http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/us/tensions-between-rick-perry-and-uts-bill-powers.html?_r=0

THE TEXAS TRIBUNE

College Rivalry, or Differences Over Policy?

By ROSS RAMSEY

Published: March 30, 2013

"The “seven breakthrough solutions” unveiled in 2008 were designed to bring some market-oriented changes to the state’s colleges and universities. A couple of those hogged the attention: rating professors, based on student assessments; separating teaching and research; and including revenue as one measure of whether a program or class should continue. Mr. Perry implicitly endorsed the idea by headlining a daylong conference where the ideas were unveiled, ensuring the attendance of top regents and administrators from the state’s public colleges.

The Austin guys defied it. So did the Texas A&M University System, but the chancellor at the time, Mike McKinney, a friend, adviser and legislative colleague of Mr. Perry’s, has left that particular field of battle. John Sharp, a former comptroller, replaced him in 2011, with a couple of advantages. A&M was no hungrier for reform ideas than anybody else, but Dr. McKinney took the political blows and Mr. Sharp got to waltz in as the bearer of peace. At U.T.-Austin, Mr. Powers, still in power, personifies the resistance. He is in harm’s way politically, but he is quite popular with professional Longhorns throughout Texas."