Regents to Vote on UT-Austin President
The University of Texas System Board of Regents is expected to name University of Texas at Austin provost Gregory Fenves the sole finalist for the flagship's presidency in a Friday morning meeting, sources close to the proceedings say.
The regents will meet privately in a telephone conference call that is expected to begin at 8:30 a.m.
Fenves would replace outgoing UT-Austin President Bill Powers, who is widely respected on campus and among UT alums but has been a thorn in the side for system leadership and certain regents. Up until last week, Fenves wasn't the frontrunner for the job; Oxford Vice Chancellor Andrew Hamilton was, but he accepted the New York University presidency instead.
Because of Fenves' close ties with Powers and Powers' rocky relationship with the board, a few regents oppose his candidacy. But the nine-member board only needs a simple majority — just five votes — to name Fenves the sole finalist.
Outside of Fenves, UT-Dallas President David Daniel is the only other candidate left on the regents' initial short list, though he is no longer believed to be in the running. Before Hamilton took the NYU job, Joseph Steinmetz, executive vice president and provost at Ohio State University, also withdrew from consideration.
Before becoming UT-Austin's executive vice president and provost in 2013, Fenves was the school's dean of engineering, where he raised millions of dollars for the university. Fenves also served as the chairman of the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
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This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/26/regents-meeting-friday-next-ut-austin-president/.
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