Contact: Michael Warden, (512) 499-4363

Date: May 12, 2004

UT System News Release

Miller Announces Resignation as UT Regent  

AUSTIN – Charles Miller, chairman of The University of Texas System Board of Regents, today announced that he has submitted his resignation to Governor Rick Perry. Miller, who has served five years of a six-year appointment, will continue to serve as a regent until he is replaced.

"I have been highly honored to have had the privilege of serving on the Board of Regents for five years, and it has been a very rewarding experience for me," Miller stated in a May 5 letter of resignation to Governor Perry. "The University of Texas System is in the hands of great leaders and more than 80,000 dedicated professionals and I am confident you can rely on them to continue to make outstanding contributions to education, health care, and economic development."

Miller announced his decision publicly at a regularly scheduled meeting of the regents in Austin. The regents will elect a new chairman at a public meeting to be scheduled for a later date and posted with the Secretary of State under the state's open meeting rules.

"I expect the Board to select a new chair at the earliest opportunity, probably during a special called meeting in June," Miller said. He will continue to serve as chairman until the regents elect a replacement to fill his unexpired term.

Miller, a Houston resident, was appointed as a UT Regent in February 1999 by then Governor George W. Bush. He was elected chairman in February 2001 and reelected in 2003. His term as a regent would have ended in February 2005. Resignation from the Board permits Governor Perry to name a replacement before that time.

"I have been thinking about this for some time, and the best course of action, I believe, is for me to step down and permit the election of a new chairman who can lead the regents and the System in the next legislative session if the Board chooses," Miller said. "Had I stayed on to the end of my term, we would have had a leadership change in the midst of the session. The Board and the System need a strong voice and continuity through the 2005 session."

Although he is stepping down from his highly visible position on the UT System Board of Regents, he intends to carry on in a public leadership role. "I intend to continue in my role as an advocate of higher education, of autonomy and accountability in education, and of transparency and accountability in the management of funds and endowments held in the public trust. I will work for education no less passionately than I have as a regent, but now in my capacity as a private citizen," he said.

"The last five years as a regent and as chairman of the board have been the most rewarding of my career of public service to the state, my community, and my alma mater," Miller said. He earned a degree in mathematics in 1959 from UT Austin before entering into a lifetime professional career in investment management.

Miller has also been active in civic and business affairs. He is chairman emeritus and a member of the board of directors of the Greater Houston Partnership, the largest business organization in Texas. He also serves on the boards of directors of the Governor's Business Council; the James B. Hunt, Jr., Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy; the Texas Medical Center; and the Financial Foundation for Charter Schools of Texas.

Among his many accomplishments as a regent, Miller cites the significant growth in research revenues, student enrollment, and patient care activities and a new focus within the UT System on public education as his most noteworthy contributions.

Other achievements during his term include: establishing the state's first accountability and performance review program for a higher education system; transferring responsibility and oversight of campus tuition-setting from the state legislature to university governing boards; ending the state's practice of taxing university research; increasing involvement and support for K-12 education in the state, including the System's Every Child, Every Advantage initiative and the creation of the UT Charter Elementary School in East Austin; reducing the amount of burdensome, overlapping, and wasteful regulation by the state of the business activities of institutions of higher education; promoting extensive collaboration among System academic and health institutions; updating and revising the outmoded policies contained in the Regent's Rules and Regulations; and adopting a number of governance and management reforms, including hiring – for the first time in the state's history – an outside audit firm to conduct a full financial audit of the System, directing management audits after changes in senior management at UT institutions, and other related business and financial practices.

"If success is a measure of lasting contributions to any endeavor, a major achievement was getting Mark Yudof back to Texas to serve the UT System as its chancellor," Miller said. "Chancellor Yudof is a visionary, a scholar, and a great thought leader in higher education in this country. I am confident in him and in the leadership we have in place at the campus level and at UT System Administration. There is no finer group of men and women serving higher education anywhere in the country. I am proud of my role in putting this team in place," he said.

The University of Texas System has 15 campuses, including nine academic and six health institutions, an enrollment exceeding 177,000 students, more than 87,000 employees, and an annual operating budget of $7.8 billion (FY 2004). The UT System confers one-third of the state's undergraduate degrees and educates three-fourths of the state's health care professionals annually.

Watch the archived webcast (includes remarks from Regent Hunt)

Chancellor Yudof's Statement on Chairman Charles Miller

Miller biography

Charles Miller letter of resignation to Governor Perry

Release - Miller announcement of election as Chairman

Release - Miller testimony before Congress on higher education accountability