Texas Southern University’s president placed on administrative leave without explanation
Texas Southern University President Austin Lane told a local news station he did nothing wrong and expects to be fully reinstated or else paid out for the remainder of his contract.
BY SHANNON NAJMABADI JAN. 13, 20209 AM
The president of one of the country’s largest historically black colleges, Texas Southern University, in Houston, was placed on paid administrative leave Friday by university regents.
The board provided no explanation for the decision but said in a statement they were “committed to ensuring all activities at the university are conducted in an ethical and transparent manner in accordance with the university’s mission, vision and values.”
The recommendation to place Lane on immediate administrative leave as an “additional audit committee and external investigation continues” was read aloud and later approved at the board’s meeting Friday.
But two regents have harshly criticized the way Lane was removed, with one calling the process “flawed” and another saying it was “bush-league, amateurish… spiteful and mean-spirited” to not notify the president in advance.
Another regent, Derrick Mitchell, defended Lane during the Friday meeting, saying there were some on the board “who have been out to undermine” him from the start.
“I think that this has been, that the process was flawed,” Mitchell said during the meeting. “And I think that what we as a board may be doing is an injustice.”
Price abstained from the vote to place Lane on administrative leave and Mitchell voted no.
Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Huewitt will be interim president of Texas Southern, which was established by the state Legislature in 1947 and has about 9,700 students, 80% of them African American. A spokesperson for the university referred questions about Friday’s decision to spokespeople for the board of regents, who did not respond.
The news comes about two months after an internal investigation found “certain improprieties related” to Texas Southern’s admissions process, leading the board to launch a comprehensive review of the university’s admissions, extending to enrollment, financial aid and scholarship protocols at each of its colleges. The review is being led by independent auditors, attorneys and experts.
A statement announcing the review in November said the “person involved with these improprieties” was no longer employed at Texas Southern and that information had been turned over to local authorities. “The University will have no further comment until the investigative process is complete,” it added.
In 2006, another former Texas Southern president was fired and nearly faced prison over allegations that she spent some $500,000 in university funds on personal items, like furniture. The trial of former President Priscilla Slade ended with a deadlocked jury and she agreed to a plea deal in 2008.
“This story has been edited for length.”
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