During the 2011 legislative session conservative higher education advocates worked to make transparency and cost reductions a reality at publicly funded universities in Texas. They were met with vitriolic rebuttals from entrenched administrators, and their liberal partners in the legislature and media. This week the media has highlighted the role that Speaker Joe Straus played…
AgendaWise On Campus
Learn MoreAgendaWise On Campus explores Texas’s state-funded higher education establishments. The project was inspired by the UT Establishment’s furious response to calls for increased transparency and accountability by the UT Austin Board of Regents. AgendaWise On Campus exists to foster discussion about how the University of Texas Administration operates, who influences higher ed policy, and how higher ed policy effects students, taxpayers, and tuition payers. We support real accountability and transparency for the University of Texas and other state-funded higher learning establishments. We’ll explore actors in the UT Administration, faculty, the Texas media, and our state's governing body.
Higher ed reform is as higher ed reform does
Last week the UT system Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa introduced a path to reform that was lauded by many as a higher education compromise. Skeptically, we called it a good gesture with no teeth. No more than a week later a UT alumni publican validated our skepticism. State Senator and anti-reform queen bee Judith Zaffirini recently…
UT Provost Steven Leslie criticizes higher ed analysis, offers nothing
The UT higher ed establishment has taken a criticize-only approach to efforts to improve performance and efficiency at UT-Austin. Rick O’Donnell recently released analysis of UT faculty performance, creating clever ways to separate productive and unproductive faculty members. Instead of engaging the substance of the analysis, UT Provost Steven Leslie contented himself to point out…
University of Houston joins UT aiding Soros effort
The University of Houston announced it will be partnering with the University of Texas and NPR on the upstart StateImpact project. As we have previously written, StateImpact is a George Soros funded project designed to shift public opinion to the left. The group is gearing up for launch in Texas. Until last week it was…
Political attack on Perry using higher ed?
The Lone Star Report reported last week that a group previously neutral to the higher ed reform controversy, the Coaltion for Excellence in Higher Education (CEHE), blasted Governor Perry over his support for reform. Given extensive associations of CEHE with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and President George W. Bush, both of whom have had differences…
[Updated] UT partners with Soros and NPR
The University of Texas, through its NPR outlet KUT, is recruiting reporters to run a new project. These positions, run through UT and KUT and are being funded by liberal mega donor George Soros. This Soros endeavor, laundered by NPR and institutions of higher education, will consist of 2 reporters in each state covering a…
Tribune Left Wing Framing of UT Higher Ed
The left wing Texas Tribune ran another article in defense of the UT higher ed status quo. This time, UT regent Alex Cranberg was the subject of discussion and the story was picked up by the New York Times. The New York Times re-titled it “A Lightning Rod on U.T. Board, Regent Is Not Deterred”,…
Dan Branch and Higher Ed Accountability
An avowed ally of controlling university tuition costs, Representative Dan Branch (R) has nevertheless given mixed signals concerning the UT Higher Ed controversy. Branch co-chairs the Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance, Excellence, and Transparency. It’s unlikely he’ll spend political capital on liberal Democrat Senator Judith Zaffirini’s one woman conspiracy crusade against accountability in…
Dewhurst’s Zaffirini problem
Texans need to keep a close eye on state Senator Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) and Republican Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. Currently Sen. Zaffirini is lead blocking for anti-transparency in spending at Texas state universities. While taxpayers are asking for clearer answers to how money is being used Zaffirini is conjuring up conspiracy theories about meddlesome regents to…