more on The AVE about the University of Texas, including the effort to lower standards in a medical school. and proposals to arm the faculty.
University of Texas System regents, stung by criticism a day earlier from the alumni association at UT-Austin, pledged support Friday for academic research as a core mission of the university.
“Academic research is one of the pillars of greatness of UT Austin,” said regents’ Chairman Gene Powell and three vice chairmen in a letter to alumni and others. “We respect it. We embrace it. There has not been, nor will there be, an attempt to exclude research in how we value faculty.”
The letter did not explain why the regents hired a critic of much academic research as a special adviser March 1. The adviser, Rick O’Donnell, was reassigned Thursday and told that his $200,000-a-year job with the UT System will end by Aug. 31.
Powell declined to comment. “He has said all he wants to say about that hiring for the time being,” said Matt Flores, a UT System spokesman.
The regents seldom respond to criticism so quickly or forcefully. It is also rare for the Ex-Students’ Association, also known as the Texas Exes, to criticize the governance of the university as sharply as it did in an email sent Thursday evening to 206,000 alumni, supporters and others.
“We need your immediate help to address what is unquestionably the most serious threat our University has faced in years,” the Texas Exes’ email said. “The mission and core values of our beloved University are under attack. We are reaching out to you to please contact the UT System Board of Regents and share your concerns.”
The email, signed by Richard Leshin , president of the Texas Exes, and approved by the group’s board of directors, lamented the regents’ hiring of an adviser who has written that much academic research lacks value and that some tenured faculty members could be replaced with lower-cost instructors.
“There is no hidden agenda,” said Friday’s letter from four of the nine regents. “There is absolutely no attempt to replace our distinguished tenured faculty with part-time, contract lecturers.”
The letter, signed by Powell and vice chairmen Paul Foster, Steve Hicks and James Dannenbaum, said the only goal for UT-Austin and all other UT System institutions is “to be as innovative and committed as possible in advancing education, research, and service to our state and nation and to honor our state’s constitutional charge to ensure that UT remain a University of the First Class.”
Erin Huddleston, a spokeswoman for the Texas Exes, said the organization had no immediate comment on the regents’ letter. She said the group plans to distribute it to its email recipients on Monday.
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