CANYON, TEXAS -- Governor Rick Perry's new vision for college has many teachers in the UT and A&M systems upset.
His new vision includes seven breakthrough solutions for higher education, so we wanted to hear from WT President J. Patrick O'Brien and get his take on this issue.
"We get a considerable amount of funding from the state so we have to be accountable to the state, we get a considerable amount of funding from our students, we have to be accountable to our students to make sure we are providing the highest quality, relevant, education possible for those students."
Governor Perry's seven solutions include measuring teaching efficiency and effectiveness as well as using results-based contracts with students to measure quality and putting state funding in the hands of students.
All things West Texas A&M already does.
"If individuals can receive financial aid in the form of a voucer thats fine with me and individuals can choose where they go. They can do that already in a sense with Texas Grants."
But what about one of solutions creating a results-based accrediting alternative?
"Our accrediting body, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, is already moving in that direction. We have to do a lot of learning assesment to be able to maintain our accredidation."
And when it comes to Governor Perry, The Houston Chronicle got a hold of some e-mails, that show he is pressing his appointees to university boards of regents to adopt certain reforms.
Many of the ideas, were based from a major campaign contributor and businessman, they will measure a professor's "productivity" based on number of students and linking compensation to positive student evaluations.
Critics say these reforms are simplistic and harmful to research institutions.
The e-mails were obtained from the University of Texas and Texas A&M University.
