The University of Texas admissions controversy grew out of the investigations and public statements of a member of the University of Texas System Board of Regents.
Wallace L. Hall Jr. was appointed to a six-year term in February 2011 by then Governor
Rick Perry
James Richard Perry (born March 4, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 14th United States secretary of energy from 2017 to 2019 and as the 47th governor of Texas from 2000 to 2015. Perry also ran unsuccessfully for the Republic ...
. Following his appointment, and in the wake of the failure of a campaign to remodel the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
along business lines, Hall began broadly investigating the administrative dealings of President
Bill Powers.
Hall was the first to publicly raise concerns about legislative influence on admissions at UT-Austin under President Powers' tenure.
Following up on these concerns, the UT system launched a limited probe to determine whether legislators' application recommendations made directly to Powers were given special treatment.
On February 12, 2015 this investigation found that
Powers had helped certain applicants gain admission, including those with questionable academic credentials, if he felt that doing so was in the University's best interests.
[https://www.wsj.com/articles/president-of-university-of-texas-at-austin-faulted-on-admissions-1423786177 Wall Street Journal UT Faulted] This was described by some as vindication of UT Regent
Hall
In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...
.
Others have pointed out that such admissions procedures are widespread, even desirable, in American higher education.
According to the report, from 2009 to 2014, students flagged by university officials were admitted 74% of the time compared to an overall admission rate of 40%.
President Powers and his Chief of Staff "each failed to speak with candor and forthrightness expected of people in their positions of trust and leadership," the report stated.
Powers agreed to step down in June 2013, partly in response to the probe. He told ''The Wall Street Journal'' that he had "intervened on behalf of a relatively small number of students" but denied that it was "undue influence".
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