Texas Senate approves new University of Texas regents

The Texas Senate has confirmed Gov. Greg Abbott’s three nominees for the University of Texas System Board of Regents.

Tuesday night’s 29-0 vote with two abstentions means Former UT regent Janiece Longoria, ex-state Sen. Kevin Eltife and businessman Rad Weaver will serve six-year terms.

Abstaining were Houston Democratic Sen. Borris Miles and Sen. Royce West a Democrat from Dallas. The only two black members of the Senate, the pair has criticized Abbott for not nominating any African-Americans for the UT Board of Regents.

The three new regents succeed Wallace Hall, Alex Cranberg and Brenda Pejovich.

Hall ruffled campus feathers by suing UT Austin to get access to hundreds of thousands of pages of emails, interview notes and other records. Cranberg and Pejovich were Hall allies.