Thursday, March 21, 2013
Board of Regents to Investigate $5.5 Million in Forgivable Loans to University of Texas Law Profs
Following up on my prior posts (links below): the University of Texas System Board of Regents voted 4-3 to investigate the award of $5.5 million in forgivable loans to University of Texas law faculty.
- ABA Journal, U of Texas Regents OK External Probe of Law School Funding
- Alcalde, Regents Order Further Investigation Into UT Law School
- The Daily Texan, In Tense Meeting, Board of Regents Votes to Commission External Audit of UT Law School Foundation
- Dallas Morning News, Proposal to Reassess UT Law School Foundation Funding Passes by One Vote
- Inside Higher Ed, New Probe of U. of Texas Called 'Vendetta'
- National Law Journal, Texas Law Faculty Loans Face Additional Scrutiny
- San Antonio Express-News, UT Regents Seek Funds Probe
- Texas Tribune, UT System Seeks External Review of Law Foundation
Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:
- University of Texas Law School Dean Resigns Immediately in Wake of Faculty Division Over Compensation (Dec. 9, 2011)
- University of Texas Chancellor Orders Review of Use of Foundation Funds to Pay 19 Law Faculty Over $300,000 (Dec. 12, 2011)
- Leiter on the Turmoil at the University of Texas School of Law (Dec.13, 2011)
- More on the Turmoil at the University of Texas School of Law (Dec. 16, 2011)
- Dean Sager's $4.65 Million in Forgivable Loans to Law Profs 'Ripped Apart' Texas Faculty (Feb. 21, 2012)
- Report Blasts $4.65 Million in Forgivable Loans to Texas Law Profs (Nov. 14, 2012)
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2013/03/board-of-regents.html
Comments
Is there any evidence that these faculty members were paid more than what they were worth in terms of their contribution to the scholarly reputation and quality of instruction at UT law school?
Posted by: Anon | Mar 25, 2013 8:18:43 AM
What's wrong with paying talented faculty members to retain them? Retention payments and merit-pay are standard practice in most institutions, including corporations and most non-profits. The best university presidents need to be paid at least as well as their next best option, sometimes more if they agree to stay at a weaker institution. Even the best Protestant Ministers and Jewish Rabbis make the most money.
Would these faculty members seriously have wanted to stay at UT without these payments when they could have gone to a higher ranked school in a better location? Property values per square foot are not very high in Texas, and there's a good reason for that: people who have better options don't want to live in Texas.
Posted by: Anon | Mar 25, 2013 8:15:32 AM
These are no doubt the same professors who are talking about "social justice" and the "crisis in legal education."
Posted by: michael livingston | Mar 22, 2013 2:29:01 AM
"Scratch any college in America and you will find the same or worse ethic/morality"
At least with regard to "law" schools, can there be *any* doubt after decades of using deceitful, misleading employment statistics to enrich themselves?
I wonder if the professoriat and the administrative apparatus realize just how utterly loathed they are by ever increasing numbers of their "alumni" - who sooner or later are going to be leading the charge to tear down the ethical charnel houses that the vast majority of "law" schools have become.
Outside of fewer than a dozen law school reformers, the professoriat remains disgustingly silent on the profound and pervasive financial corruption that long incubated within the institutions they postured about "governing".
Had a Dean trifled with faculty parking, there would be a faculty revolt.
But financially rape the students of their future and spread the proceeds around - and all anyone will hear will be quiet murmurs of "increasing practical skills".
*Nothing* on investigating decades of deceit.
*Nothing* - a vacuum as profound as the ethics of the professoriat, despite all their endless, nauseating liberal poses.
Posted by: cas127 | Mar 21, 2013 4:47:28 PM
I'm not amazed. Scratch any college in America and you will find the same or worse ethic/morality.
Posted by: Tortuga | Mar 21, 2013 6:24:41 AM
The question is why were there 3 votes not to investigate? What is wrong with those people?
Posted by: Rick Caird | Mar 21, 2013 6:22:51 AM
If anyone else had done any of that, these same colleges, professors and Deans would want their heads on a pike.
I see such behavior and such thinking almost everywhere I look these days. Our own corruption and dishonesty is justifiable, even noble. In others, it is unethical behavior that absolutely must be punished. We wonder and rage about the failings of modern society, forgetting that it is made from the behavior of people just like ourselves. People like these college professors, whose behavior is perfectly justified in their own eyes. Behavior that is even noble...in their own eyes.
Posted by: Warren Bonessteel | Mar 21, 2013 5:52:58 AM
Who is the sock-puppet pretending to be Michael Livingston?
Posted by: Anon | Mar 25, 2013 8:21:41 AM