The school sought to leave the church because of differences over gay marriage and clergy. The court did not decide whether SMU could be prevented from separating.
Jessica Priest
Jessica Priest covers higher education, working in partnership with Open Campus. She joined the Tribune in 2022 as an engagement reporter in the ProPublica/Texas Tribune joint investigative unit, contributing to a series that was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in the explanatory reporting category. Prior to the Tribune, Jessica worked for the Fort Worth Report, USA Today, the Victoria Advocate and the Temple Daily Telegram, reporting on topics that included criminal justice, the environment and local government. Her work has often made an impact. The state’s highest criminal court granted a death row inmate a new trial after she detailed a prosecutor’s conflicts of interest. After she exposed questionable hirings and payments at a port and later a water district in another part of the state, both public entities underwent reforms. Jessica was born in Houston and graduated from Sam Houston State University.
Posted in
Higher Education
Texas A&M, university systems in other red states will create their own agency to review schools’ quality standards
The creation of the new accrediting agency comes as Republicans have criticized existing ones for reinforcing a liberal bias in the country’s higher ed institutions.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2025
Once again targeting higher ed, Texas lawmakers limited faculty influence, campus speech this session
Lawmakers also approved direct pay for student athletes and sought better pathways from college to the workforce.
Posted in
Higher Education
Undocumented students rethink their college dreams after Texas cuts their access to cheaper tuition
Thousands of undocumented students who grew up in Texas now face college tuition costs that are more than twice what other state residents pay.
Posted in
Higher Education
Texas’ undocumented college students no longer qualify for in-state tuition
Within hours of a federal lawsuit targeting Texas’ policy of letting undocumented students qualify for lower public tuition rates, the 24-year-old law was no more.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2025
Lawmakers approve bill limiting protests at public universities
The proposal is largely in response to massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year. Critics say it would walk back free speech protections that conservatives advocated for in previous legislative sessions.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2025
Bill to give political appointees more oversight over Texas universities wins final passage
The latest version of the proposal eliminates language that would have required university curricula not to advocate that “any race, sex, ethnicity or religious belief is inherently superior to another.”
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2025
Texas colleges will soon be able to pay their athletes
House Bill 126, which allows student athletes to receive a slice of the billions Texas colleges generate in revenue from their teams, now awaits the governor’s signature.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2025
Bill to teach Texas kids the dangers of communism — but not fascism — clears the Legislature
The bill won bipartisan support despite efforts from multiple Democrats that would have also required students to learn about fascism and Nazism.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2025
Texas House committee advances legislation that targets state’s universities
Senate bills that reduce the influence of faculties and restrict protests on college campuses were voted out of committee in a last-minute meeting Monday.
