UT Education Dean Honored with Endowed Chair

By Rose Cahalan in Blog on February 24, 2012 at 4:44 pm | No Comments

UT’s College of Education honored its dean, Manuel J. Justiz, on Friday by presenting him with the Manuel J. Justiz Endowed Chair in Math, Science, and Technology in Teacher Education.

The new endowed chair is the college’s eighth. To fund it, the College of Education Advisory Council raised $500,000 in just three months.

At a ceremony during the College of Education Advisory Council meeting, colleagues and donors praised Justiz for his leadership—and screwed four legs onto a small symbolic chair, complete with a decorative tassel and miniature set of longhorns.

Prominent alumnus and former Texas Exes president Hector De Leon credited Justiz with raising UT’s education program from lackluster to number one in the nation.

“When he assumed the deanship in 1990, UT was not even in the top tier,” De Leon said. “In 2011, we were ranked first in the nation among public schools. We are the only number-one ranked school or college on this campus. And that is because of Manny.”

Justiz’s colleagues and supporters honored the dean with a rhyming champagne toast, one line of which was: “To his leadership we are grateful / because he always steps up, no matter the plateful.”

Photo courtesy the College of Education

Tags: award, chair, dean, education, honor, manuel justiz