A new Texas measure sent to Governor Greg Abbott clarifies governing board authority of universities.
Texas passed strong anti-DEI legislation in higher education in the last legislative session which led to the closing of DEI offices in public universities.
Sherry Sylvester of the Texas Public Policy Foundation said more needed to be done. "The first bill (Senate Bill 17) had nothing to do with curriculum and had nothing to do with how the hiring is done. What Senate Bill 37 does is it moves the governing boards of the universities and clarifies -- they already had this -- but it just clarifies you are in charge of who the president is, who the leadership is, and who gets tenure," Sylvester says.
Senate Bill 37, authored by Senator Brandon Creighton, who authored Senate Bill 17 against DEI initiatives, is an effort to bring accountability to higher educational institutions in Texas. The bill gives more authority to the Board of Regents and restructures the faculty senate. The governing board will also be allowed to review the curriculum with the possibility to implement revisions. An ombudsman will be appointed by the governor to investigate complaints and bring resolutions to conflicts.
She said she testified before the legislature during this session and that professors also testified against her. "Many of them said, 'I've taught history at the University of Texas for 30 years. I've been teaching at A&M for 40 years.' Good on you. Thank you for your service. More power to you, but do you think they have a clue about how a kid can get a job today? So that's why the regents needed to be brought in to look at that general curriculum. You can still take DEI classes at our schools; they just can't be required,” Sylvester says.
Sylvester said a Texas A&M finance student testified that he was required to take four courses related to global warming and talked about the financial burden of it. Another issue is the faculty senate. She said some senates say it's their role to select school leadership and curriculum. She said they can have input, but they are not running the school.
