Bill that would screen for “ideological bias” in college curricula to be debated

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Lawmakers will hear testimony Thursday on a handful of bills that would give Texas university systems’ governor-appointed boards more power to control what is taught and who is teaching at the state’s public campuses.

One bill authored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, the Conroe Republican who chairs the Senate Committee on Education K-16, would allow college and university governing boards to vet and veto courses so they “do not endorse specific public policies, ideologies or legislation.”

Senate Bill 37 would also give boards the power to hire anyone in a leadership position at their respective schools, among other things.

Faculty currently take the lead in developing curriculum and in hiring and evaluating their fellow academics.

Creighton, the architect of the state’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in higher education, said this latest proposal seeks to make universities’ curriculum and hiring decisions more accountable and transparent.

Neal Hutchens, a professor at the University of Kentucky’s College of Education, said that’s a worthwhile goal, but state legislatures and governing boards need to be careful not to use a wrecking ball to accomplish it.

Hutchens said it makes sense for governing boards — which are composed of regents appointed by the governor and make policy, budget and administrative decisions for their university systems — to help ensure their institutions’ curriculum meets their state’s demand for certain professionals, such as engineers and doctors.

But SB 37 opens the door for board members to prevent professors from teaching about certain topics that they might disagree with, Hutchens said.

“These are public institutions, so they should be responsive and representative to the public,” he said. “But if we become fixated on the idea that every course and every professor is trying to indoctrinate students, you really run the risk of harming institutions states have spent decades, centuries, building up.”

For decades, professors, administrators and governing boards have agreed to divvy up their responsibilities and lend their expertise to certain tasks in the best interests of their universities, said Mark Criley with the American Association of University Professors.

Criley said SB 37 conflicts with this agreement by giving governing boards exclusive power to establish faculty councils — a body that advises university leaders on academic policies and other campus issues — and limit who can serve on them. Each college within the university may only have two faculty members on the faculty senate and one of the two must be appointed by the university president.

He said faculty also would be excluded from decisions about faculty discipline. At most top-tier universities, administrators who believe a faculty member’s conduct warrants discipline or dismissal make that case before a committee of faculty members. If that committee doesn’t agree, the administrator then takes it up with the board of regents.

“Excellence at an institution requires that the faculty be given a voice and often a decisive voice,” Criley said.

SB 37 would also establish an office within the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to receive and investigate complaints that universities are not complying with state law.

Bills by Sens. Paul Bettencourt and Mayes Middleton that echo SB 37’s provisions on faculty senate and hiring rules will also be discussed in Thursday’s hearing.

Another bill on the table for discussion, authored by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, would require regents to attend 75% of their meetings annually in person. Those who fail to do so would have to pay a $1,000 fine to the general scholarship fund of the institution. A second violation would make that regent ineligible to be reappointed.

In her bill’s statement of intent, the Brenham Republican wrote that some university system regents have missed more meetings since the COVID-19 pandemic began. She did not say which regents she was referring to.

The committee on Thursday will also discuss prohibiting colleges and universities from accepting gifts, grants, donations or investments from certain foreign entities and measures to prevent those foreign entities from stealing universities’ intellectual property.

This year, Texas became the state with the most top-tier research universities.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

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