The heated debate over awarding bonuses to investment managers even when their funds lose value has reached the University of Texas Investment Management Company, the Austin American-Stateman reported today.

Robert Rowling, chairman of Utimco, as the company is known, told angry Texas lawmakers today that he would quit, after they criticized the more than $3-million that Utimco gave in bonuses to its staff.

“You can have my job. I resign,” the newspaper quoted Mr. Rowling as saying. He later said he did intend to follow through and leave his position. Utimco manages billions of dollars in endowment funds for the University of Texas and Texas A&M University systems.

The state’s Senate Finance Committee singled out for criticism Mr. Rowling and Utimco’s chief executive officer, Bruce Zimmerman, who received a $1-million bonus in addition to his $575,000 base salary. Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, wrote a letter expressing outrage over the bonuses.

Mr. Rowling said the bonuses had been based on the staff’s performance during the last fiscal year, which ended on June 30 and posted small gains. He said he would vote again to award them.

The Texas money managers aren’t the first to get caught up in a bonus battle. A group of Harvard alumni demanded last week that Harvard’s investment managers return the the $21-million they received in bonuses, given the large losses the endowment has recently suffered. —Kathryn Masterson