The authors analyze public higher education policy in Texas during the current era of fiscal austerity in the state through Morgan’s (2006) images of organizations. Scarce resources have led to cuts in educational funding and a refocusing of faculty work using statistical methods designed to enhance the status of teaching over research. In the name of efficiency using “reinventing government” rhetoric, politically appointed Regents and their ideological proponents in the Texas Public Policy Foundation have made attempts to turn what is commonly thought of as a public good into a consumer one. Faculty and their supporters have resisted these initiatives. The authors employ Morgan’s (2006) images of organizations as political systems, cultures, and psychic prisons as modes of understanding the conflict and lack of consensus between these affected groups.