IS THERE TROUBLE AT THE UT SYSTEM HOUSE? AND WILL IT MAKE UTB-TSC SEPARATION ISSUE IRRELEVANT?

By Juan Montoya
The news that a key member of the UT System Transition Team overseeing the separation between the Brownsville campus and the Texas Southmost College has local observers wondering whether there is trouble afoot in Austin.
David B. Prior, the executive vice-chancellor for academic affairs submitted his resignation late September but has agreed to remain at his position until a successor can be found.
Prior oversaw the UT System's nice academic campuses and was in charge of the transition team negotiating with TSC for a division of real estate and financial assets after the breakup of the "partnership" that was in place since 1991.
"UT transition team  member resigns," wrote in a source close to the TSC team. "Perhaps he was not in agreement with (Chancellor) Francisco Cigarroa.
The news comes as Cigarroa scrapped his much-ballyhooed program of "seven proposed breakthrough solutions" and is now focusing on on advancing its 15 academic and health campuses, the chairman of the Board of Regents said recently.
The Austin Statesman reported that Gene Powell, testifying before a special legislative panel examining higher education governance, said the board stands squarely behind Cigarroa's plan to raise graduation rates, expand online learning and establish medical schools in South Texas and Austin.
Despite Powell's comments in support of Cigarroa, his critics had contended that they remain concerned about its direction, with one asserting that it has four "runaway members": Powell and Regents Brenda Pejovich, Wallace Hall and Alex Cranberg.
That description was offered by Gordon Appleman, a lawyer in Fort Worth and a former chairman of the Chancellor's Council Executive Committee, a group of more than 300 donors to the UT System.
"Until we see some actions consistent with the comments (by Powell), we'll have to be vigilant," Appleman told the Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance, Excellence and Transparency.
The newspaper reported that even staunch Longhorn U. supporters consider that part of the problem is that the UT board lacks firm, written conflict-of-interest policies and some even claim that the controversy was a result of "failed governance," and urged an overhaul of the structure of public university governing boards by the Legislature.
The nine-member boards should be expanded somewhat, and the regents' terms, currently six years, should be shortened, said Jastrow, former chairman of Temple-Inland Corp. and chairman of UT-Austin's ongoing $3 billion capital campaign.
How does this bode for the UTB-TSC separation?
"The UT system house is in turmoil," said our source. "It's doubtfull that the UTB-TSC issue rates very high with them right now."