University of Texas at Austin named William Inboden as the sole finalist for its open provost position.
The provost is the Chief Academic Officer of UT-Austin and second in command to the president. The office supervises several aspects of university operations.
According to The Daily Texan, interim university president Jim Davis informed the faculty via a campus-wide e-mail on May 28. Inboden will permanently fill the position after a series of interim hires.
Inboden is the current director of the Alexander Hamilton School of Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida, a reform effort launched by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Before that, Inboden had served as the director of the Clements Center, a national security think tank at UT-Austin.
National security is a special subject for Inboden. He previously worked in several national security positions in the George W. Bush administration.
He has written in favor of a strong national defense and other foreign policy topics. He also wrote a book about Ronald Reagan, “The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink,” along with scholarly articles about the fortieth president.
While Inboden’s views are more conservative than many academics, they hardly qualify as “America First.” He co-wrote “In Defense of the Blob,” an article for the Council on Foreign Relations, in 2020. The article argued that “America’s Foreign Policy Establishment is the Solution, Not the Problem.” Inboden also asserted in 2023 that disgraced Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has provided “inspired leadership.”
In making the announcement, President Davis told the university that he would submit Inboden’s name to the board of regents as required by the recently passed higher education reform measure, Senate Bill 37. The measure overhauls several aspects of university governance, including transferring final hiring authority for senior campus positions from university presidents to the board of regents.
Davis made this decision even though, assuming Gov. Abbott signs the measure, the university will not be subject to this provision until January 2026.
The university’s compliance with the measure before its effective date is a departure from previous efforts to defy state lawmakers, such as the university’s 2016 attempt to undermine campus carry laws.
Davis’ announcement quickly begat pushback on campus.
Pauline Strong, UT-Austin chapter president for the American Association of University Professors—a trade association for left-wing faculty—told the Austin-American Statesman, “we in the AAUP disagree that it is in the best interest of the university to exclude faculty and student voices from the selection of the finalist for the position of Provost.”
The announcement of Inboden’s hiring came on the same day that John Salier of the National Education of Scholars, a higher education reform group, called on reformers to develop a “talent pipeline.”
The board of regents could formally consider Inboden’s appointment at their August meeting.
No ads. No paywalls. No government grants. No corporate masters.
Just real news for real Texans.
Support Texas Scorecard to keep it that way!
