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Wednesday, February 11, 2015
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UNIVERSITY
McRaven, legislators clash on tuition By Eleanor Dearman and Josh Willis @thedailytexan
Texas legislators and UT System administrators are squaring off over the role of the legislature in setting — or limiting — University tuition rates. Six separate bills in favor of state tuition regulation have been filed in the House and the Senate, and UT System Chancellor William McRaven has spoken out as an opponent of the policy change. In an interview with the Texas Tribune
on Thursday, McRaven said he does not support tuition regulation and thinks universities should continue to have control over their tuition rates. University Designated Tuition was deregulated in 2003, allowing universities to set their own tuition rates. Since then, in-state tuition has risen on average from $2,721 to $4,905 per semester, though for the past four years in-state tuition prices have remained relatively consistent. Out-ofstate tuition was increased by 2.6 percent in fall 2014. “[Deregulation] that was
put in place in 2003 has simply failed,” said state Sen. Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown). McRaven said he is in favor of keeping decisions regarding tuition in the hands of the Board of Regents. “I do think we need to continue to have tuition deregulated,” McRaven said in the interview. “We need to be smart and thoughtful about how we have tuition increases.” Geetika Jerath, president of the Senate of College
TUITION page 2
Lauren Ussery | Daily Texan file photo
In an interview with the Texas Tribune on Thursday, UT System Chancellor William McRaven voiced his opposition to tuition regulation, saying universities should continue to have control over their tuition rates through their respective Board of Regents.
By Eleanor Dearman @ellydearman
Ellyn Snider | Daily Texan Staff
Mary Fierro looks at a timeline of former House Rep. Barbara Jordan’s life at the Capitol on Tuesday morning. The timeline is a part of an exhibit honoring Jordan as the first black woman elected to the United States Congress.
UNIVERSITY
Regents will discuss investigations, new president By Josh Willis The UT System Board of Regents will hold their regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday, with plans to discuss the Texas Attorney General’s investigation into the UT School of Law, an independent investigation into the University’s admissions policy and the search for the next University president, among other agenda items. According to the agenda, the board will discuss how they plan to respond the Attorney General’s investigation into the UT School of Law’s forgivable loan program. In 2011, President William Powers Jr. asked Larry Sager, then-dean of the School of Law, to resign after it was revealed Sager had granted a $500,000 loan to himself under the program. The Attorney General’s investigation, submitted in December, upheld the findings of an earlier internal UT System investi-
gation performed in 2012 by Barry Burgdorf, former system vice chancellor and the then-general counsel. Burgdorf found that while the compensation broke no laws, the transactional movement of the money through the Law School Foundation meant it was not being reported properly to the University. He also found that Powers did not know about the loan program. Burgdorf resigned after releasing his report, and has since testified that some UT System regents had a “clear intent” to oust Powers when asking for the investigation. “Dean Sager denied the full picture of compensation to the Law School Faculty Budget Committee,” the Attorney General’s report said. “As a result, under Dean Sager’s leadership, the Law School provided incorrect or incomplete responses to requests for salary information by both the University management and the public pursuant to the Texas Public
Information Act.” The board is also expected to discuss the results of an independent investigation into the admission policy that Kroll, a corporate investigation and risk-consulting firm, performed in 2014. In July 2013, Regent Hall raised concerns about the admission practices at UT when he found two emails through an open records request which revealed that legislators were sending recommendation letters directly to Powers’ office. The UT System conducted a review that found no wrongdoing after this information was made public. The report found the letters were likely influential in the admissions process, but noted that no rules were violated. The report the UT System completed suggested that letters of recommendation were not to be sent directly to the president’s office. Additionally, the board is expected to discuss the search for the next UT
president. Powers is stepping down from his position in June 2015 at the request of former UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa. Instead of leaving immediately, Powers asked Cigarroa to allow for a more gradual change in leadership for the benefit of students, faculty
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Man knifed after fight at Texas Union @wynneellyn
Capitol honors Barbara Jordan’s legacy
BARBARA page 3
CAMPUS
By Wynne Davis
STATE
An exhibit honoring Barbara Jordan, civil rights activist, congresswoman and former UT professor, opened at the Capitol on Tuesday to chronicle her life and work. The exhibit, which will be open until Feb. 15, includes an interactive timeline with information about the phases of Jordan’s life. Among these phases is her tenure as the first black woman elected to the Texas Senate, and her election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1972. The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs is sponsoring the exhibit along with the Barbara Jordan Foundation and Texas Southern University in honor of Black History Month. “[Jordan represents] a tremendous amount of history here as a politician and
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and staff. “For all these reasons, an abrupt change now would seriously disrupt the progress of UT-Austin,” Powers said in a letter to Cigarroa. “A more constructive course of action would be for me to step down as President at the conclusion of the legislative session.”
A homeless man stabbed another homeless man with a knife inside the Union Building after the two got into a fight Wednesday evening. UTPD spokeswoman Cindy Posey said neither of the men, who were not affiliated with UT, were taken into custody. One man sustained minor injuries but refused services and treatment from emergency medical personnel. Posey said an investigation is ongoing. “They just came in through the doors, and they were pushing each other and then it escalated pretty quickly,” actuarial science senior Kirby Nguyen, who saw the fight take place, said. One of the men pushed the other to the ground, and the fallen man started yelling that he had been cut on the wrist, Nguyen said. Government junior Patrick Duchala said he did not witness the fight, but saw the aftermath. “There was just a bunch of blood on the ground, and then there was a trail of blood that went past that first elevator to the underground and all the way down the hallway,” Duchala said. Nguyen said he was far enough from the scene of the incident that he didn’t see the injury, but the injured individual announced he had been cut as emergency services were being called. “[The man who was cut] as he was leaving said, ‘This dude has a knife and cut me on my wrist,’ then he showed everyone his wrist and then he said [the man who shoved him] tried to cut a homeless lady,” Nguyen said. The men left before UTPD officers arrived, but officers told students they were able to find the injured man and confirmed he had suffered minor injuries from a stab wound, Nguyen said.
Jonathan Garza| Daily Texan file photo
The UT System Board of Regents will meet Wednesday to discuss the search for UT’s next president. President WIlliam Powers Jr. will step down from his position in June.
REASON TO PARTY
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