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Texas Southern University’s Board of Regents voted to fire President Austin Lane just after midnight Wednesday morning amid allegations of admissions irregularities and expense reimbursement issues.
The decision, a 6-1 vote during a nearly five-hour meeting, comes weeks after regents suspended Lane with little explanation. They later indicated the suspension came amid a probe into admissions.
Admissions issues were among those regents cited Wednesday in the decision to terminate Lane. He stands accused of not adequately reporting that a former official helped students secure admittance or scholarships to the university’s law school, including once in exchange for $14,000 in cash, The Texas Tribune reported. That official, who was assistant dean of law school admissions and financial aid, has resigned.
Lane was also accused of obstructing internal investigations into admissions problems. And regents said he directed “excessive entertainment expenses” to be paid through the university’s foundation instead of an expense reimbursement process that requires board approval, according to the Tribune.
“That is a lie,” Lane said in response to the charges during the meeting, according to the Houston Chronicle. He said the facts weren’t proven in the case and that law school admissions issues were “three to four layers” in the organizational structure away from him. He said he and his attorney refused attempts to buy out his contract.
Lane can ask for a reinstatement hearing and has 30 days to “cure the allegations if a cure can be made,” a regent, Marc Carter, said.
Lane has been president of the public historically black university since 2016.
