[1] Following his appointment, and in the wake of the failure of a campaign to remodel the University of Texas at Austin along business lines,[2][3] Hall began broadly investigating the administrative dealings of President Bill Powers.
[4] Following up on these concerns, the UT system launched a limited probe to determine whether legislators' application recommendations made directly to Powers were given special treatment.
[4] On February 12, 2015, this investigation found that Powers had helped certain applicants gain admission, including those with questionable academic credentials, if he felt that doing so was in the university's best interests.
[5] President Powers and his Chief of Staff "each failed to speak with candor and forthrightness expected of people in their positions of trust and leadership," the report stated.
He told The Wall Street Journal that he had "intervened on behalf of a relatively small number of students" but denied that it was "undue influence".