On May 7, the UT System Board of Regents named Prabhas Moghe as the sole finalist for the office of UTD president. If approved by the board, Moghe could assume office as early as May 28.
Moghe, who currently serves as the executive vice president for academic affairs at Rutgers University in New Jersey, will succeed current UTD president Richard Benson if appointed by the board after the mandatory 21-day waiting period between the public announcement and board vote.
Moghe joined Rutgers as a biomedical engineering professor in 1995. During his time at Rutgers, he served in a number of executive roles, most recently serving as executive vice president for academic affairs. He has developed a vast research portfolio with 131 peer-reviewed journal publications, has filed for nine patents, and has co-written a textbook. He published four papers last year, and has spent the past few semesters teaching exclusively research classes. The majority of his funding, which largely focuses on nanotechnology in the field of biomedicine, was awarded by the National Institute for Health and the National Science Foundation.
These very organizations have recently had millions in research funding stripped, with effects echoing throughout academia. While UTD’s research expenditures have nearly doubled under Benson’s leadership from $98.6 million to $180.2 million, the recent cuts represent “a loss of revenue in the tens of millions of dollars,” according to Benson’s comments in the April 16th Academic Senate meeting. As executive vice president for academic affairs, Moghe contributed towards a 41% increase in Rutgers’ research funding over the past five years.
While lauded for his research and contributions at Rutgers, Moghe has faced pushback from Rutgers faculty over controversial university policies. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rutgers instituted a hiring freeze for “part-time lecturers” because of a “dire” fiscal situation, effectively cutting 300 adjunct positions. Some faculty viewed Moghe as partially responsible for this decision, including Rutgers adjunct professor Howard Swerdloff, who described it as a “thoughtless and callous decision that harmed this university, its students, and teachers.” The hiring freeze was later lifted.
Later, when Moghe was promoted to executive vice chancellor for research and academic affairs, the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union asked for compensation for the extra work they had performed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the work of switching to a remote-learning format and teaching larger classes. Moghe sidestepped the issues in his reply.
This back-and-forth culminated in an April 2023 strike across all three Rutgers campuses, which lasted four days before a tentative framework with improved salaries and job security was proposed. Around 9,000 staff participated in the strike, with unions representing adjunct faculty, full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral researchers, counselors and faculty in the biomedical and health sciences department. Despite the gains, adjuncts have continued to face layoffs.
If appointed, Moghe will inherit the UTD presidency while many are trying to step away. Since Benson announced plans to step down from the presidency in August 2024, other prominent UT System figures such as UT Austin President Jay Hertzel and UT System Chancellor James Milliken have announced their departures for Southern Methodist University and the University of California System, respectively.
These departures reflect an especially contentious moment for education in the nation as a whole and Texas in particular. The proposal of Senate Bill 37, which threatens to limit the teaching of history, race and other subjects that discuss systemic inequities, could hamper Texas universities’ freedom to teach their own curriculums. Senate Bill 17, which was passed in 2023, has resulted in the prohibition of DEI offices and training and silencing of student expression.
UTD’s current dearth of DEI offerings stand in stark contrast to Rutgers’, which currently maintains an office of equity and inclusion. Rutgers is one of 45 schools — alongside Texas schools Rice University and the University of North Texas — under investigation by the Trump administration for partnering with The PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps students from underrepresented backgrounds earn business PhDs. It is also one of 60 schools being investigated for antisemitism after pro-Palestine protests in spring 2024.
Moghe was at the helm of a number of DEI initiatives at Rutgers. In 2021 he charged a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access Planning Committee to create a plan to meaningfully champion DEI initiatives at the university. He also oversaw diversity funding allocated for Rutgers’ hiring and co-authored a letter to his faculty advocating for a “self-reinforcing academic community that is committed to diversity and inclusive excellence.” Given current Texas restrictions, it is currently unclear how Moghe’s past experience with DEI initiatives will apply to UTD.
This article is a part of a series following and analyzing the search for UTD’s next president. Follow The Retrograde at retrogradenews.com to keep up with the latest stories.