Influential reportedly helped lacking students get into UT,

State lawmakers, wealthy donors, university regents and even current and former athletes wrote letters to top campus officials, helping otherwise underqualified students win admission to the University of Texas, according to a newspaper report Monday.

The letters, obtained under state open records laws, were written outside the normal admissions process and sometimes went directly to then-university President Bill Powers, the Dallas Morning News reported.

They surfaced as part of an outside investigation known as the Kroll report, which highlighted the admission of 73 students to the university system’s flagship Austin campus from 2009 to 2012 despite their relatively low high school grades and SAT scores.

The letters came from famous alumni including Ben Crenshaw and former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. They also came from state House Speaker Joe Straus, former UT regents Jess Hay and Tom Hicks and former UT quarterback Randy McEachern. There was no information about the students involved.

State law dictates that UT automatically accept students who graduate in the top 7 percent of their high school class. For others, admissions officials consider their academic records, including high school grades, SAT scores, essays, socioeconomic status, racial or ethnic background and letters of recommendation.

More than 250 letters were written on behalf of the 73 students in the Kroll report. That investigation suggested that political or personal connections may have influenced the decision, but found that Powers didn’t violate any laws or UT rules.

Straus wrote to the director of the admissions office in 2012 requesting consideration of the daughter of a close family friend. The San Antonio Republican wrote that he knew the student “well as our families are close friends.”

Some letters were blunt, like one from Fort Worth oil millionaire W.A. “Tex” Moncrief, who wrote: “I do not know this young man or anything about his qualifications, but I do know (the student’s) parents and I know his grandparents very well.” Moncrief has given at least $25 million to UT-Austin.

Tom Hicks, the former owner of the Texas Rangers, wrote to the office of admissions in 2011 on behalf of an applicant whose grandparents “have been longtime generous supporters of UT-Austin.” He is a former regent and his brother is current Regent Steve Hicks.