 In response, Austin assembled a special committee (led by Keith McFarland) to document the school's strengths in a white paper, sent 50,000 letters to alumni asking for their support, and organized a July 1986 bus trip to Austin that took 450 supporters of the university to the State Capitol in a show of support that ultimately ensured that ETSU would not be closed.President Austin had accepted the position of head of the Department of Health Care and Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's medical school before East Texas State's existence had been secured, but according to Reynolds he did not leave ETSU until after the bus trip "because he did not want to jeopardize that mission".Jerry Morris was named the next university president on January 1, 1987, after a nationwide search that included 144 candidates.