The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - April 30, 2024

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

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Howdy folks, today is Tuesday, April 30th, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lausches, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. Following days of pro-Palestine protests and dozens of arrests, more than 500 University of Texas at Austin faculty have signed onto a letter stating they no longer have confidence in President Jay Hartzell. The UT Austin chapter of the American Association of University Professors stated that the letter, which includes 539 faculty signatures, was sent to the UT Faculty Council on Monday. The letter demands that criminal charges be dropped against students and others who were arrested during last week's protests, and demands that the university, quote, "...respect the First Amendment free speech rights of students and faculty on our campus.

The UT Faculty Council is set to have its next meeting on May 20th. UT Austin has roughly 3,000 teaching faculty. Additionally, an open letter from UT Austin faculty was sent to Hartsell on Monday that said faculty members were, quote, deeply concerned by the aggressive and disruptive police presence that your office invited onto our campus on April 24, 2024. More than 50 arrests have been reported as a result of the protests, though roughly half of those arrests were unaffiliated with the University of Texas. Amid the pro-Palestine disruptions on the University of Texas at Austin campus, observers will continually hear chants demanding divestment from Israel. The UT system

has one of the largest university endowments in the country, and audits have been conducted tracking its investment portfolio. The UT Austin budget for the 2023-2024 school year is just over $3.9 billion, of which more than $600 million comes from grants and contracts, $400 million from gifts, and $730 million from tuition. The Federal College Foreign Gift Reporting Database displays all foreign gifts and contracts reported between June 22, 2020 and February 13, 2024. The most recent contract from Israel to UT Austin was reported on June 27, 2022 for a total of $1,110. The next most recent is from June 1, 2022, for $20,023. The most recent transaction with the government of Israel was a restricted gift on January 23, 2022, for $12,400 from the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation for research activity. The University of Texas slash Texas A&M Investment Management Company oversees and manages $70.1 billion in assets and an endowment total of $55.5 billion,

according to the 2023 annual report. As of March 31, 2024, the total endowment is almost $60 billion, and investments total almost $75 billion. Of the total endowment, over $35 billion is from the state of Texas Permanent University Fund. In response to the second lawsuit from a small business owner who has been trying for three years to relocate his auto mechanic shop to a new site, attorneys for the city of Pasadena are claiming immunity despite allegations that officials are breaching the terms of a 2022 settlement agreement. After Judge Beau Miller expressed a dim view of the city's immunity claim during a Monday hearing in Harris County, attorneys for the city from the firm Louis Brisbois Bisgardenith vowed to file an

appeal, a legal procedure that could further delay the case for months or years. The conflict between Pasadena officials and Azale Sepulveda stems from his purchase of a storefront property in 2021 to expand his business, Oz Mechanics, beyond the rental property he had been leasing. The property he purchased had housed another auto mechanic shop for more than 30 years and included five parking spaces, but under revised ordinances, the city demanded that Sepulveda provide 28 parking spots, an innovation that would cost approximately $40,000, or about half the purchase price of the property. After city officials refused to approve a variance, attorneys with the Institute for Justice filed suit on Sepulveda's behalf.

The city did not claim immunity in the initial case. In mediation in 2022, the parties agreed that the property would only need seven parking spaces. When Sepulveda submitted a site plan and engineering drawings prior to beginning the parking lot improvements, however, city officials denied his application and claimed he must adhere to additional standards, including a setback and minimum drive aisle width. Sepulveda says those are impossible to meet since they do not, quote, physically fit on the property. Thanks for listening. Be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.