Support McRaven
The UT System leader deserves time and the regents’ backing to fulfill his vision.
Forty years ago this month, a son of a World War II Spitfire pilot who attended college on a track scholarship picked up his diploma from the University of Texas and celebrated his commission in the U.S. Navy.
William McRaven would rise to the rank of admiral and oversee the daring SEAL raid against Osama bin Laden. But many of his fellow Longhorn alumni now remember him best for the inspirational commencement address he delivered to the graduating Class of 2014.
“You will fail,” McRaven told the graduating students. “You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times, it will test you to your very core. But if you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses.”
A “circus,” in SEAL training parlance, is an exhausting and extended regimen of calisthenics designed to break a man’s spirit, to wear him down, to force him to quit. Today, McRaven faces a different kind of circus, and while we’re confident he won’t quit, we hope his bosses won’t quit on him either.
Eight months after he delivered that commencement address, McRaven took over as chancellor of the University of Texas System. On his first day on the job, he came out against guns on campus. He also ordered what turned out to be a startling study indicating sexual assault was shockingly common among UT students. Most important, the retired admiral soon unveiled a series of ambitious projects he called “quantum leaps.” He envisioned the UT system accomplishing a series of lofty but specific goals, from increasing the number of doctors treating Texans in rural areas to undertaking a Manhattan Project-style effort to cure diseases of the brain. The system’s board of regents enthusiastically endorsed his plans with a commitment of nearly $60 million.
Still, something about McRaven rubbed a lot of powerful people the wrong way. He sailed into a ferocious storm when he directed the $215 million purchase of 300 acres for a new campus near the Texas Medical Center, a move University of Houston officials and alums interpreted as a stealthy plot to supplant UH as our city’s premier public institution of higher education. The old sailor found himself in unfamiliar seas, swimming against a current of big egos.
Confronted by intense political pressure — and a conspicuous absence of support from Gov. Greg Abbott — McRaven scuttled the controversial plan to develop the proposed UT Institute for Data Science in Houston. Now, led by a couple of the governor’s newly appointed regents, the board is raising pointed questions about not only McRaven’s ambitious vision for the UT system but also the growth of the system’s staffing and budget. It seems the people who hired him have soured on the chancellor and the bold initiatives they once embraced. The retired admiral’s $1.2 million-ayear contract expires at the end of this year, and it doesn’t take an old Navy veteran to see dark clouds gathering.
McRaven readily admits he made a mistake when he failed to bring lawmakers and other stakeholders into the loop about his Houston expansion plans. His decades of experience as a naval commander did not prepare him for the treacherous waters of Texas state politics. But that’s no reason to throw him or his vision for UT’s future overboard.
Political interference has roiled the leadership of the UT system long enough. The board of regents that enthusiastically endorsed the chancellor’s ambitious plans now needs to give him the time and the support he needs to make his vision a reality.
They hired a very driven military leader to get a job done. Now they need to let him do it, and let McRaven be McRaven.
McRaven’s decades of experience as a naval commander did not prepare him for the treacherous waters of Texas state politics. But that’s no reason to throw him or his vision for UT’s future overboard.