Student Groups Call for Hall’s Resignation [Updated]

By Andrew Roush in Promote & Protect on April 22, 2014 at 12:15 pm | No Comments

Update: A resolution calling for Hall’s resignation was removed from the Student Government legislative assembly docket Tuesday. The Daily Texan reports that “many students who originally sponsored the legislation felt that it prematurely accused Hall of being guilty.”

At press time, the House transparency committee was meeting in an executive session to review the report by special counsel Rusty Hardin and discuss potential actions.

Original Story:

The ongoing investigation of UT System regent Wallace Hall has spilled from the news section to the opinion pages of newspapers across the state and the nation. Groups, individuals, and editorial boards have chimed in, some defending Hall’s massive document requests of UT-Austin as a quest for accountability, others calling on Hall to resign for distracting and potentially damaging UT and the System.

The university’s student leadership organizations are the latest to call on Hall to step down.

On Monday, the presidents of 17 college councils, which serve as the voice of students in academic affairs, signed a letter to Gov. Rick Perry calling for Hall’s resignation. Geetika Jerath, president of the collective Senate of College Councils, also signed the letter. Presidents of the McCombs School councils, the Undergraduate Business Council and the Masters in Professional Accounting Council, did not sign.

In the letter, the student leaders contend that Hall’s actions have hurt UT-Austin’s reputation, and that Hall’s “actions against” the flagship campus are not in the students’ best interest. The letter encourages Perry to ask for Hall’s resignation and, barring that, force his resignation or removal.

The executive committee of Student Government, which officially represents students to administrators and public officials, has signed a letter that also calls for Hall’s immediate resignation and is expected to pass a resolution to that effect Tuesday. Last November, Senate and Student Government passed votes of “no confidence” in Hall.

The embattled regent is under investigation by a select committee of the Texas House, which is charged with ascertaining Hall’s actions and whether those actions could be grounds for impeachment. The committee’s counsel, Rusty Hardin, has completed a report that claims four grounds for potential impeachment. The report also says Hall may have violated state and federal privacy statutes, and Hall’s case has been conveyed to the Travis County District Attorney’s office, which houses the state’s Public Integrity Unit.

You can read both letters below. Can’t see the letters? Click here. 

Senate of College Councils Letter to Governor Perry

Executive Board Opinion, Regent Wallace Hall

Tags: impeachment, student government, university of texas students, wallace hall, wallace hall impeachment hearing