July 16, 2014      12:47 PM
Cigarroa focuses on trust issues as the reason he demanded Powers step aside
Transparency Committee doesn’t get much in the way of specifics for Cigarroa's demand that Powers resign
The Texas House committee now drafting articles
of impeachment against UT System Regent Wallace Hall spent much of Wednesday
morning grilling system officials about what exactly changed leading up to
Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa’s recent demand that UT
Austin President Bill Powers
resign. Powers, as you may know, is now set to step down after the regular
session of The Legislature next year.
Rep. Carol
Alvarado, the Houston Democrat who co-chairs the Select Committee on Transparency
in State Agency Operations, said that last week was “momentous” for the
UT System. Her co-chair, Rep. Dan Flynn,
R-Van, said “Sadly there are many folks that just want us to rubber stamp an issue." When this is all said and done, Flynn said
he hopes the vast majority of observers will feel the committee did a "fair
and thorough” job of looking into Hall’s actions and the impacts on UT Austin
as well as the system at large.
Chancellor Cigarroa was asked point-blank by Rep.
Alvarado about what ultimately led him to issue an ultimatum to Powers over the
July 4 weekend to step aside.
Cigarroa answered that understanding the situation would
require knowing about the history of his interactions with Powers. Cigarroa said
he had long ago laid out certain “tenets” that were important. Among those were
good citizenship, rebuilding collaborations, enhancing trust, and cooperation. One
of the reasons a deal was reached to allow Powers to stay through next year,
Cigarroa said, was so that he could serve out his tenure as the chairman of the
Association
of American Universities, a prestigious national group. Everyone in the
system is very proud of that accomplish by Powers, Cigarroa said.
By Scott Braddock
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