Thread: 1st Hispanic Woman President of Texas A&M Univ. Quits

Texas A&M president quits
Published: June 14, 2009 at 10:09 P.M.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, June 14 (UPI) -- Elsa Murano resigned Sunday as president of Texas A&M University, a day ahead of a regents meeting that was widely expected to address her performance.

The governing board for the school in College Station now is expected to meet Monday to deal with her departure just 17 months after hiring her, the Houston Chronicle reported Sunday.

"Everyone is in a state of great concern," said Ray Bowen, who was president of the school from 1994 to 2002. "It's extremely damaging."

Murano, 49, issued a statement in which she said recent events had been "very taxing" for the entire Aggie family" and that her resignation was in the best interests of the school.

Chancellor Michael McKinney had promoted her selection as president but by the end of her first year his evaluation of her performance was negative. He criticized her decision-making, initiative and her relationship with the regents and himself, the Chronicle said.

Still, McKinney said, he wants Murano to rejoin the faculty.

She was the first woman and the first Hispanic to lead the 132-year-old school, which has 48,000 students.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/06/14/ ... 245031799/

The "first Hispanic woman" head of the Dallas School Board served time in prison for putting the cost of new personal furniture on her school board credit card. She was followed by another "outstanding Hispanic" from California who was introduced with great fanfare but asked to leave after only two years.

Although it is not mentioned in the article below, Dan Morales was the "first Hispanic Attorney General in Texas", and much was made of this by former Governor George Bush, under whom he served. He was a brillant young man who organized the national Attorneys Generals joint lawsuit against the big tobacco companies. which they won. Unfortunately, he and his former law partner also were found helping themselves to some of the profits.

Many Americans of Spanish descent have given loyal, honest, brave, and distinguished service to the United States since our Republic was founded. However, Texas, with its rich Mexican-American heritage, does not seem to be having much luck with these "first Hispanic superstars". Tony Garza, the "first Hispanic" to run for Governor of Texas, also ran the most expensive campaign for that office in any state in the entire history of the United States.

DAN MORALES

From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia

Daniel C. "Dan" Morales (born 1956) served as Texas attorney general from 1991 through 1999, during the administrations of Governors Ann Richards and George W. Bush. As attorney general, Morales reached a $17 billion settlement with big tobacco companies. He also authored the controversial state interpretation of the Hopwood v. Texas case, which ended all affirmative action in higher education in Texas until the United States Supreme Court reversed Hopwood in 2003. He is a graduate of Trinity University in San Antonio and Harvard Law School.

In October 2003, Morales reached a plea deal and admitted to having falsified documents in an attempt to give another lawyer a chunk of the state's tobacco settlement. Before the agreement, Morales had faced trial on twelve counts that included conspiracy and using political money for private purposes.

Morales defeated the Republican state Senator J.E. "Buster" Brown of Houston in the general election of 1990. He was reelected in the largely Republican year of 1994 but did not seek a third term as attorney general in 1998. In 2002, however, he entered the Democratic gubernatorial primary but lost the nomination to Tony Sanchez. In that campaign, Morales refused to engage in a Spanish-language debate sought by the Sanchez. He claimed that Sanchez's request for a Spanish debate would divide, rather than unite the state.[citation needed]

After his primary loss, Morales stunned his party by endorsing the successful Republican nominees for governor and lieutenant governor, Rick Perry and David Dewhurst, respectively. In the 1990s, many Democrats had expected Morales to become in time either governor or U.S. senator.

Morales and a onetime law associate were indicted on federal charges of trying to fraudulently obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in attorney fees from a state settlement with tobacco companies.

Upon his plea of guilt, federal Judge Sam Sparks said. "You've breached the very valuable trust the people of Texas gave you,"[citation needed]

Morales served time in the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana.

He was released to a halfway house near his native San Antonio at Christmas 2006. He was released on Friday, March 30, 2007, according to the United States Bureau of Prisons. On December 15, 2004, the Texas Supreme Court accepted Morales' resignation from the bar in lieu of discipline.[1]

Prior to his attorney general tenure, Morales was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from Bexar County.

Morales and his ex-wife, Christi, have a young son.

Texas House of Representatives
Preceded by
Joe Hernandez Member of the Texas House of Representatives
from District 124 (San Antonio)
1985–1991 Succeeded by
Christine Hernandez

Legal offices
Preceded by
Jim Mattox Texas Attorney General
1991–1999 Succeeded by
John Cornyn

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Morales

Lots of great info T2S....thanks for posting!!!

I guess we should get out our ear plugs........they'll be screaming "Racism" any day now

The DISD superintendent was Yvonne Gonzalez. Theif! She was sentenced to federal prison in 1998 for using DISD money to furnish her city apartment.


There was another TX politician. He paid for a kept woman. Gee, I can see his face but can't recall his name.

OK, I found him on Wiki!

Henry Gabriel Cisneros (born June 11, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and community leader. He was the first person of Hispanic background elected as mayor of a large American city(San Antonio, TX) and later served as the 10th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1993 to 1997. He left public office as a result of a controversy involving payments to his former mistress, in which he pleaded guilty to making false statements to federal officials.

Main article: Henry Cisneros payments controversy
In March 1995, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno secured the appointment of an Independent Counsel, David Barrett to investigate allegations that Cisneros had lied to FBI investigators during background checks prior to being named Secretary of HUD. He had been asked about payments that he had made to former mistress Linda Medlar, also known as Linda Jones. The affair had been 'public knowledge' for a number of years - during the 1992 presidential campaign, George H. W. Bush's Treasurer Catalina Vasquez Villalpando (R) publicly referred to Cisneros and candidate Clinton as "two skirt-chasers." Cisneros lied about the amount of money he had paid to Medlar. The investigation continued for three and a half years.

In December, 1997, Cisneros was indicted on 18 counts of conspiracy, giving false statements and obstruction of Justice. Medlar used some of the Cisneros hush money to purchase a house and entered into a bank fraud scheme with her sister and brother-in-law to conceal the source of the money. In January, 1998, Medlar pleaded guilty to 28 charges of bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and obstruction of justice.

In September, 1999, Cisneros negotiated a plea agreement, under which he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of lying to the FBI, and was fined $10,000. He did not receive jail time or probation. He was pardoned by President Bill Clinton in January 2001.