Now That Is The Kent Hance That I Know And Love
What is not to love about Kent Hance? A former State Senator, Congressman and Railroad Commissioner, Mr. Hance has not let his new post as Chancellor of Texas Tech University slow down his natural born skill to shoot from the hip and say what is on his mind.
Arguably, it was this trait that allowed Mr. Hance to top George W. Bush in a 1978 Congressional race, where Mr. Hance’s one-liners and zings effectively portrayed the current President (and former Governor of Texas) as not a real Texan. 30 years later, Mr. Hance’s words are still serving him well.
While testifying before a Senate Higher Education Subcommittee, Mr. Hance proudly spoke his mind by pointing out that perhaps the research that Texas Tech University is doing for the Defense Department is a bit more important than Texas’s studies in Humanities. Specifically, Mr. Hance said:
…research on “the best part of Shakespeare’s play” isn’t on the same level as the research his university is conducting for the Defense Department.
Now see, this is what you get when two universities compete for research dollars in front of Texas Senators, great sound bites. University of Texas President William Powers did offer a well thought out counter argument in defense of his university’s practices, though.
However, On this one I’m going to have to side with Mr. Hance. His one-liner was far more entertaining and frankly, would you rather a university be able to improve and bring innovation to our nation’s defense systems or answer the age-old riddle of, “To be, or not to be?”
Now, that is the question.