An Outrage After 110 Years

The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is a non-profit educational organization, dedicated to documenting the rich and unique history of Texas. It was founded on March 2, 1897. Today, the news broke locally that the 110-relationship between The University of Texas at Austin and the TSHA was dissolved. A significant event deserves coverage in the local press. A full and more balanced account was not provided by the Austin newspaper and a source reference for a fuller report is provided in the final sentence in the local blurb: "One reason for the split is that university officials felt uncomfortable providing space to a private organization, Don Carleton, Director of UT's Center for American History, told The Chronicle of Higher Education." What responsible newspaper provides only "one reason" for the severance of a 110-year relationship between the State's flagship university and the older learned society in the Lone Star State? The publications of the TSHA, both print and online, dwarf any other scholarly endeavors associated with The University of Texas at Austin. This dissolution of a long and mutually beneficial relationship was a newsworthy event. The local newspaper should be ashamed of its sketchy account. If this is (fair & balanced) dismay, so be it.

[1] Austin Fishwrap account
[2] The Chronicle of Higher Education account

[1]
[x Austin Fishwrap]
TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION MOVING FROM UT CAMPUS

After a 110-year affiliation with UT, the Texas State Historical Association is leaving campus.

The association publishes The Handbook of Texas, a reference work with a popular online version and The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, a scholarly journal. It is moving to offices on Spicewood Springs Road in Northwest Austin.

One reason for the split is that university officials felt uncomfortable providing space to a private organization, Don Carleton, Director of UT's Center for American History, told The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Compiled from staff and wire reports
Copyright © 2007 The Austin American-Statesman
[2]
[x CHE]
U. of Texas at Austin and State Historical Association End Long Partnership
By Jennifer Howard

Back in June, Richard B. McCaslin, a professor of history at the University of North Texas, published At the Heart of Texas: One Hundred Years of the Texas State Historical Association, 1897-1997.

"I didn't realize I was writing an obituary," he says.

The association will depart from the campus of the University of Texas at Austin this month, ending a 110-year relationship with the flagship institution. Some observers interpret the split as a sign that the university no longer cares about state history. Some also blame an internal struggle over the association's future.

Founded in 1897 by George P. Garrison, a history professor at Austin, the association has a membership of about 2,200, including scholars and lay historians. Since its founding it has published a scholarly journal, the Southwestern Historical Quarterly.

The association also publishes books on Texas history, including Mr. McCaslin's, and distributes them through the Texas A&M University Press. Its Handbook of Texas is a staple reference work, with an online version, run as a joint project with the Austin campus's library system, that gets more than four million page hits a month from around the world.

Strains on a Public-Private Partnership

J.C. Martin, the association's interim director, says it was only space constraints that forced the association out. "In recent years, the University of Texas has run out of space for various nonprofits on campus and basically asked us to leave," he says. "This has been under negotiation for two or three years."

Others tell a more complicated tale of how two institutions— one public, one private— evolved in opposite directions. Back in Mr. Garrison's day, the partnership worked just fine. The association donated its collections to the university and helped attract valuable archival material and other resources. The university returned the favor by giving the group rent-free quarters. But then, in the 1960s and 70s, things began to change.

"The university, because of the regulatory climate we live in, began to get a little nervous about the fact that it was supporting a private organization," says Don Carleton, director of the university's Center for American History. "Eventually that got so complicated that the university realized there were real issues that had to be addressed in terms of oversight and accountability, because we're a public university using public funds."

Over the years, the partners found ways to get around the problem. Many of the association's directors have been members of the history department at Austin. In 1950 the university opened the Eugene C. Barker Texas History Center, named for one of the association's past directors, and housed the scholarly group there.

Growth on the campus and shrinking budgets, however, put more pressure on the relationship. Eventually the university proposed that the association's on-campus employees be made university employees. Among association officials, that idea apparently didn't fly. "They interpreted that as a loss of control over their organization," Mr. Carleton says.

He finds himself in a curious position: A university employee, he is also a longtime member of the association and a former board member. "After this unpleasant episode," he says, "I have decided to let my membership lapse after 35 years."

'A Recipe for Disaster'

Mr. McCaslin, of North Texas, believes that rifts within the association itself helped doom the public-private partnership. "There is talk, and it's serious talk, about moving it into a small place on the outskirts of Austin, scaling everything down dramatically, and turning it into a very small club," he says. "They've hit this crisis about every 10 years during their entire existence since World War II. They always stood together and answered the challenge, showed that they were a vital, visible part of the university community, and worked it out. This time they stood divided. The university has changed dramatically. It was a recipe for disaster."

Mr. Martin responded, via e-mail, that "while a great many opinions and observations have been made in the past few months and years, it is my firm opinion that the great majority of TSHA members are excited and confident about our future. ... The TSHA leadership believes that many wonderful opportunities are just around the corner."

The association will move to temporary quarters as it entertains bids from other academic institutions in the state, including Texas Christian University and the University of North Texas, Mr. McCaslin reports. The Handbook of Texas will follow the association, as will its book-publishing program.

The Southwestern Historical Quarterly will continue to publish on schedule, says its editor, Randolph B. (Mike) Campbell, a professor of history at North Texas. As for the split with the flagship campus, "I hate to see it happen," he says. "The great collections for the study of Texas history are in Austin."

But, he adds, "it has been decades now since there's been much emphasis on research and writing Texas history at the University of Texas."

Mr. Carleton bristles when asked if the split means that Austin no longer cares about home-state history. "There's a lot of misinformation out there about the university's role in that we're giving up on Texas history and that we're not interested in Texas history anymore," he says. "That's a total falsehood."

Mr. McCaslin, however, does not sound reassured. The association's departure "should worry the people of Texas," he says. "I think it should worry anyone who's worried about state and local history."

Jennifer Howard is a staff reporter for "The Chronicle of Higher Education" who writes on publishing and the humanities in higher educaation.

Copyright © 2007 by The Chronicle of Higher Education

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