Texas State System dissolves faculty senates, eroding professors' influence on campuses

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Professors across the Texas State University System are about to lose their formal voice in campus decision-making — at least temporarily.

The system is allowing faculty senates — bodies made up of professors who approve and advise university leaders on curricula, faculty hiring and other academic issues — to be abolished under a new state law, creating a gap in faculty representation that other public university systems are actively trying to avoid.

The law, Senate Bill 37, is part of a broader effort by Republican lawmakers to assert more control over public universities following years of clashes with faculty over issues like tenure, diversity initiatives and academic freedom. It requires boards of regents to either authorize significantly restructured faculty senates or allow existing ones to be abolished on Sept. 1.

On Friday, the system’s board of regents updated its rules to comply with the legislation and gave university presidents the authority to develop new faculty advisory groups. The board did not authorize any existing senates, which means they will lapse on Sept. 1.

Texas State System officials said the board plans to approve new faculty senates in the fall. The board’s next regularly scheduled meeting is in November.

Other university systems, including Texas A&M, University of Houston and University of North Texas, are taking steps to preserve their faculty senates and avoid a gap in faculty representation by restructuring them ahead of the Sept. 1 deadline.

The University of Houston System said it began planning for a new faculty council earlier this summer, and its board is scheduled to vote on the updated policies and bylaws in August. Texas Tech University System has indicated it plans to retain its faculty senates in accordance with the new law, though it’s unclear what steps it has taken in that direction. The University of Texas System did not respond to questions about its plans.

Some Texas State faculty questioned why their university system opted to let their existing faculty senates lapse.

“It’s a head-scratching moment to wonder how and why the effort looks so different,” said Joseph Velasco, a professor at Sul Ross State University, which is part of the Texas State University System.

Faculty senates have long helped guide academic policy and served as a key channel for faculty to share concerns with university administrators. Velasco said dissolving them — even temporarily — could lead to a loss in institutional memory and weaken oversight.

“It isn’t just a matter of filling empty seats,” he said. “It risks breaking the thread of shared governance that keeps the university healthy and accountable.”

At Sul Ross, faculty who teach at least six credit hours a semester automatically become members of the faculty assembly, a body that functions like a faculty senate and advises the administration. That arrangement gives roughly 120 faculty members the ability to vote on curriculum changes, workload policies, committee appointments and other issues that shape the university.

Faculty senates, which have traditionally elected their own leaders and representatives, will look drastically different under SB 37, even at those universities opting to keep their faculty senates and adapt them to comply with the law. SB 37 requires that:

• University presidents appoint all faculty senate officers. They can also choose up to half the members.
• Faculty senates have no more than 60 members.
• Appointees serve one-year terms for up to six years.
• Elected members serve two-year terms. They must step down after each term.

Velasco said the changes could lead to the appointment of less experienced faculty, either by design or default.

“You might exclude those faculty with the most institutional memory while opting for more impressionable faculty who are unaware of the principles of academic freedom and sound shared governance,” he said. “Continuity matters because a functioning faculty senate serves as a check and balance within the university.”

Mark Criley, a senior program officer at the American Association of University Professors, said the administration could also use the new faculty senates to make it appear as if they have faculty support when they do not.

When making the case for SB 37 earlier this year, state Sen. Brandon Creighton, the law’s author, said he wanted to bring more transparency to faculty senates, which have recently played prominent roles in pushing back against their universities’ leadership.

SB 37 requires faculty senates to broadcast their meetings when a majority of members are present, record attendance on critical votes, and post agendas seven days in advance, a stricter standard than the 72-hour requirement under the Texas Open Meetings Act.

The law also allows university administrators to remove faculty senate members for “failing to conduct the member’s responsibilities within the council or senate’s parameters, failing to attend council or senate meetings or engaging in similar misconduct.” The law doesn’t define what qualifies as misconduct.

Faculty senates at Stephen F. Austin State University and West Texas A&M University have issued votes of no confidence in their presidents in recent years. SFA faculty blasted their university president’s controversial pay raise during the pandemic. He later resigned. At West Texas A&M, faculty’s no-confidence vote came after their president canceled a student drag show. He remains in the position.

Last year, more than 500 professors at Creighton’s alma mater, UT-Austin, signed a petition calling for the removal of then-President Jay Hartzell over his decision to have law enforcement respond to peaceful pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus. The American Association of University Professors organized the petition, which did not lead to a formal vote of no confidence by the faculty senate. Hartzell eventually stepped down to take a job as president of Southern Methodist University, a smaller private school in Dallas.

Some faculty senates, like at the University of North Texas, have historically avoided publicly criticizing the administration to keep lines of communication open.

Coby Condrey, a librarian who serves as chair of the UNT faculty senate, said that he expects to continue that strategy under SB 37, and that UNT’s administration will respond in kind. He anticipates the UNT System board of regents will authorize faculty senates at their meeting later this month, and said UNT President Harrison Keller has already agreed to consider faculty recommendations when selecting appointees.

“We know that it is always going to be better for the faculty to have the administration at least hear our concerns, even if not all of the decisions might be the ones that we would prefer,” Condrey said.

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

Disclosure: Southern Methodist University, Sul Ross University, Texas State University System, Texas Tech University System, University of Houston, University of North Texas, University of Texas System and West Texas A&M University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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