Brad,
I don't think petitions among the peons will do the trick. It's going to take some heavy hitters to have conversations with McRaven and Fenves and/or maybe some other members of the Board of Regents. Right now, because Red McCombs has a prior relationship with Patterson, he's not going to make waves. He'll let others do it. It may take Jamail, or Denius (I imagine McRaven would be especially open to a meeting with Mr. Denius due to his being one of the most decorated veterans in WWII), Mike Meyers, or Robert Rowling (who owns Omni Hotels -- or used to).
The problem is that Fenves, when asked what he was going to do differently from Powers, said, "Nothing will change." Fenves is a disciple of Powers, so he's not likely to embarrass Bill by replacing the AD that Bill just hired.
Powers has to know by now, especially with Patterson defying him during Bill's last year as president, that he screwed up unbelievably royally by not hiring Oliver Luck. Patterson bragging that he could negotiate a really good deal for UT with the City of Austin, and that idiotic thing about "internationalizing the brand" were likely the two things that wowed Powers. Bill should done his homework and referenced-checked the SOB much better than he did. Powers is clearly a lawyer (staff) and not a manager. Otherwise, he wouldn't have hired a bull in a china shop that is destroying all the credibility with donors that DeLoss built up over the years.
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Last edited: Jun 19, 2015