Academic freedom: the pillar of higher education, and the target of the 89th legislative session. For the past two years, the Texas Legislature has fixated on our public colleges and universities, attempting to control every aspect of what makes our schools great: the freedom the teach and the freedom to learn.
While Senate Bill (SB) 37 took center-stage in the fight over academic freedom, other bills like SB 530 and SB 412 also made their way through the Legislature and may have major implications for the quality of our public colleges.
Senate Bill 530
SB 530 deals with accreditation, a silent yet significant player in higher education. Accrediting bodies are independent agencies that are tasked with reviewing the quality of colleges and their programs. For degrees to be universally and legally recognized, they must be awarded from an institution that is accredited by a federally recognized agency. Before SB 530, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) was the statutorily mandated, or default, accrediting body for public Texas colleges. The stated reason for moving away from SACSCOC is the assumption that it requires diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) courses and programming.
Here’s what the bill does:
- Removes the SACSCOC as the default accrediting agency for Texas public colleges, universities, and health institutions
- Allows the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) to designate any accrediting organization or agency they see fit, without requiring SACS or another federally recognized agency to be on the list
However, thanks to relentless advocacy by our Texas AAUP-AFT members, the bill was amended to ensure compliance with FAFSA standards and ensure students are eligible for federal financial aid.
Senate Bill 412
SB 412 deals with material or conduct deemed “obscene” or “harmful” to children. This should be something that’s straightforward and universally agreed upon, right? Well, in the Texas Legislature, anything is possible. Let’s break it down:
- The Texas Penal Code § 43.24 criminalizes knowingly “displaying harmful materials” to minors. Until the passage of SB 412, there were exemptions for “educational, medical, psychological, psychiatric, judicial, law enforcement, or legislative purposes.”
- This removes those exemptions, potentially censoring topics anywhere from human sexuality to art history. For example, showing Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man in a high school art class could result in an educator facing criminal charges for displaying nudity to minors.
- This would interrupt the teachings and responsibilities of librarians and faculty members who teach dual-credit courses.
Thankfully, some of our very own Texas AAUP-AFT union members are also legal scholars and have analyzed the bill to determine there is a very low criminal liability for faculty members:
- The scope of this criminal prohibition is incredibly narrow, and will apply to vanishingly few, if any, instances involving materials that educators want to employ.
- For materials to be considered “harmful”, they must meet certain criteria under the bill’s language. For potentially harmful materials taught in classrooms or distributed in libraries, this is easily refuted under the bill’s language.
Senate Bill 37
We know we’ve reviewed SB 37 too many times to count, so bear with us as we dive into it again! Here’s the concise rundown of this monster (in length and scope) bill:
- Establishes a “Curriculum Advisory Committee” at each university and college system
- Requires the president of an institution to create a process for reviewing minor and certificate programs for the purpose of consolidation or elimination
- Redefines shared governance and strips faculty senates of meaningful input
- Only an institution’s president and other university administrators may be involved in the decision-making of a faculty grievance
- Only an institution’s president may hire any leadership position that oversees curriculum and student affairs
- Creates a statewide “Office of the Ombudsman” to investigate and enforce compliance with SB 37, as well as bills from 2023, SB 17 (DEI prohibition), and SB 18 (tenure)
Our union secured bipartisan support to remove provisions in earlier versions of the bill that would have:
- Censored course topics related to any belief of race, gender, or nationality or any social, political, and religious belief as being superior to another
- Allowed faculty senate members to be unilaterally removed for their “personal political advocacy”
- Prevented non-tenured faculty members from serving on faculty senates
- Enabled elimination of degree programs based on arbitrary return on investment thresholds
Looking Ahead
College and university systems have had drastically different responses since the governor signed SB 37 into law. Systems only have until Sept. 1 of this year to fully implement changes to their schools’ faculty senates, otherwise all faculty governing structures within their system will be abolished. Only a small number of community college systems have taken proper measures to implement these new provisions in time for the September deadline, while university systems have either misinterpreted the law or dragged their feet to make changes. With less than a month left for system leaders to act, they have provided an alarming lack of clarity and guidance on the future of shared governance.
Amid the gross subjugation of faculty governance structures, now is not the time to back down. In fact, the start of the fall semester is the prime opportunity to make your voices even louder.
Texas AAUP-AFT has long been a home for advocacy when faculty run up against the frequent limits to working within existing institutions. Our union is here to protect what is left of academic freedom at our Texas higher education institutions and to rebuild our power by raising up faculty voices and organizing together.
Faculty governance didn’t die. It moved here. Our union is leading the way.