A professors’ union is hosting a closed-door higher education summit to advise faculty on how to “understand their rights, navigate the new higher ed landscape, and advocate at the next Texas Legislature.”
Texas’ chapter of the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers (Texas AAUP-AFT) is hosting the in-person event on October 25 at an undisclosed location. According to the summit advertisement, “speakers are speaking for themselves as private citizens, and not on behalf of any group, institution, or organization.”
Dr. Tom Alter, whom Texas State University terminated after he called for the overthrow of the U.S. government at a socialism conference, will be speaking on a faculty issues panel.
Texas Scorecard asked Texas AAUP-AFT if the press could attend the summit. No response was received. The webpage for the summit now states it is “closed to the press.” A previous version had no such language.
According to the tentative agenda, multiple speakers are scheduled to discuss topics regarding national and statewide efforts to reform higher education.
Dr. David Albert, a professor of government at Austin Community College, will be one of the speakers. Albert is a sustaining member of the Democrat Party in Travis County and ran for the Del Valle ISD Board of Trustees in 2020.
A November 2024 video posted by the Texas-American Federation of Teachers showed Albert, speaking as president of the Austin Community College-American Federation of Teachers, defending DEI before the Texas Senate’s subcommittee on higher education.
Albert has opposed multiple higher education reform efforts as well as election integrity legislation
At the upcoming summit, Albert will join Beaman Floyd, a taxpayer-funded lobbyist for the Texas Community College Teachers Association, to discuss the 2025 state legislative session.
Dr. Brian Evans, a University of Texas at Austin engineering professor and president of Texas AAUP-AFT, is another speaker and DEI defender.
Evans is scheduled to discuss multiple topics, including national groups’ efforts to assist Texas faculty. He will also speak on a “shared governance” panel.
Members of two national groups will be speaking at the summit.
Stacy Hickox, a Michigan State University professor on the National Education Association’s staff council, will be speaking on executive orders from President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott. According to a March 2025 NEA presentation with her name on it, Hickox framed Texas’ DEI ban—Senate Bill 17—and other states’ DEI restrictions as “assaults” on faculty and staff free speech.
Dominic Coletti, of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), is scheduled to join Dr. Teresa Klein, a psychology professor at Del Mar College and vice president of Texas AAUP-AFT, on an “academic freedom” panel.
Klein has previously defended shared governance, the system in which universities’ boards of regents delegated authority to university presidents, who subsequently shared power with the faculty, which was represented by a faculty senate. Lawmakers abolished this practice in 2025. Boards of regents were given the option of reconstituting faculty senates as advisory-only bodies.
Klein opposed state lawmakers’ efforts to increase faculty accountability. “When it comes to our students and our subjects, we are the experts and our voices can and have been used to better universities,” Klein told the Dallas Observer in March 2025.
In a statement to Texas Scorecard, FIRE wrote that it “has long worked to defend faculty members and to protect faculty members’ academic freedom. As part of that mission, FIRE staff bring their expertise to campuses and conferences across the country, engaging in thought-provoking discussions on free speech and educating students, faculty, and the general public on their First Amendment rights.”
Texas AAUP-AFT did not respond to a request for comment.
While the number of potential attendees is not publicly disclosed, Texas A&M professor Dr. Leonard Bright—president of the TAMU AAUP chapter—confirmed to Texas Scorecard that he will be in attendance. “They invited me to talk about my book,” he said. Titled “Rig ‘Em,” the book details Bright’s experience within TAMU’s tenure and promotion system.
The national AAUP organization has come under fire for framing conservatism as “fascism” in an October 20 reply to a thread on X covering debate on declining public trust in higher education and the need for “viewpoint diversity” to counter left-wing ideological homogeneity in academia.
The summit is scheduled to run from 8:30 a.m. to 5:45 p.m.
If you are a student, parent, faculty or staff member, or concerned citizen who would like to partner with us to promote transparency in taxpayer-subsidized higher education, please e-mail scorecardtips@protonmail.com.
