AUSTIN, Texas (CN) - A University of Texas regent sued the chancellor, for refusing to show him a report on alleged "influence peddling" in university admissions.
Wallace L. Hall Jr. sued University of Texas System Chancellor William H. McRaven in Travis County Court on Monday for the report on admissions at U-Texas, Austin.
Hall was appointed in 2011 to a six-year term on the Board of Regents. He was a member of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board before then-Gov. Rick Perry appointed him as a regent.
The previous Chancellor, Francisco Cigarroa, commissioned two investigations into allegations of "improper outside influences" on admissions decisions. The first investigation was an internal one that resulted in a May 2014 report showing that "legislators and other influential people have routinely recommended prospective students directly to the University President."
"(S)uch prospective students have been granted admission at rates significantly higher than the remaining applicant pool; and this disparity in admission rates cannot be explained by grades, test scores, or other legitimate factors of individual merit," the complaint states.
Hall says that report recommended review and revision of admissions practices, but did not indicate that disciplinary actions had been taken.
Then came new "revelations" from a former admissions official, Hall says: that the UT president allowed "outside influences," such as donors, alumni, regents and legislators to pressure officials to admit students less qualified than those who were denied, and even increase class size to accommodate them.
Chancellor Cigarroa then hired independent consultant Kroll Inc. to do a second investigation.
Kroll, which was paid $400,000, interviewed UT System officials, looked at thousands of emails and analyzed 10 years of admissions data.
Kroll issued a "Summary of Key Findings" on Feb. 6 this year, citing undue influence on admissions decisions, Hall says.
The summary does not contain the actual interviews, emails, analyses of student application files or source materials. Nor does it reveal who exerted undue influence, nor the precise sorts of pressure to which the university president claims he was submitted.
Hall says the Board of Regents was not allowed to review "the work product underlying Kroll's summary or to ask questions of the Kroll investigators."
When McRaven succeeded Cigarroa this year, he said no disciplinary action would be taken on the findings in the Kroll report.
Hall requested access to the Kroll report source materials in March, because he was concerned about McRaven's "quick, unilateral adjudication." He wants to understand the "issues and potential risks to the University System that were identified or discussed by Kroll but, for whatever reason, did not make it into the published Kroll report."
Hall says Board of Regents rules give him and all regents the right to see the Kroll records, to "fulfill their duties and responsibilities."
The Regents' rule on information requests states that "the vote of any two or more regents in support of the request is sufficient to direct that the request be filled without delay."
The Board of Regents convened a special meeting on Hall's request for the Kroll records on April 8. Before the vote, the regents chairman suggested that McRaven's chief concern with Hall's request was maintaining confidentiality of records.
Hall says he agreed to review the records in McRaven's office, to guarantee confidentiality and to save regents the trouble of voting on the matter.