Right after University of Texas System regents made a public show of unanimous support for the system’s chief executive, a new regent requested additional information on individual faculty workloads, average grades and student evaluations of UT faculty, the Austin American Statesmen and other media reported.

UT Regent Alex Cranberg asked for information for the 2009-10 academic year for the system’s nine academic campuses, according to emails obtained by the Statesman. One email said Regent Brenda Pejovich also made the request, but officials denied that.

Cranberg told the Texas Tribune that his request was a follow-up to a previous request made by Pejovich before the task force was created.

Pejovich is a member of the Texas Public Policy Foundation board of directors, the conservative think tank behind the “seven breakthrough solutions” for higher education, which included measuring faculty performance according to revenue generated. Cranberg has long been an associate with Jeff Sandefer, who is a TPPF board member, chief architect of the proposals and major donor to Gov. Rick Perry.

Gene Powell, chairman of the regents, told the Statesman that requests by regents to collect this sort of data are not micromanagement — which regents said they would not do. The board had voted unanimously to support UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa.

“There is obviously a big difference between asking for data that any non-Regent citizen can ask for under the FOIA, and using that data to micro-manage,” Cranberg told the Tribune.

UT campuses earlier had provided a list of teacher salaries, courses taught, and monetary value of research grants, released May 5 in an 821-page spreadsheet , in response to a public information request. Read more in the Dallas Morning News (subscription required).