The state isn’t providing schools with guidance and advocates say students who still qualify for lower rates are being asked to pay thousands more.
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.
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Higher Education
Judge denies undocumented students’ attempt to challenge sudden loss of in-state tuition
Two groups tried to intervene in a case that blocked Texas’ decade-old law allowing certain undocumented students to pay the lower tuition rates at public universities. They’re appealing that decision.
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Higher Education
Texas State System dissolves faculty senates, eroding professors’ influence on campuses
While other universities move to preserve the advisory bodies, Texas State will abolish them under a new state law that curtails faculty’s influence on campuses.
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Higher Education
Texas A&M System’s new leader hints faculty senates in state leaders’ crosshairs will stay
In an interview with the Tribune, Chancellor Glenn Hegar also said he would prioritize student outcomes over big projects and skirted questions about diversity and academic freedom.
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Higher Education
United Methodist Church can fight to prevent split with SMU, Texas Supreme Court rules
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.