It's A Clear-cut Case Of Open & Shut

Regarding: "Report: UT chief broke no rules" (Friday Front Page), I can only say: what nonsense.  The report - commissioned by regents to determine whether University of Texas president Bill Powers peddled college admissions to alumni and politicians for donations and political favors - is so fraught with contradictions, rationalizations and tortured conclusions as to be laughable.  

 

The Kroll consulting firm admits that under Powers "up to 300 applicants per year" that otherwise would not qualify for admission were given special consideration, "mostly at the request of legislators or regents", but excuses the behavior by concluding that "colleges and universities across the country must weigh and balance competing factors, which sometimes include relationships with donors, legislators and others.”  

The report also states that Powers and his chief of staff, Nancy Brazzil "misled the inquiry", and "failed to speak with the candor and forthrightness expected of people in their respective positions of trust and leadership".  All that aside, the Kroll report grandly concludes that Powers "broke no rules."  And yet, as the article points out, "Texas law prohibits legacy admissions".  

President Powers can "weigh and balance" until the cows come home; it doesn't change the fact that if he granted even one favor, he broke the law.  As to his prevarications, his actions by any other name are perjury.  Luckily for Powers, this investigation was not a legal proceeding, but that is a technicality that should give him no comfort.

Ironically, the Kroll report - so obsessed with excusing Powers' behavior - provides all the justification needed for a formal criminal investigation.  It also exonerates regent Wallace Hall, the whistle-blower who brought Powers' wrong-doing to light, and the attempts by establishment goons to criminalize Hall's activities on behalf of Texas should themselves be the subject of the same investigation. 

Pete Smith

Houston, TX