Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, announced the appointment of Casandra Cascos Ortiz of San Antonio, an attorney with the law firm of Shelton & Valadez, to the Sunset Advisory Commission.

On April 2, in a special meeting on the phone, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents named James Hallmark the vice chancellor for academic affairs. He had been serving as acting vice chancellor since March 1. Prior to that he was provost and vice president for academic affairs at West Texas A&M University, a position he held since 2008.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed four members to the Select Committee on Economic Development:

• James Epperson Jr. of Dallas, senior vice president of AT&T Strategic and Employee Communications, was named presiding officer of the committee.
• Stacey Gillman Wimbish of Houston is president of Gillman Companies.
• Maher Maso of Frisco is mayor of the city of Frisco and manager of Maso Asset Management.
• Carlton Schwab of Austin is president and CEO of the Texas Economic Development Council.

Deaths: John Chase, an architect and former president of the alumni association at the University of Texas, one of the first two black students enrolled in a southern university, the only black architect licensed in the state for the first ten years after he graduated, and a Houston power broker. He was 81.