Bill to give political appointees more oversight over Texas universities wins final passage

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A bill that would grant political appointees unprecedented oversight of the state’s public universities heads to Gov. Greg Abbott after the two chambers in the Texas Legislature agreed on a compromise Saturday.

Other conservative-led states, including Florida and North Carolina, have already sought to influence who leads colleges and what gets taught in classrooms. Texas is poised to go even further, shifting some responsibilities traditionally held by professors to politically appointed university regents. The legislation would also create a state office with the power to investigate universities and would threaten their funding if they don’t comply with the law.

Supporters argue the measure is necessary to combat what they perceive as a liberal bias in universities and to better support the state’s workforce needs. Critics say it will undermine teaching and research.

Senate Bill 37 would create a state-level committee charged with recommending the courses that should be required for graduation. Each public university system’s board of regents — who oversee the school’s operations and are appointed by the governor — would also create committees to review curricula, which would be able to reject any course that is seen as ideologically charged or doesn’t align with workforce demands.

“Members, this is a bill you can be proud to vote for,” state Rep. Matt Shaheen, a Plano Republican who carried the bill in the House, said during debate last week. “The end result is going to be that the degrees that your children and grandchildren graduate with are going to be more valuable. They're going to be able to get those degrees faster. They're going to be less expensive.”

The final version of the bill clarifies universities — under the guidance of their governing boards — have the final say over the curricula. A House and Senate panel in a closed-door conference committee also agreed to get rid of language from an earlier version of the bill that would have required governing boards to ensure university curricula do not advocate any race, sex, ethnicity or religious belief is inherently superior to another.

Faculty across the state have criticized the legislation throughout session, saying it could lead many of them to self-censor since teaching anything related to race, gender or inequality could be misinterpreted as a violation. The bill would also limit faculty’s influence on campus. Faculty councils or senates, bodies that have traditionally advised university administrators on academic and hiring decisions, would become smaller. In addition, SB 37 would require half of their members to be appointed by the university president, rather than elected. Any member would be subject to removal if they use their position for political advocacy.

The bill would also require regents to approve the hiring of more administrators. Traditionally, they have only gotten involved in the hiring of top leadership positions.

Finally, the legislation would create an office, led by a gubernatorial appointee, to ensure schools are complying with the new law. The office could recommend limiting the state funding of universities that violate the law until a state auditor confirms they are in compliance.

The bill comes amid repeated clashes between Republican state leaders and professors in recent years. In particular, University of Texas at Austin faculty angered Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick with a 2021 letter reaffirming their right to teach critical race theory. That academic discipline explores how racism has permeated America’s institutions and has become a regular target of conservative criticism. UT-Austin professors also condemned university administrators and state leaders for the law enforcement crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters on campus last year.

House Democrats last week raised concerns that rigidly reviewing degree programs in the way the bill describes could lead to the elimination of degrees in humanities and social sciences. They also said students would ultimately be the ones paying when universities have to respond to frivolous complaints sent to the statewide office.

“The bill is not about improving education. It's about increasing control,” said Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin. “It threatens academic freedom. It undermines faculty voices, and it injects politics into the classroom at a time when we should be laser focused on expanding access, improving student outcomes and restoring trust in our education systems.”

Before passing the bill on the House floor Sunday, Democrats and Republicans also debated whether it would lead to a faculty brain drain. Rep. Erin Zwiener, a Democrat, said she had heard there'd be a dearth of applicants to Texas State University, which is in her district, because the legislation would disempower them. But Shaheen said according to his research, faculty who have threatened to leave Texas in recent years have not followed through.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

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