Key events in turmoil involving UT-Austin, the UT System, the Texas Legislature and Gov. Rick Perry:

May 2008

• Perry calls a rare collective meeting of public university boards at which Perry donor Jeff Sandefer recommends several “breakthrough solutions,” including bonuses for teachers based solely on student evaluations, paying teachers for the number of students they teach, paying researchers according to research dollars they receive, and providing a state-funded voucher of sorts for each in-state student.

February 2011

• Gene Powell, the new chairman of the regents, endorses Perry’s call for $10,000 bachelor’s degrees, saying there’s nothing wrong with a Chevrolet Bel Air-quality education, referring to a mid-level vehicle from a generation ago. The analogy upsets many in Longhorn Nation.

March 2011

• Powell engineers the hiring of Rick O’Donnell as an adviser to the regents, with policy-oriented duties usually reserved for the chancellor. A former Sandefer associate, O’Donnell has written that much university research has few tangible benefits.

April 2011

• O’Donnell is dismissed after accusing officials of suppressing data showing that a growing sum of tuition and taxpayer money is paid to professors who do little teaching.

May 2011

• The UT System releases an 821-page spreadsheet listing salaries, number of courses, value of research grants and other data for every teacher at the system’s nine academic campuses, but cautions that the information “has not yet been fully verified.”

• UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa gets a unanimous vote of support from regents after insisting that they refrain from micromanaging the system’s 15 campuses.

June 2011

• Numerous prominent civic and business leaders establish the nonprofit Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education, in large part to defend UT-Austin against some regents.

September 2011

• Powers warns in a speech that UT won’t remain a great teaching and research university unless critics and supporters alike work to “heal our divided house.”

December 2011

• Powers forces Larry Sager, law school dean, to step down amid a faculty uproar over the UT Law School Foundation’s forgivable loans for some professors, including a $500,000 loan for Sager.

May 2012

• Regents reject Powers’ request for a tuition increase, an action he criticizes.

• Amid reports that Powers’ job might be in danger, faculty members give him two standing ovations and a resolution of support.

November 2012

• A report by Barry Burgdorf, general counsel for the UT System, says the Law School Foundation’s forgivable-loan program raises legal concerns and should be ended.

February 2013

• Some regents grill Powers about graduation rates, the size of the student body and the internal workings of the university’s fundraising office.

• UT-Austin supplies more than 40 boxes of records in response to requests from Regents Wallace L. Hall Jr.

• Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, his voice breaking with emotion, defends Powers against “micromanagement” by regents; the state Senate and House pass resolutions supporting Powers.

March 2013

• Burgdorf resigns; some regents felt his report on the forgivable loan program for the Law School went easy on Powers, a former law dean.

• Regents vote 4-3 to commission an outside review of the Law School’s use of funds from the foundation and set aside Burgdorf’s report on the matter.

• State Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, accuses regents of a “witch hunt” to oust Powers.

April 2013

• Hall, who has been pressing UT-Austin to be more transparent, comes under fire for failing to disclose a number of lawsuits on his application to be a regent; he later files a supplement.

• Under pressure from lawmakers, regents vote to override their earlier decision to commission an outside review of law school matters and instead ask state Attorney General Greg Abbott to investigate.

May 2013

• The Legislature approves Senate Bill 15, scaling back the powers of public university governing boards.

• The House Select Committee on Transparency in State Agency Operations reveals a March 2013 email in which Perry tells Regents Brenda Pejovich, Alex Cranberg, Hall and Paul Foster that he knows they are getting “tired of being hammered by the charlatans and peacocks” but that they are winning a fight akin to World War II’s Battle of the Bulge.

June 2013

• The governor vetoes SB 15, declaring that limiting board oversight “provides fertile ground for organizational malfeasance.”

• House Speaker Joe Straus directs the transparency committee to investigate Hall and potentially other gubernatorial appointees; the panel is expected to recommend whether the regent should be impeached.

September 2013

• The Statesman reports that Hall is all but accusing Powers of lying about when he learned of Sager’s $500,000 forgivable loan, a charge Powers denies.

• Hall acknowledges that he spoke by phone in January with the agent for University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban about replacing Mack Brown as Longhorn coach. Powers, who is in charge of campus personnel, wasn’t in the loop.

December 2013

• Regents schedule a closed-door session to discuss Powers’ employment. The Faculty Council’s executive committee reiterates “strong support” for Powers.

April 2014

• The Statesman, citing notes from closed regents’ meetings, reports that Cigarroa asked Powers to step down last summer.

May 2014

• By a 7-1 vote, the House transparency committee finds that grounds exist for impeaching Hall and begins drafting articles of impeachment.

June 2014

• A UT System review finds that law and undergraduate admissions appear to have been influenced by legislators’ letters sent to Powers in behalf of some applicants. Cigarroa first says no additional investigation is needed, then declares that an outside investigator will be hired to examine how the university handles recommendations from legislators and others.

July 2014

• Cigarroa asks Powers to resign by the end of July 4, effective at the end of October. Powers says he wants to serve until June.

Expert reporting

Ralph K.M. Haurwitz has covered the University of Texas and other public universities since 2004, and he has written extensively about their governing practices. Read a detailed breakdown of recent controversies at UT with this story on mystatesman.com.