Turns out that former Texas Southern University president Priscilla Slade’s decision to teach accounting at the school — while under indictment for accounting irregularities — was not a good idea. The school announced yesterday that Ms. Slade has been put on leave from her teaching duties and that a proceeding is being commenced to attempt to revoke her tenure at the school. The proceeding to revoke tenure will almost certainly be postponed pending disposition of the criminal charges against Ms. Slade.
Meanwhile, up in always-interesting Austin, University of Texas law professor Loftus Carson‘s lawsuit against the University of Texas and related parties hasn’t received much publicity. However, that all changed when Professor Loftus filed a motion to recuse U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks from his case after the Austin American-Statesman listed Judge Sparks as one of 30 judges who have received complementary Longhorn football tickets and attended exclusive receptions while at UT football games. Judge Sparks recused himself from Professor Loftus’ case yesterday and appointed a judge who is not a Longhorns fan (a rare jurist in Austin) to handle the case. I mean, what else could Judge Sparks have done given that the no. 2 Longhorns are playing no. 1 Ohio State on Saturday night in Austin?
By the way, the Statesman article on the Loftus case reports that Judge Sparks observed during the recusal hearing that he considered the tickets and receptions “a small favor” from UT for the time that he serves on panels at the UT Law School. Longhorn football tickets “a small favor?” Judge Sparks has obviously not purchased any UT football tickets lately. ;^)