After all, whatever the titles, he is first and foremost a member of the academy, a distinguished historian and teacher. All he asks in return is that the faculty never accept mediocrity, that it hold itself to the highest standards of intellectual and pedagogical excellence, and that it police itself for those few colleagues who fail to uphold the highest standards of their profession. Finally, I believe we must value fairness. The need for fairness manifests itself in many ways. I believe that the taxpayers of Texas expect fairness in access to the University by their sons and daughters.
Fairness likewise relates to the way the institution treats individuals and groups.
There should be fairness in making tenure decisions, fairness in the working conditions and compensation of staff, fairness in disciplining faculty and students, fairness in allocating funds, fairness in procedures, and fairness in the governance structure. I perceive due process for individuals as the embodiment of norms of fundamental fairness. Like President Romo, I view shared governance and consultation with constituent groups in decision-making, themselves critical values, as species of a fairness for groups that have an enormous stake in the enterprise. Without fairness there is no legitimacy and no buy-in to the institutional vision. As a former professor and administrator in the UT System, and as a close personal friend of its new president, I am confident that President Romo and this campus have and will embrace the values I have outlined and that this commitment will fundamentally inform and enrich the life of this great institution.