Following The University of Texas at San Antonio and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio’s merger in September 2025 and the launch of the university’s new unified Strategic Planning Initiative in early spring, UT San Antonio’s leadership team sought to define a clear, collaborative decision-making framework that supports the university’s academic, research, and health missions and aligns priorities across the enterprise.
As Texas’ third-largest public research university, UT San Antonio remains grounded in its mission and committed to providing both opportunity and excellence. This updated, unified framework will allow the university to stay agile and nimble while also keeping decision-making transparent and collaborative across the entire enterprise on our ambitious journey to becoming a top 20 public research university by 2036.
The areas evaluated included the following:
- Existing governing bodies and their structures
- Decision authority and escalation pathways
- Naming conventions and institutional consistency
- Cross-functional coordination and communication
- Alignment between academic and health enterprise governance
Through this collaborative effort, leadership made the following recommendations to unite UTSA and UT Health San Antonio’s existing decision-making frameworks to create a new unified model:
- President’s Cabinet:
- Acts as the primary advisory body to the President for institutional strategy and operations
- Ensures alignment across academic, research, clinical, and community engagement mission
- University Leadership Council:
- Renamed to Academic Executive Council
- Cross-campus consultative body promoting governance and transparency
- Reviews major policies, initiatives, and campus priorities
- Executive Committee:
- Renamed to Health Affairs Executive Council
- Primary governance body for health missions
- Oversees academic and clinical programs, partnerships, compliance and resource prioritization
- Academic Council & Dean’s Council:
- Renamed Dean’s Council to Health Affairs Dean’s Council
- Academic policy and program planning forums
- Coordinate degree program proposals, policy reviews and academic quality assurance
At the institutional level, the President’s Cabinet remains as an advisory entity, with final university decisions belonging to the president of UT San Antonio.
At the campus level, leadership broke down decision-making into four categories: Academic & Research Matters, Clinical Matters, Budget, and Policy. Within each of these categories is a series of advisory groups and final decision-making groups that comprise of a mix of faculty, staff and leadership from both the academic and health campuses and clinical enterprise.
The new executive decision-making framework aims to provide:
- Transparency: clear scopes, roles, & information-sharing
- Participation: faculty, staff, & student voices represented
- Alignment: all governance activities tied to institutional mission & strategic priorities
You can view the full scope of UT San Antonio’s new decision-making framework by visiting the Office of the President’s updated web page.
