Head of regents asks Hall to resign
Chairman’s request draws mixed reaction from board members.
The chairman of the University of Texas Board of Regents called Thursday for Regent Wallace L. Hall to resign, prompting other regents to chime in with applause or criticism for their embattled colleague.
Chairman Paul Foster said that Hall — who is the subject of an impeachment inquiry by a state House panel — hasn’t violated any board rules or policies, but said that he should take the “selfless” step to resign.
“You have been quoted as saying you are responsible for your actions but not the consequences of your actions, and I completely disagree,” Foster said. “I implore you to deal with the results of the actions that now have the potential for significant consequence for the UT System.”
Hall’s critics have accused him of high-level meddling at UT-Austin, where campus officials say he has requested 800,000 pages of documents that cost the university $1 million to provide to him. A special prosecutor hired by the state House panel concluded that Hall acted like a “roving inspector general” looking for problems instead of solutions.
Hall says his research has raised legitimate questions
about transparency at the university and the influence of legislators on admissions at the UT Law School. As a regent, he has suggested his job is to hold university officials accountable for “problems, cover-ups, and intransigence at a taxpayer-funded institution.”
On Thursday, Regent Alex Cranberg applauded Hall and referred to his critics as a “lynch mob.” Cranberg enumerated a few of Hall’s actions that have spurred “positive policy changes,” including investigations of a private foundation’s monetary contributions to staff and travel expenses that have gone unreported.
Hall gave no sign of whether he would resign, and he declined to answer when reporters asked if he would. Like the other regents, he was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry, who has vocally supported him.
Foster’s call for Hall’s resignation echoes similar appeals made by several members of the House panel, which voted Monday that grounds exist to impeach Hall. They have suggested that a resignation would head off the distractions and inevitable bad publicity that a drawn-out impeachment process would bring to the regents and to UT-Austin.
Hall would be the first unelected public official in the history of Texas to be impeached.
Regent Jeffery Hildebrand on Thursday seconded the chairman’s call for Hall to resign, saying Hall’s concerns have dominated the board’s discussions: “They are defensive in nature and detract from the quality of the institution, and I got on the board to move this institution forward — to advance excellence.”
“I think we have lost the confidence and trust of many people across the state of Texas.”
Regent Gene Powell disagreed with Hildebrand and said that the board has done more than any other in the country to advance its system, including approving the construction of two new medical schools in recent years. Powell, who served as chairman of the Board of Regents last year, reiterated Foster’s point that Hall never violated any board rules.
“I think it is only fair that the public knows that everything that Regent Hall asked for ... was run by — most of it, if it was controversial — the chancellor and the chairman, and we approved it,” Powell said.
Hall has been accused of pursuing a vendetta against UT-Austin Presi- dent Bill Powers, in part because the regent has pushed for further investigation of the relationship between the UT Law School and the private, nonprofit Law School Foundation that supports it.
When Powers was the law school dean, he received $440,000 from the foundation. Between 2006 and 2010, about 20 professors received forgivable loans from the foundation ranging from about $75,000 up to $500,000 for Larry Sager, Powers’ successor as dean.
Hall has all but accused Powers of lying about when he learned of Sager’s forgivable loan, a charge Powers strongly denies.
Before being asked to resign at Thursday’s meeting, Hall called for an outside investigation into the forgivable loans overseen by the chancellor and a board committee instead of waiting for the state attorney general’s office to finish its inquiry. The investigation through the attorney general’s office has apparently stalled a year after the board requested it.
Foster blamed Hall for the slowdown and said that the office has been waiting for a letter from Hall that lists what he wants investigated. Hall said that he has given all the information he has.
“I have followed every letter they gave me to a T,” Hall said. “I have nothing to add to that. The idea that I can put concerns — 34 megabytes of information and four hours of conversation — into a letter is not reasonable. We are at an impasse.”
The board rejected Hall’s motion, 5-3. they can do that, and in this state they have.”
Defense experts said the laws are too broadly written and these charges can catch the wrong kind of cases. They also worried about more crimes becoming eligible for life sentences.
“History says that once you introduce a particular maximum punishment, when you see something that is indefensible, then we need to use that on everything,” said Allen Place, of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. “Before long you wind up having the maximum possible sentence for a variety of issues.”
Hansen said that Ritz could face additional charges in Travis County for sex crimes involving the same girl. Hansen plans to appeal the case in Hays County.
“In the penal code, prosecutors are required to see justice done, not just get convictions,” Hansen said. “From my perspective this does not look like justice. It looks like a witch hunt. This is very scary, this statute.”