Opinion: Where Is the Support for Minority Faculty to Succeed at UT?

If you are from Texas, everyone knows what university you are referring to, when you simply say, "The University." Just by using that designation, the topic is about the University of Texas at Austin, whether you are a star football player, a son or daughter of rich parents, or just a poor kid who happens to be academically talented and wants to go to one of the best universities in the country. UT demands that unique attention from Texas students and their parents when a decision has to be made about which college to attend after high school. A UT degree really means so much for one's future job and career, especially for whites who want good positions in the private and public sectors. Minority parents and students have those same aspirations.

I was one of those poor Mexican kids, who was born and raised in El Paso during the 1950s and 1960s and had the chance to see if I could compete academically with the best students from the state of Texas at UT. Throughout my grade school and high school years, I was recognized by many of my teachers as that "smart Mexican boy" and was given special encouragement and support to excel in school.

I graduated first in my pharmacy class at UT in 1968, served two years in the Army, went on to receive a Ph.D. in pharmacology in 1974, and accepted a faculty position at my alma mater in 1974. I thought I had made it.

But I left the University of Texas about 27 years ago as a professor who could not advance his career into the upper echelons of UT administration. Instead, I became the dean of pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and served in that position for over 15 years.

Before I ended my career at UT, I helped establish the first graduate program in toxicology in the state of Texas and was selected as the faculty advisor of the year for student organizations by UT's Ex-Students [Association]. Later I was elected president of the largest and most prestigious toxicology organization in the world for academic, government, and industrial toxicologists, the Society of Toxicology. I also served five years as the deputy director for the National Center for Toxicological Research, the premier [Food and Drug Administration] center for research.

I returned to Austin in 2019 for my retirement and to be close to my family. As a first-generation Mexican American from El Paso, my goal was to be accepted as an equal to my white classmates and later my white faculty colleagues. In other words, I accepted the American premise that all immigrants must strive for assimilation into a white American society.

When I left the UT College of Pharmacy in 1996, there were two Mexican American Ph.D. professors on the faculty. When I returned to Austin, there is only one full-time professor; no progress has been made in the 50 years since I joined the faculty as one of those two Mexican American professors in 1974.

Over the last 25 years, the demographics of Texas have dramatically changed with Hispanics and other minorities assuming more prominent roles in Texas society. Presently, Texas is only one of five states with a majority minority with Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians outnumbering whites in the state.

It is remarkable and insulting that there has been only one female president of UT and that there has never been a Hispanic or Black candidate selected for president of the University of Texas at Austin. What will it take for the University of Texas to seek out more minority faculty and administrative leaders for the flagship university in the state?

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Dan Acosta is a first-generation Mexican American whose mother and grandparents emigrated from Mexico. He is a former professor, research scientist, and administrator who retired in 2019 at age 74. He plans to write about his experiences as a Mexican boy trying to succeed in white America, especially the role that discrimination and racism still play in the U.S. He will focus on personal vignettes about his education and career.