A new measure was filed to limit the power of faculty senates by positioning them solely as advisory councils.
Senate Bill 1489 by State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) suggests that faculty senates—bodies of elected representatives from university faculties—should not have any final decision-making authority on any matter.
The measure denies faculty senates decision-making power regarding initiating investigations or approving personnel actions. It would also require that faculty senate meetings be open to the public and posted both on the internet and in the institution’s newspaper, and that all votes must be recorded and made public.
Faculty senates discuss and vote on faculty curriculum changes, faculty hiring, and other university changes. However, there are currently no state laws that outline a faculty senate’s authority or operational structure.
In November, the Texas A&M Board of Regents overruled the faculty senate and A&M President Mark Welsh with a resolution to end 52 “low-performing” programs, including an LGBTQ studies minor.
The move shocked the faculty, which believed it plays an important role in “shared governance.”
Under SB 1489, an institution’s governing board would have the ultimate decision-making authority on matters including degree programs and curricula.
“The simple intent of the bill is to make sure faculty senates realize they’re not the Texas Senate and that they need to be concentrating on academic related items, and getting out of trying to do institutional governance or public policy opinion making,” Bettencourt told Texas Scorecard.
“As a member of the Higher Education Committee for a long time, we’ve seen a constant stream of pushback. For example, there were videos from A&M, when we passed a CRT bill, about how to get around [the bill]. There’s been pushback on DEI and trying to get around it,” said Bettencourt. “So this is trying to clearly delineate what we want the faculty senates to do and not have them drift off into leftist progressive items and commentary of those.”
“The ultimate authority at these universities is the Board of Regents in this case and we want to make it clear that is the governing body at a university,” Bettencourt continued. “Not the faculty senate.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has regularly criticized “shared governance” and placed examining faculty senates on an April 2024 list of his priorities for the 89th legislature.
State Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), who chairs the Senate Education K-16 committee, has also stated that he and other lawmakers will be examining the role of faculty senates.
“I think we’re definitely looking into governance for how universities work,” Creighton said. “We’re making sure that they are campuses focused on education and innovation, not on political indoctrination.”
Public universities are overseen by boards of regents who are appointed by and accountable to the governor.
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