Lane to lead So. Illinois University
Austin A. Lane, former president of Texas Southern University, has been appointed the new chancellor of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, according to a university release.
Lane’s appointment was approved unanimously by the university’s board of trustees Friday after the recommendation of SIU System President Daniel F. Mahony. His appointment will begin July 6 and Lane intends to be Illinois by the end of June, a Southern Illinois official said.
Lane served as TSU’s president from 2016 until February 2020, when he was ousted by the university board after being accused of not notifying them of “fraudulent and dishonest activities” in the law school’s admissions process.
The Texas Southern board placed Lane on leave without explanation in January and voted for his termination in a 6-1 vote in February. Ultimately, the board found no wrongdoing on Lane’s part, according to a settlement reached weeks later. Under that agreement, Lane stepped down and the board paid him a lump sum of $560,000, plus unpaid benefits, bringing the total buyout to $879,000, Lane said.
Concerns about Lane’s past and controversy at TSU arose at Southern Illinois’ board meeting, according to the university’s student newspaper, the Daily Egyptian.
The newspaper reported Friday that Dave Johnson, president of the SIU faculty association, expressed reservations about Lane’s appointment because of conflicting TSU enrollment statistics cited in a press release issued from Southern Illinois. The student paper also said Johnson referenced a Houston Chronicle report this week on an audit showing
4,000 students had been admitted and awarded scholarships without meeting TSU’s criteria over a three-year period, during which Lane was president.
“How do you plan to ensure trust and transparency going forward given the concerns faculty will have about the hiring of Dr. Lane?” Johnson said, according to the Egyptian. “The FA will do all in its power to work productively with the new administration, but for that relationship to be productive it must be based on transparency and trust.”
Mahony said he felt confident after discussing Lane’s history with him and reviewing several documents, including a July 2019 letter from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board closing a complaint made about TSU admissions and a March report on the investigation into TSU admissions.
“I looked at it from not just what is accused but actually what information is there, and there was virtually nothing that supported any of those accusations,” Mahony said during the meeting, the Egyptian reported.
Prior to his time at TSU, Lane served for two years as the executive vice chancellor for academic and student affairs for the Lone Star College System and as president of Lone Star College-Montgomery from 2009 to 2015. Lane was also the executive vice president for student affairs for Tyler Junior College in Texas from 2005 to 2009, and spent a decade at University of Texas at Arlington as a counselor, assistant dean of students and director of judicial affairs and dean of students.