Contact: Monty Jones, (512) 499-4363

Date: January 26, 1998

UT System News Release

Bill Hobby to Chair Diversity Commission

The Texas Higher Education Coalition

The Texas Association of Community Colleges

The Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas

The Texas State University System

The Texas A&M University System

The Texas Tech University System

The University of Houston System

The University of North Texas System

The University of Texas System

AUSTIN – William P. Hobby, former lieutenant governor of Texas, was named Monday to chair the 24-member Texas Commission on a Representative Student Body.

Hobby was elected chairman by his colleagues on the commission during their organizational meeting in Austin.

The commission was formed last fall by a coalition of the chancellors and presidents of eight Texas higher education entities. The commission has been asked to make recommendations on how institutions can increase minority enrollment, retention, and graduation rates without affirmative action programs, which were outlawed in Texas by a federal appeals court in the Hopwood case.

The commission also elected three vice chairs: Dwight E. Jefferson, judge of the 215th Civil District Court in Houston; Lydia Santibañez, a Temple Realtor who is a director of the Association of Community College Trustees; and Annette Strauss, former mayor of the City of Dallas.

Commission members formed two committees. A committee on recruitment and admissions will be chaired by Wilhelmina Delco, a former state representative from Austin. A committee on retention and financial aid will be chaired by Miguel Espinosa, a senior executive at Conoco in Houston, and Vidal G. Martinez, a Houston attorney.

The commission scheduled its next meeting for 10:30 a.m. on March 9 in Austin. A site for the meeting has not been determined.

The members of the commission voted to hold their meetings in public.

The coalition that formed the commission represents 43 public universities and health institutions, 50 public community college districts, and 41 independent colleges and universities, which have a combined enrollment of more than 900,000. Each of the eight higher education entities named three members to the commission.