Christian Meza
Sports Editor
Although slightly watered down, a new Texas law will hamstring faculty’s academic freedom in a state where professors are already leaving because of the legislative climate, say faculty members representing the campus and Texas chapters of an organization for academic professionals.
Senate Bill 37 has been met with much controversy, as some faculty deem it to be unnecessary for the educational powerhouse that is Texas.
SB37, approved by the Texas Legislature June 1 and June 2, was officially signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott June 20.
Partisan appointees to have say in what gets taught
SB37 will affect public colleges, universities and health institutions by giving more power to members of their governing boards to establish curriculum and certain degree programs
“It puts political appointees in charge of micromanaging what degrees are offered and closure of departments,” said Brian Evans, president of the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors. “The faculty is disenfranchised from having meaningful decision making with higher education systems.”
Dan Braaten, president of Texas A&M University-San Antonio’s AAUP chapter, said SB37 could even reduce the number of available classes.
“If the board of regents changes the number of class offerings to fulfill gen-ed requirements, that will affect students. The biggest thing they might see is the reduction in class offerings,” said Braaten, associate professor of political science, in an interview June 17.
Braaten said minors with low enrollment could be dropped, but students who have already declared the minor would be allowed to complete it.
“We don’t know how the board of regents is going to play this out based on review of the curriculum and what recommendations they will have based upon that. There’s still a lot of uncertainty,” Braaten said.
The original version of SB37 had provisions that said no courses could teach race and political ideologies in general education. It was successfully challenged by the AAUP, whose mission is to “advance academic freedom and shared governance.”
SB37 to limit faculty’s research
Before the proposal of this bill, faculty have been able to use their freedoms to establish research proposals and acquire academic grants for their universities. The grants could be used to seek further research in their expert areas for future graduates, including undergraduate courses.
Evans, Engineering Foundation professor of electrical and computer engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, said SB37 threatens that ability for faculty and will hamper academic freedom at the state’s higher education institutions.
“When you remove the freedom for the teachers and the freedom to research … you’re making it more difficult and less attractive to recruit and retain staff and students, but more than that, you’re limiting what they can ultimately propose in research,” Evans said in a phone interview June 16.
Faculty senates weakened
Evans explained how SB37 affects faculty senates, which advocate for faculty and listen to concerns of students, staff and administration to recommend solutions meaningful for all. Evans said that power will now go to every higher education institution’s president.
“The bill puts faculty senates under complete control under the university president,” Evans said. “It muzzles free debate discussion at the faculty senate because the faculty senate can be removed at any time for any reason if the president doesn’t like what you’re saying, no due process, no appeal.”
Faculty senate representatives will also be shrunk in size for universities that have large groups; furthermore Abbott will have two-thirds approval of the senate.
New office to monitor institutions’ implementation of SB37
SB37 will establish a new Office of the Ombudsman as part of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
Traditionally, an ombudsman serves as a neutral third-party source for faculty and students to address university-related issues. Under SB37, the new office will review how universities are implementing the bill.
“They have the equivalent of subpoena power,” Evans said. “They have the right to investigate like law enforcement and you don’t get the right to trial or a hearing.
“If the complaint is against the institution and filed with the Legislature, then the Legislature can defund the university. When filed against the employee, those findings go to the governing board and the institution, which can lead to penalties and termination.”
Braaten shared advice for students and faculty of A&M-San Antonio if there are any worries from this bill.
“For students, I would say that this is your education so you should feel that you have a voice in this. If you don’t like what the state Legislature is doing, this is still a representative democracy even if it seems diminished,” Braaten said.
“Faculty should do the same, but should know exactly what the law is, and that there’s no over compliance or anticipatory compliance. We will get all of this information clear to faculty. We want to be clear about what it does and doesn’t do,” Braaten said.
State politics sparks exodus of Texas faculty
Prior to the Legislature’s approval of SB37, Evans said about 40 AAUP members left their teaching positions in Texas to move to states such as New York, Colorado and California to remain in the same positions, but to work in a less restricted political climate
The AAUP did systematic surveys on faculty retention in 2023 and 2024. The surveys determined that 25% of faculty wanted to leave Texas and 45% of faculty were hesitant or declined offers because of the legislative climate in Texas. The top issues provided in responses included academic freedom, recommendation of ideas, diversity inclusion and LGBTQ+ rights.
Evans said other recently passed Senate bills — such as SB2972 and SB17 — discouraged faculty members from remaining in Texas.
SB2972 limits expressive activities on campuses between 10 p.m.- 8 a.m. and restricts it completely in the last two weeks of a semester.
SB17 does not allow individuals who have emigrated from the countries of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia the opportunity to purchase land or property on Texas soil. Approximately 200,000 individuals who live in Texas have been affected by this bill.
