The introduction last month of Senate Bill 37, an overarching piece of legislation that calls for major reforms to higher education in Texas, surprised Bruce Cushing, president of the University of Texas at El Paso’s Faculty Senate.
That shock quickly turned to disbelief after he reviewed the proposal that, among other things, seeks to limit the role of untenured professors in curriculum development and faculty hiring and grant additional oversight of faculty senates to institutional leaders and off-campus governing bodies such as boards of regents for university systems and boards of trustees for community college districts.
Faculty senates – or councils – traditionally take the lead in the creation of curriculum, and offer a voice to instructors throughout the institution. The bill, as originally written, seeks to codify the input, membership and existence of faculty senates.
The primary author of SB 37, which incorporates parts of other bills, is Texas Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe. Proponents believe that the bill, which was voted out of the Senate’s K-16 Education Committee on April 3, will improve governance of public institutions of higher education, and align curriculum to better prepare graduates for the workforce and their roles as citizens. The bill now goes to the full Senate.
Cushing, who has been part of higher education for more than 40 years, called it a major shift in what he believed to be one of the purposes of higher education when it comes to the involvement of institutional staff, faculty and administration to develop programs.
“I just don’t think (some legislators) have an understanding of the way a university works,” said Cushing, who is in his first year as leader of UTEP’s Faculty Senate.
SB 37 proposes that only a governing body can establish a faculty senate and the body must adopt a policy that governs the selection of faculty senate members. The institution’s president, with the advice and consent of the governing body, will appoint the presiding officer, associate presiding officer and the secretary from the faculty senate’s ranks.
Cushing said this bill seems to be designed to take away a lot of the individual creativity and knowledge that faculty bring to the table, and could homogenize a system’s different campuses.
“If I were to use a baseball analogy, (these ideas) are not in left field, they’re in the bleachers,” said Cushing, who stressed that he only was speaking in his role as faculty senate president.
This legislation will affect the lives of approximately 1.5 million higher education students, with about 90% of them attending public universities, community colleges and public health institutions such as Texas Tech Health El Paso. About 500,000 high school students are taking college courses, and about 93% of them are enrolled in community colleges such as El Paso Community College.
In recent years, some legislators have accused faculty of introducing “woke” concepts such as racial prejudices and discrimination into their curriculum, or of flexing their collective muscles by voting “no confidence” in their campus leaders.
SB 37 also calls for the governing boards to do a comprehensive review of the general education curriculum at their institutions every five years.
The goal is to ensure that the core courses prepare students for a civic and professional life and “do not distort significant historical events” or teach identity politics, systemic racism or promote an ideology but does not offer specifics.
Creighton, chair of the Senate Committee on Education K-16, said during a March 20 hearing that SB 37 will codify the limits of faculty power, and add “guardrails” to faculty senates such as term limits, provisions to open meeting requirements and live streams of meetings.
“If we as lawmakers don’t set the expectations in code, then how can we complain about them,” Creighton said.
While a few speakers spoke in favor of SB 37 during the hearing, dozens of professors voiced their opposition. Some proposed ways to improve the bill, and Creighton said he would consider the suggestions.
Joseph Velasco, president of the Texas Council of Faculty Senates, said SB 37 and several other pieces of legislation this session support a troubling narrative.
“State legislators seek to rid higher education of principles, oversight and accountability,” he wrote as part of an email interview. “Additionally, state legislators appear to express a vote of no-confidence in existing higher education governance structures.”
He wrote that he understood how many Texans are concerned about the efficiency of higher education institutions and their benefit to students. He said many perceive political bias, administrative bloat and a lack of accountability.
Velasco said that he agrees with some parts of SB 37 to include that regents should recognize their responsibilities and be open to additional training to better understand issues such as accreditation, faculty governance, research funding and student success metrics.
However, he strongly disagreed with the bill’s approach to faculty governance and university leadership.
“This bill sends a clear message that not only faculty, but also university presidents and even system chancellors, can’t be trusted to manage their institutions,” Velasco wrote. “It takes power away from the people who have dedicated their careers to higher education and hands it over to politically appointed boards – boards that may or may not have the expertise or firsthand knowledge needed to make the best decisions.”
Since 1966, higher education institutions have followed the Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities that defines responsibilities of governing boards, institutional leadership and faculty senates.
John Wiebe, UTEP provost and vice president for academic affairs who oversees faculty, did not respond to a request for comment. He served as president of UTEP’s Faculty Senate from 2008 to 2010.
UTEP’s Cushing said that the bill removes an institution’s sense of self that is as unique as their faculty. He added that instructors need to take an active role in their institutions’ life, and that includes open communication with upper administration.
Additionally, SB 37 calls for governing bodies to consider doing away with faculty senates. If this were to happen, it could affect an institution’s accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which requires institutions’ faculty to take the lead for the content, quality and effectiveness of a campus’ curriculum. Students who attend unaccredited institutions are not eligible for federal financial aid.
The commission did not respond to several requests for comment.
The bill also seeks the creation of an office in the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board that would accept and review cases where universities may not be complying with state law.
A coordinating board spokesman said the agency did not want to comment on pending legislation.
Brian Evans, president of the Texas American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers, or AAUP, said SB 37 is restrictive, punitive and will “wreak havoc” on higher education to include faculty senates.
Evans called faculty the experts who are the driving force behind the curriculum. They are the ones who keep up with what needs to be taught and how it should be taught. Faculty at Texas’ public higher education institutions generated approximately $5.4 billion annually. They advise and graduate the doctoral students who help the institutions achieve their high level research status.
“In order for faculty to lead this effort, they need the freedom to explore new ideas without censorship,” Evans said during a phone interview.
He said that strong faculty senates are needed to support instructors’ ability to exercise their freedoms of speech and expression, and their constitutional rights to teach, lead discussions and conduct research. When appropriate, they can offer advice to a president in the areas of curriculum, teaching methods, faculty hiring and research and promotion policies.
That is the kind of relationship between faculty and administration that will help with the recruitment and retention of top faculty and top students because of an ability to freely discuss and debate, to think critically and develop the necessary career skills.
He said he and other AAUP members, as private citizens, have visited with members of the Legislature since January. Despite what appears to be overwhelming support for SB 37, Evans said that the AAUP members have found bipartisan concerns about the bill when it comes to civil liberties and constitutionality.
The AAUP official encouraged students, employees and everyone who cares about the current and future states of higher education to share their concerns about SB 37 by contacting their elected officials or by joining organizations such as the AAUP, the American Civil Liberties Union, or the Texas American Federation of Teachers.
UTEP’s Cushing said that the vast majority of Texans got their degrees at state universities that functioned the way they are functioning now, and have made the state successful and great.
In February, the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching announced that 16 universities in Texas, including UTEP, had achieved Tier 1 status, which means they are among the nation’s top research institutions. That was more than its closest competitors, New York (14) and California (12).
“I think it would be nice if there was a moment of contemplation about that,” Cushing said.
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