The Texas Senate has approved a wide range of higher education bills examining school compliance, including regulating faculty senators, setting up mandatory reviews of core curricula, setting up a summary training for University System Regents, eliminating degree programs to eliminate low or endless degree programs with low or endless return on investment, and examining public complaints.
Senate Bill 37, which was compiled several times before it finally passed Wednesday, would create an advisory committee to create an advisory committee through the core curriculum, not only to prevent education on the role and size of faculty senators who advise university administrators on academic and policy decisions, but also on the politics of “the history of distortion” and institutional racism or identity.
Senator Brandon Clayton, author of the bill, who chairs the Senate Education K-16 Committee, said that regulation of faculty senators is necessary to codify the nature of group and regent’s authority advice on university decisions. However, university faculty argue that SB 37 will limit the democratic nature of the school and invite government interference to university decisions.
In a floor debate where Clayton and Democrats strained the possible outcome of the bill, Republicans from Conroe said curriculum and degree screening provisions would help streamline the path to a “value degree.” But Democrats said the measure was overregulated and could possibly constitute government censorship.
How does SB 37 affect faculty senators?
Under the bill, senators of each university must be approved by the management committee to continue operations. There are up to 60 representatives. They are at least one member of each university or school, and other members elected by the school’s teachers. The agency’s president will appoint a senator leader and substitute votes for elected representatives for final approval by the board.
The Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers is vehemently opposed the bill, saying that SB 37 is not necessary and currently working, and is necessary for the institution’s critical function, from policy to curriculum approval.
What about Texas’ higher education curriculum and degree programs?
SB 37 requires the Executive Committee of Public University and University to establish an advisory committee that analyzes the core curriculum of educational institutions and limits core courses to courses needed for the workforce and civic life.
Sen. Roland Gutierrez of D-San Antonio criticized the provision of an ambiguous “distorted” history, arguing that this could lead to a fact that the nation is censored from its core curriculum. Clayton said they added clauses to ensure “appropriate and accurate teachings of our history” including “good, bad, ugh.”
Sen. Royce West of D-Dallas asked what the bill’s restrictions on identity politics mean. Clayton said the advisory board would be accused of reviewing core courses “based on interpretations” of differences between impose ideology and education, but he did not explicitly define identity politics. As an example, he raised a report from the Texas A&M University Student Newspaper, revealing that in February the university president refused to approve courses such as homophobic classes as part of the school’s core curriculum.
“That’s the key to this bill. It’s not about all courses. It’s a degree of value, and a way to get there quickly and quickly,” Clayton said.
SB 37 also requests the Texas Higher Education Adjustment Board to review the return on investment and return on debt degree programs, and according to the approved amendments, they assign ratings based on whether they meet, meet conditionally or do not meet value criteria, and programs in the last category lose legislative funds.
West said the bill is poised to increase government and asked why it is not adequately oversight of the existing degree program on the board of directors coordinating Texas higher education. The Coordination Committee is the state’s top agency of higher education and is tasked with ensuring access to university and university degrees and affordability. Clayton said he believes he needs more.
Senator José Menéndez of D-San Antonio said the state has a career-focused technical school, and he is worried that the bill will “take away our university of diversity from who they are.”
“The intentions and motivations are correct, but we are so normative that we may be depriving students of opportunities, such as whether they want to study art or Latin American history,” he said. “We don’t want to take classes and do anything to teach from a higher education experience where students can begin to discover and develop who they are as human beings.”
What explicit power does the SB 37 give?
Under the bill, the university’s regent committee can overturn changes to the employment or general education curriculum by institutions, according to the approved amended and amended Creighton. Regent also reviews “Vice President, Provost, Dean” and other university leaders who have the authority to oversee curriculum and student issues and remove them annually.
SB 37 will create a new accountability measure in the Ombudsman’s Office to investigate the concerns of legal violations of higher education institutions as it relates to the Regent Committee, as well as 10 legal codes including provisions on DEI, dating violence and immigration.
“Strong surveillance is essential to keeping the University of Texas at the forefront of education and innovation,” Clayton said in a statement. “Our institutions have to take responsibility as taxpayer dollars and student futures line up.”
