University of Texas System regents are being scrutinized carefully for what many contend is “micromanagement” of the system’s flagship campus, UT-Austin.
Oh, how this reminds me a bit of a dust-up that occurred many years ago at a much smaller university system. It stunk then and I sense that a smell coming from this latest university system kerfuffle.
http://www.texastribune.org/2013/03/01/lawmakers-prepare-review-university-management-ut/
The UT board of regents, most of them appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, is under the microscope for the way it is treating UT-Austin President Bill Powers, who recently was honored on the state Senate floor by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for being an agent of “reform.” Senate Higher Education Committee Chairman Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, is suggesting his committee is going to look long and hard at Powers’s relationship with the regents, and he certainly should, given the UT System’s place in the higher ed hierarchy in Texas. “This sort of thing comes up, and we find other systems with glitches and upheavals occasionally,” he told the Texas Tribune, “but right now, it’s the University of Texas.”
State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said that micromanagement was “absolutely” occurring at UT. “I’ve heard that there are some regents who are still skipping over the chancellor and over the president to go directly to deans or other personnel and issue directives,” she said. “I thought lessons had been learned, but obviously not.”
Not long after I arrived in Texas back in 1984, the Lamar University System – which by the way no longer exists – got entangled in a serious meddling matter with Lamar Chancellor C.Robert Kemble. If memory serves, many on the board didn’t like Kemble’s management style. They nitpicked his every move on the Beaumont campus. Kemble eventually resigned the Lamar chancellorship and the board installed the man they wanted, Lamar grad George McLaughlin.
McLaughlin was a nice enough guy, but was was academically unqualified for the job – in my view. He lacked the level of hands-on classroom experience I thought at the time would be necessary for the job as chancellor.
The point here is that university politics can poison the academic environment at any institution of higher learning. It did for a time at Lamar, which eventually surrendered its system status and was rolled into the Texas University System, along with schools such as Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin University.
“I believe in reform. I know Bill Powers believes in reform,” said Dewhurst on the Senate floor. “That’s why I’m particularly troubled when I see UT regents going around this man and this administration.”
This fight can get real nasty in a big hurry. The individuals in charge would do well to take stock of the stakes involved.