House speaker, former regents among those who asked UT to admit students

UT Austin.

UT Austin. Photo: Ashley Landis, Special Contributor Photo: Ashley Landis, Special Contributor Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close House speaker, former regents among those who asked UT to admit students 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

"Dear Bill," many of them begin -- letters from powerful alumni, donors and state leaders to former University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers on behalf of under-qualified students later admitted to the state's flagship.

Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, who formed a committee to investigate embattled UT Regent Wallace Hall Jr., former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who now chairs the board of the powerful Texas Exes alumni group, and several former UT regents and current state officeholders are among those who wrote to Powers.

Hundreds of letters, redacted copies of which were obtained Tuesday by the Houston Chronicle, were sent to Powers, former System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa and other administrators on behalf of 73 under-qualified applicants to UT Austin who were later admitted to the school, according to a report commissioned by the UT System and released earlier this year.

The letters themselves, however, were not necessarily what led to the admission of the students, UT Chancellor Bill McRaven said in a statement.

"Our universities receive thousands of letters of recommendation each year," McRaven said. "Letters of recommendation do not determine a student's fate."

A committee McRaven tasked with studying UT admissions policies will present recommendations to the board of regents in August.

Consultants who investigated admissions at UT-Austin found that Powers stepped in to make sure certain students were admitted. This sort of intervention is extremely rare, according to national admissions association leaders, former university presidents and others interviewed recently.

But it has happened at other Texas schools, including Texas A&M, where former President Ray Bowen said, "Being a president of a university is sort of hand-to-hand combat, in the sense that you're always confronting individuals who went to school there, whose children go to school there, political figures -- sometimes employees of the university, even -- who have special requests."

Hall, a UT regent whose voluminous information requests prompted the state House committee investigation and a grand jury inquiry, has been on a quest to get information behind the report on admissions practices at UT-Austin. He's suing McRaven over access to the records.

Among those who wrote letters to UT administrators were:

-- Red McCombs, a San Antonio billionaire and the namesake of UT Austin's business school

-- State Sen. Rodney Ellis, a Houston Democrat

-- Ben Crenshaw, professional golfer and UT alumnus, who wrote on behalf of a "young girl in the Houston area"

-- UT women's athletics director Christine Plonsky

-- Former UT Regent Thomas Hicks

-- State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a longtime higher education leader in the Legislature

-- State Sen. Carlos Uresti, a San Antonio Democrat

-- Jess Hay, a former UT regent, who chaired the board for more than two years

-- State Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr., a Brownsville Democrat

-- W.A. Moncrief, Jr., a major donor, who has given at least $25 million to the university.

-- H. Scott Caven, Jr., a former UT regent

-- Mike A. Myers, a UT Law School alumnus and a major donor who is also the namesake of UT's track and soccer stadium

-- State Sen. Kevin Eltife, a Tyler Republican

-- State Rep. Ryan Guillen, a Rio Grande City Democrat

-- Hector DeLeon, a UT alumnus who has served as board president of the University of Texas Foundation, a trustee of the Law School Foundation, and as president of both the UT Law Alumni Association and the Texas Exes.

-- Austin attorney Roy Minton, who graduated from the UT Law School.

Read their letters in the slideshow above.