Texas Governor Rick Perry vetoed an item in a state appropriations bill which would have provided $1.5 million to the University of Texas Center for Mexican-American Studies. The bill sought to restore funding to a number of higher education institutions throughout Texas after 2011 saw austerity measures impose massive cuts to budgets. Perry said he vetoed the item and several others like it in the bill as part of his opposition to "non-formula" funding - a trend in the last few decades in which public universities request funds as special items rather than through main budget legislation.
"The university did not request this special item in its Legislative Appropriations Request for FY 2014-15," said Perry in a statement. "If the Department of Mexican-American Studies is a priority, the university can use its $2.2 million appropriation for Institutional Enhancement."
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The governor slashed special-item funding for a host of programs at universities across Texas, with a total of more than $5.2 million cut from funding for the Office of International Affairs at Prairie View A&M University, the University of Houston's School of Public Affairs and Texas A&M International University's Petroleum Engineering program, among others.
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"This is not the best use of hard-earned tax dollars," Perry said. "Because of the growth in special item funding, there is less state money to teach college students, which contributes to rising tuition."
The Huffington Post reported that Perry vetoed a host of other bills on Friday, including a bill intended to prevent wage discrimination against women, several meant to promote transparency, and another which would have provided $10 million to the state to train teachers to arm themselves while on the job. Put together, these vetoes cut about $500 million from the Texas state budget.
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University of Texas spokesman Gary Susswein told the Daily Texas that the Center will still receive a $400,000 budget increase next year as part of the University budget appropriation. But budget funding to the Center has declined sharply in recent years - 60 percent between 2008 and 2012, according to the Center. Nicole Guidotti-Hernandez, associate director of the Center for Mexican-American Studies, told the Daily Texan that the Center had planned to use the additional funding to help develop into a full department capable of setting standards for its own faculty hires.
The Huffington Post noted that a bill proposed earlier this year by Republican state senator Dan Patrick of Houston tried to exempt ethnic studies and other courses from counting toward state-mandated history requirements.
One graduate student at the Center, Jaime Puente, called the veto "terrible", telling the Daily Texan,"It's part and parcel of what I think is a concerted effort by Rick Perry to attack the University of Texas. If the center can't fund it's graduate students, it will definitely affect recruitment."
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