Senator Judith Zaffirini (D-Laredo) is crystallizing her opposition to transparency and controlling skyrocketing tuition costs. Regent Alex Cranberg’s simple information request about professor compensation and use of time stirred Zaffirini into an agitated effort to shield UT from accountability. According to the Texas Tribune, Zaffirini is telling outsiders they shouldn’t request data from the University…

Senate Bill 5, authored by Judith Zaffarini (D), has poison pills buried within designed to decrease transparency and accountability in higher education spending. The stated purpose of the bill is to control education costs. This is Zaffarini’s own statement of intent for SB 5: “C.S.S.B. 5 is designed to facilitate efficient operations, reduce institutional costs,…

Accountability data has been compromised in the UT Austin internal audit called by the Board of Regents. The new establishment-controlled audit could release results this week. Two of the most important data points are teacher salaries and quantity of teaching. The existence and integrity of these important data points are now in question. Rick O’Donnell…

The Houston Chronicle wrote a story on the coming higher education reform, and the teeth-gnashing it has caused among the timid and entrenched. The story had a quote from a Professor that captures the sentiment felt by honest people worried about the task forces that are assigned to audit UT Austin’s teaching results, research results, and money-spending…

We’ve written previously about the severely slanted coverage of higher education by Evan Smith’s Texas Tribune describing the newsman’s treatment of the subject as “journo-nuclear.” University of Texas internal emails strongly suggest the Tribune coverage was tainted. Emails obtained by AgendaWise from the Office of President Bill Powers indicate Reeve Hamilton, Smith’s go-to writer on…

Rosenthal Alves is a good example of cooperation among the UT establishment, the Texas Tribune, and leftist donors. Alves is an original board member for the Texas Tribune with close ties to George Soros’s Open Society Institute and to the Knight Foundation. Alves is also the Director of UT Austin’s Knight Center for Journalism in…

A Texas Tribune interview with a UT legend, former Dean of Students and Chancellor John Silber, was a welcome reprieve from the UT Establishment-sponsored propaganda the Tribune has published so far on the higher ed controversy. In the 1970s, a controversy erupted between the Regents and the Administration. It boiled down to Regent Frank Erwin…

The higher education establishment is worried, and Gene Powell is the one who worries them. The UT Board of Regents, chaired by Gene Powell, has commissioned an examination to find ways to improve educational quality and efficiency. Rick O’Donnell was brought on to help staff the two task forces conducting the examination. In a sense,…

Senator Judith Zaffirini (D–Laredo) and UT Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa have a well-established partnership, laden with courtly privilege. Senator Zaffirini chairs of the Senate Higher Education Committee. In 2009, She nominated Cigarroa to be the 10th Chancellor of the University of Texas System. Senator Zaffirini helped secure funding for a project for the University of Texas…