auvenshine surprised Chisum with an honorary Associate of Arts in Humanties.

“It has been said that to have friends you must be a friend,” Auvenshine said, “and Warren Chisum has a lot of friends because he has been a friend of Clarendon College and the entire Texas Panhandle.”

Chisum, a native of Pampa, has represented Donley and Gray counties and the rest of District 88 in the Texas House of Representatives since 1989. He said he was very happy about his new degree.

“I’ll have to call my office and let them know I’m a college graduate now,” he said.

Chisum jokingly asked if he owed any tuition, and Auvenshine said he was sure the representative was “all paid up.”

Following the conferral of the degree, spoke briefly about the work of the 81st Legislature, which concluded earlier this year. He addressed increases in funding for education and said some increases in the budget this year are one time expenditures using federal stimulus money.

“We were very careful not to start new programs that wouldn’t be funded in the future,” Chisum said.
He also defended Gov. Rick Perry’s action to refuse certain unemployment benefit funds from the federal government, saying that accepting that money would have meant Texas businesses would have to fund a system that would cover part-time employees and thus have to pay higher taxes.

“We’re creating jobs in this state right now,” he said. “Our unemployment rate is lower than the nation’s, and we feel like we’re on the right track.”
Thursday’s reception was co-hosted by the college and the Donley County Republican Party.

Chisum was also honored Monday by the Texas Association of Community Health Centers (TACHC) with that organization’s Legislator of the Year Award.
During an Amarillo event celebrating National Health Center Week, Rep. Chisum’s leadership and commitment in the passage of physician loan repayment legislation were highlighted and applauded. The legislation takes a major step toward addressing a critical physician shortage across the state, including the Panhandle and High Plains. More than half of Texas counties currently need additional primary care physicians.

Chisum, along with State Rep. Garnet Coleman of Houston, received the Patient Advocacy Award by the Texas Academy of Family Physicians in Arlington on July 25.