Texas Senate Higher Education Priority Bills Will End Tenures, Diversity Politics

Subscribe to The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to date with the most important Texas news.

A bill filed Friday in the Texas Senate would bar public colleges and universities from awarding professorships hired after September, legislation that critics say would make it extremely difficult for the state to recruit the best faculty and hurt the reputation of its higher education institutions. .

The bill, introduced by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, is one of three pieces of legislation on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s higher education priority list for this session.

Creighton also filed a bill to prevent Texas higher education institutions from considering diversity, equality and inclusiveness when hiring new employees. A third bill, filed by Senator Brian Hughes, R-Mineola, would ban educators from teaching that any race, ethnicity, gender, or political belief is “inherently superior to others.”

If they are passed as they were submitted, the bills will markedly change how the state’s universities operate.

[Texas higher ed leaders optimistic about funding, faculty uneasy about culture wars as new session starts]

Critics argue that the law will create a chilling effect in college classrooms as faculty and students try to determine what is acceptable for discussion by imposing restrictions on core principles of higher education such as academic freedom and free inquiry.

“Terms of office and academic freedom were designed to protect scientists, who sometimes study unpopular things, from the very political influence that Texas, Florida and other states are trying to exert on the audience,” said Victor Ray, a professor at the University of Iowa. who wrote a book on critical race theory. “[This] damages the US ability to create new ideas and innovate, and to do what the conservatives claim they are interested in. If there are whole branches of ideas that aren’t being discussed, you can’t discuss them, figure out what’s right, and move forward.”

Last year, Patrick announced a proposal to abolish tenure for prospective staff as a way to combat faculty who, he said, “indoctrinate” students with teachings about “critical race theory.”

Critical race theory is an academic discipline that studies the impact of race and racism on America’s legal and social systems. Over the past few years, conservatives have used “critical race theory” as a broad label to attack progressive teachings and books in colleges and K-12 schools that discuss how racism and racism are taught in schools.

When Patrick unveiled his list of legislative priorities earlier in this session, he called Hughes’ bill a ban on “critical race theory” in higher education. Patrick’s banning statement was also a response to a resolution issued by the University of Texas at the Austin Faculty Council in February 2022 affirming faculty’s right to teach racial justice and critical racial theory in the classroom.

Since then, several leaders of the university system have expressed concern that the abolition of tenure may hurt their ability to hire the best faculty. Last year, Speaker of the House Dade Phelan said he did not agree with Patrick’s proposal to terminate his powers. Abbott is largely silent on this issue.

As filed, Creighton’s bill would allow employees who received or received a tenure before September 1st to retain benefits. And it allows the board of trustees of the university system to set its own “tiered employment status for faculty.”

Tenure is an indefinite appointment for university faculty that can only be terminated under extraordinary circumstances. Professors who are considered to be on track for tenure usually serve as a professor for five or six years before they go through a month-long tenure review process. As a rule, all full-time and non-staff facultiesat are already receiving annual performance reviews, while tenured professors are undergoing a periodic review process. For example, at UT-Austin, tenured professors undergo a comprehensive review of their teaching, research, and other contributions to the university every six years.

In a press release Friday, Creighton criticized the tenure as “a costly perk that is detrimental to innovative research and quality teaching.”

“At a time when colleges and universities have unprecedented endowments, inflated administrative costs and inflated tuition fees, it is time for lawmakers to rethink outdated practices that guarantee lifetime employment at taxpayer expense,” he said.

Creighton also filed a bill to ban the use of diversity claims in employment; ban offices that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts; and expand the powers of boards of trustees to hire top administrators at their universities.

Under the bill, governor-appointed board members will be able to approve or deny the hiring of vice presidents, rectors, and deans, as well as approve core curriculum courses.

The bill states that universities cannot require students or faculty to “endorse an ideology that promotes differential treatment of individuals or groups based on race, color, or ethnicity.”

Last month, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office sent a letter to public universities and state agencies stating that considering diversity, fairness, and inclusion in hiring practices violates federal and state employment laws and prohibits them from hiring for reasons other than merit. “. Legal experts said the Governor’s administration mischaracterized the legal methods used by employers when considering diversity in hiring.

In response to the Governor’s order, many university systems have banned diversity claims from future job applications. These statements are short essays in which a potential employee can describe their experience of working with different student groups or share their experience of working with different populations and their commitment to helping a diverse group of students succeed. Conservative critics have described them as political litmus tests.

Creighton’s bill would ban such statements statewide. It also states that the university cannot establish or have a diversity, equality and inclusion office that considers anything other than “colour-blind and gender-neutral hiring processes”, conducts trainings or events related to “race, color skin, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation.” Orientation” unless these trainings are approved in writing by the University General Counsel and the Attorney General of Texas.

The bill states that the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Council will maintain a list of people found to have violated this section of the law and that universities cannot hire people from that list. If the coordinating board finds that the university is in violation of this section, it may recover up to $1 million or 1% of the institution’s operating expenses for the previous financial year from the school.

“The location of DEI offices on campuses has only exacerbated divisions and created a deterrent effect on open dialogue,” Creighton said in a press release. dialogue and encourage intellectual discourse”.

Also on Friday, Sen. Joan Huffman, D-Houston, filed another bill to create a new donation stream for Texas Tech University, the University of Houston, Texas State University, and the University of North Texas.

The bill would rename the existing National Research University Foundation, which provides additional funding to universities trying to expand their research units, as the University of Texas Foundation.

Texas voters must approve a constitutional amendment allowing the change and add $2.5 billion to the donation before the state can formally establish the fund.

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin provides financial support to The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial sponsors play no role in Tribune journalism. Find their full list here.

We can’t wait to welcome you September 21-23 at the Texas Tribune Festival 2023, our multi-day celebration of big and bold ideas about politics, public policy, and the news of the day – all happening just steps away from the Texas Capitol. When tickets go on sale in May, Tribune members will be able to save. Donate to join or renew today.