The Vice President for Administration & Chief Business Officer for The University of Texas at Tyler has resigned from his position effective Thursday, June 25.

Jesse T. Acosta served as the VP of the college from September 2002-June 2015.  According to Beverly Golden, Director of Marketing and Communications, the resignation is personnel issue and cannot be commented on by staff.

A letter obtained by KETK (myeasttex.com) sent out to UT Tyler staff indicates Acosta resigned following an investigation into sexual harassment claims.

Dear University Community,

Vice President of Administration and Chief Business Officer, Mr. Jesse Acosta, has resigned his position at UT Tyler, effective June 25.  This resignation comes after a UT System investigation found that he violated major tenets of the UT Tyler sexual harassment policy.

UT Tyler as an institution, and I, personally, take all policy violations seriously.  This is especially the case regarding allegations of sexual harassment of any kind, including (but not limited to), creating a gender-based hostile work environment.  After learning of the allegations against Mr. Acosta, I placed him on administrative leave while UT System investigated the situation. Upon the completion of this investigation, Mr. Acosta submitted his resignation.

To ensure that the business operations of the University continue to operate smoothly, I have asked Mr. David Dabney to serve as the Interim Vice President for Administration & Chief Business Officer.  Mr. Dabney has experience at UT Tyler, having served as Director of Financial Services from 1998 to 2001.  He most recently served as the Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance at the University of Toledo.  Mr. Dabney retired from that position in 2013.  He has agreed to serve in our interim position until we complete a national search to find a permanent replacement.

With Mr. Dabney’s leadership and the continued contributions from all of the staff members in the departments reporting to the Vice President for Administration, I am confident the business of UT Tyler will move forward without interruption.

We are selecting a search committee now, to be led by Vice President Sherri Whatley. That committee will be assisted by a national search firm.

The Management Responsibilities Handbook for Department Heads and Budget Authorities defines sexual harassment as the following (examples include but are not limited to):

• Physical contact of a sexual nature including touching, patting, hugging, or brushing against a person’s body;

• Explicit or implicit propositions or offers to engage in sexual activity;

• Comments of a sexual nature including sexually explicit statements, questions, jokes or anecdotes; remarks of a sexual nature about a person’s clothing or body; remarks about sexual activity; speculation about sexual experience;

• Exposure to sexually oriented graffiti, pictures, posters, or materials;

• Physical interference with or restriction of an individual’s movement.

(Information from myeasttex.com)