AUSTIN, Texas — Bill Powers won’t be the University of Texas at Austin president who decides whether to keep a statue of Jefferson Davis, a tribute to the president of the Confederacy, on campus.
But Powers has spent his near-decade in office grappling with the kind of tension that’s been on display in recent weeks as students have called for the statue’s removal.
The Houston Chronicle reports the episode is the latest example of UT, a nationally renowned research university, struggling to sever the more troubling bits of its Old South roots.
When Powers took office in 2006, diversifying the flagship and making the campus a more inclusive place were among his top priorities. Nine years later, as Powers prepares to leave this week, he has achieved much of that goal.
He’s been a fierce defender of the race-conscious admissions policies that have drawn national attention to UT through high-profile legal challenges. The Supreme Court this week could consider taking the case up again.
Despite his efforts, though, challenges remain, as suggested by the Davis statue and several other relics of the Old South still on campus, including an inscribed ode to the men and women of the Confederacy. UT’s black student population hasn’t grown in Powers’ time, white students still outperform their minority peers, and the faculty remains overwhelmingly white.
“From the students’ point of view, it still is challenging to come to what was the Big White University,” Powers said.
