Bill Powers - President, University of Texas at Austin

Nurturing the Soul of a Public Research University

AT&T Executive Conference Center
The University of Texas at Austin
January 18, 2012

Bill Powers, president of the University of Texas, has become an outspoken defender of public universities in the emerging debate about their future in Texas. At the Gulen Institute's Luncheon Forum, Powers addressed a distinguished audience of educators and state legislators, thanking them for their willingness to listen to each other's positions on education reform. He argued that the important questions of affordability and productivity have to be framed within the broader question: "What do we expect our universities to do?" Improving the efficiency of administration and curricula is certainly a worthy goal, but Powers insisted that unless there is consensus on the fundamental purpose of a public research university, no progress can be made.

This is not evidence, as some opponents suggest, that universities are resistant to change. Powers offered the historical development of the university, from early Greek and Vedic examples to the research model of nineteenth-century Germany, as proof of the dynamic nature of the institution. And as educational opportunities were opened to women, minority students, first generation students, and poor students in the twentieth-century, the university became both the agent and consequence of vast cultural change. Powers concluded that "change has been part of the DNA of the university from the beginning." The debate about higher education should begin by acknowledging: "There will be change, and we need to be engaged in actively directing it."

The university's purpose, Powers stated, is to allow students and faculty the opportunity to pursue knowledge for its own sake. He admitted that this makes it a strange institution: "We take young people, mature and ready to be productive members of the workforce, and we ask them to lie fallow for four years." But Powers argued that this time of academic incubation allows students to become even more productive members of society, while the research conducted in these institutions prepares the way for the innovations that will shape the future.

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Speaker Bio:

William “Bill” Powers Jr. has been president of The University of Texas at Austin since 2006. His goal of making UT the best public research university in America has been supported by a sustained emphasis on undergraduate education, including the strengthening of a core curriculum and the inauguration of a School of Undergraduate Studies. In addition to recruiting a diverse student body and faculty, President Powers has taken on the challenge of redefining productivity in higher education and has become a national spokesman articulating the value of the public research university to society.

President Powers is one of the nation’s leading scholars in personal injury and product liability. He joined the University’s law school faculty in 1977 and went on to become dean of the school. During his time as dean, the law school doubled the number of Hispanic students and quadrupled the number of African-American students. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley before joining the U.S. Navy. Following his service, he entered Harvard Law School, where he became managing editor of the Harvard Law Review, and graduated magna cum laude. He taught at the University of Washington Law School before coming to Texas.

Powers has worked as a legal consultant with the U.S. Congress, the Brazilian legislature, and the Texas legislature. In 2001, he chaired a special investigation committee that examined the financial transactions of Enron Corp. The resulting report, known as The Powers Report, and his subsequent testimony before Congress gained him national recognition.

Video Gallery: President Bill Powers