Powers Gets Frank On The Cactus Cafe, Football Salaries, And Other Hot-Button UT Issues
Imagine UT President Bill Powers on Oprah’s couch, and you’ve got the flavor of the relaxed — and remarkably candid – interview he sat down for recently. At the Midland Exes Chapter’s Texas Independence Day dinner, Powers eased into a plush armchair in a country club banquet room for 40 minutes of free-ranging questions from Texas Exes executive director Jim Boon. The format gave everyone in attendance the feeling that they’d just sat down for a casual conversation full of inside information on the University.
Boon asked about Powers’ family, including what it’s like to have a daughter at UT (she’ll call if she has printer problems and a paper due, asking if she can print at his office, Powers said). And while Boon joked that he’d refrain from asking the president about boxers versus briefs, Powers answered anyway (boxers, he deadpanned).
But once what Boon called the ‘easy questions’ were over, he got Powers to address every sticky situation (“challenge,” in administrative speak) UT faces — essentiallly, every substantive University topic that’s been in the news over the past year.
Here are a few of his standout comments:
On developing the Brackenridge Tract (which could force the closure of Lions Municipal Golf Course): “Especially in difficult times, we need to focus our resources on that core mission of teaching and research. It is not our mission to support golf in West Austin. We’re happy to do it — until we have to think, ‘Can those assets be used to support our students?’”
On potentially closing the Texas Union’s Cactus Cafe, a storied venue for folk artists in particular: “Our students want student bands in that venue. They want the kind of music that was going on in the Cactus Cafe, but also the kind of music they’re interested in, and also student bands, student improv. In the ’60s the students sort of took control of that space, and they were not having Guy Lombardo as the music. I think our students now are going through that same process. There are negotiations, and it will come out where there is a lot of the kind of music that was there, but I think the students want to be in control of that. My view is I’m going to back our students on this.”
On whether UT (and other Texas higher ed institutions) get sufficient state funding: “Places that we’re competing with — California, North Carolina, Michigan — typically spend about 3.5 percent of their GDP on higher education. We spend about 2.5 percent. We need to be on a path to correct that balance with the other important needs of the state.”
On cutting UT’s budget by 5 percent for the next year: “Any time you go through that, there’s going to be a lot of stress in any organization. We’re actually in a better position on capital projects than on the recurring budget. And then there are units — Athletics is one of them, the Advanced Research Unit on the Pickle campus gets federal funding — that generate their own money. And they have a little bit more leeway.”
On the management of UT Athletics: “We’re very careful. We have fewer sports, but we do them well. I am probably one of a handful — four, five, six college presidents in the country — that doesn’t have to say, ‘What am I going to have to do to bail out the $30 million deficit in our athletics program?’”
On investing in top-tier football coaches: “Going forward, it is critical we don’t go through the same situation we did when Coach Royal retired, with no continuity.”
On working with legislators: “I actually enjoy that work. Maybe it comes from lawyering, meeting with people. Now, by the end of the session — even chocolate fudge cake, by your fifth piece or so, you might want to take a couple days off.”
On capping automatic Top 10 Percent admissions at 75 percent of the freshman class (a measure that passed the Legislature last spring): “This is a huge step forward, and something that, to be quite candid, avoided what would have been a disaster for the University if this had not gone through. I must have spent more time on that during the legislative session than any other issue. And thank God.”
On recruiting for more geographic diversity: “We can’t be the university for five suburban districts in the state of Texas.”
For more of Powers’ take on the issues, check out these exclusive videos.
Related posts:
- Cactus Cafe Could Be Moving To Alumni Center
- UT Cites Budget Woes In Closing Cactus Cafe, Informal Classes
- Town Hall Recap: Cactus Fans Still Angry, Reactions Mixed To Texas Exes’ Offer
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8 Comments
Thanks, Lynn, for the story. I really enjoyed the videos with President Powers and Executive Director Boon.
Hook ‘em
The claim of student outcry to control the space occupied by the Cactus Cafe was refuted long ago. Without professional staff to run that space, it will be just another Union room that hosts about 2 or 3 events a semester (according to Andy Smith from the open records request by the Texas Observer).
Regarding the Cactus: it is absolutely remarkable to me that, without asking a single follow-up question, you let President Powers get away with the blatant misrepresentation that he is following student wishes. Documents dragged from UT through open-records requests reveal that administrators decided to close the Cactus before consulting students or knowing anything about their desires. Read about it here:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A975615
UT’s initial press announcement said nothing about changing the programming to meet student desires. It said they were going to "close" the club, period. Conveniently, UT has taken this press release off its website. But you can read it in full, here:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=278445599261
For over two hours at a town hall meeting, people vented to President Powers about the decision to "close" the club, which he defended. Never once did he say, "We’re not closing it. We just want to feature different music." I was there. Hundreds were there. Has the president forgotten?
Only after a community outcry arose did UT start talking about different programming and student desires. No one in the UT admin ever responds to comments such as mine, right here, directly. They just keep talking the party line, as if repeating something will make it true. Do they wonder why people think this process is filled with duplicity and disregard for the community?
If we’re really talking about nothing more than partially different Cactus programming, and not a de facto end to the programming, I ask President Powers:
"Will the Cactus continue to have the budget needed to stage the usual 200-plus shows per year, plus a new donation structure so the community can offer financial help?"
"Will the Cactus continue to employ the full time professional management needed to work with the music industry and book and stage these 200 shows (in any genre)?"
If the answer to either is "no," then let’s not talk about a mere desire to change the musical mix. They started out wanting to end the club. A "no" answer means they still want to end the club. They just hope to disguise that intention.
… and they continue to ask me for money!!!!
K Johnson, I don’t think President Powers said there was an "outcry," but that they wanted to use the room for student acts and more generationally relevant talent. It is student space and they need to be the stewards of it.
This is the line presented by the SG President Liam O’Rourke. Were there statements by students about performing in or changing the music format of the Cactus before the announcement of its closure? Find some. Just next door to the Cactus is the Showroom. That room used to have live and usually free music almost every night of the week back in the 80s and early 90s. It seems to be used only a few times a month now for anything. The only regularly scheduled event I know of is belly dancing on Thursdays and I don’t even know if they do that anymore. Just yesterday, the undergraduate student assembly made a statement in support of continued professional management of the Cactus bar and music program. Faculty advisers on the Union Board were not present and did not even know the Cactus was on the agenda at the January meeting when Andy Smith presented his decision to close the Cactus. This wasn’t even done in the open portion of the meeting, it was done in a closed executive session with some of the student members including Liam O’Rourke. The faculty advisers later protested this as did the graduate student council which later produced their own statement.
good to see a post that makes some sense! me and my boxer are happy
2 weeks to go and the fight of Manny Pacquiao and Antonio will be air live. You can watch it on my website
I love President Bill Powers. I adore him so much.