The University of Texas System
Regents of the University of Texas System are currently scheduled to approve tenure for a UT-Dallas professor who was arrested after attempting to obstruct law enforcement in 2024.
According to the agenda for this week’s board meeting, regents will approve tenure for Dr. Rosemary Admiral, a professor of history. Admiral’s tenure approval is part of the consent agenda for the Academic Affairs Committee, chaired by Regent Jodie Jiles.
Consent agendas are intended to enable governmental bodies to quickly move through unobjectionable items but are frequently abused to hide controversial measures.
Admiral was arrested in 2024 after she tried to block law enforcement efforts to clear a tent encampment created by pro-Hamas agitators during anti-Israel “protests” on UT-Dallas’ campus.
She and a UT-Dallas colleague spent the night in jail and were charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass. Those charges were ultimately dropped.
Admiral sued UT-Dallas in 2025, alleging that the university retaliated professionally by restricting her campus access after her arrest. This case is currently pending.
Beyond Admiral’s case, the UT System’s overall tenure approval reveals the continuing presence of left-leaning elements, though less overwhelmingly so than at some other higher education institutions subsidized by Texas taxpayers.
A preliminary investigation reveals that up to 18 tenure candidates across the UT System have an identifiable left-leaning background. By contrast, a recent investigation of Texas A&M using identical methodology revealed over a dozen similar candidates at the College Station campus alone.
Examples from the UT system include:
Rachel White, a UT-Austin education professor whose research asserts that concerned parents are responsible for financial costs schools districts incur responding to their concerns.
Jamein P. Cunningham, a UT-Austin law professor whose “research focuses on the intersectionality of institutional discrimination, access to social justice, crime and criminal justice, and race and economic inequality.”
Chelsi West Ohueri, a UT-Austin Sociocultural Anthropology professor who lists “race and racialization” as an academic interest in her official university biography.
Vershawn Young, a new hire at UT-El Paso’s College of Liberal Arts who has written a series of books including “Your Average Nigga.”
Sarah Cho, a professor in the UT-Permian Basin College of Arts and Sciences who has argued that South Koreans value North Korean women “for their ability to legitimize and perpetuate existing social norms such as gender hierarchy, nationalism, xenophobia, and consumerism.”
Regents are also scheduled to approve tenure for a handful of new hires at UT-Austin’s School of Civic Leadership and Civitas Institute.
The board agenda states that all applicants across the UT System were approved for tenure by Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Archie Holmes, Jr.
While tenure review processes vary by campus, they typically require approval from the applicant’s department chair, dean, and campus provost before the application is reviewed at the system level.
Senate Bill 18, a law passed in 2023, requires boards of regents to grant final approval to all new tenure designations. That law also placed several new restrictions on tenure while leaving the basic structure in place.
The University of Texas System oversees nine academic institutions and four health institutions. It is overseen by a Board of Regents that is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Texas Senate. Kevin Eltife of Tyler is the current board chair.
Adam Cahn is a journalist with Texas Scorecard. A longtime political blogger, Adam is passionate about shedding light on taxpayer-subsidized higher education institutions.