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Sources: Cigarroa to Step Down as UT Chancellor

photo by: Bob Daemmrich

Francisco Cigarroa, the chancellor of the University of Texas System, will announce Monday that plans to step down to become the head of the pediatric surgery unit at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, three sources tell The Texas Tribune.

Cigarroa's intention to resign his post was first reported late Sunday by the Austin American-Statesman. A Sunday release by the system said Cigarroa and Paul Foster, the chairman of the Board of Regents, will appear together at a Monday morning news conference at which the chancellor will make a "special announcement."

The first Hispanic to lead a major university system in the United States, 56-year-old Cigarroa was appointed in January 2009. His last three years as chancellor have been consumed by controversy over the relationship between the system's Board of Regents and the University of Texas at Austin — and particularly its president, Bill Powers. But he also presided over the creation of a new system institution in South Texas, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and was instrumental in pushing legislative approval of medical schools in Austin and the lower Rio Grande Valley.

Both the Statesman and the Tribune's sources say Cigarroa will remain in his current job until a replacement is found.

The timing of Cigarroa's departure comes at an interesting moment politically in Texas. Gov. Rick Perry, whose appointees to the UT regents have been notably aggressive in their oversight of the chancellor, is in his last year in office. The next governor, presumably Attorney General Greg Abbott or state Sen. Wendy Davis, could inherit a choice made by their predecessor instead of getting an opportunity to put their own mark on the system.

Evan Smith is the CEO and editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune, which, in its first year in operation, won two national Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association and a General Excellence Award from the Online News Association. Previously he spent nearly 18 years at Texas Monthly, stepping down in August 2009 as the magazine's president and editor-in-chief. He previously served as editor for more than eight years — only the third person to hold that title. On his watch, Texas Monthly was nominated for 16 National Magazine Awards, the magazine industry's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, and twice was awarded the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. For eight years, Smith hosted a Lone Star Emmy Award-winning weekly interview program, Texas Monthly Talks, that aired on PBS stations statewide. He currently hosts a new show, Overheard with Evan Smith, that airs on PBS stations nationally. A New York native, Smith has a bachelor's degree in public policy from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School at Northwestern University.