Regents for the Texas Tech University System ratified tenure designations for seven professors across the system as part of the consent agenda for yesterday’s quarterly meeting.
The professors in question—five from the Lubbock campus and one each from Angelo State and Midwestern State—primarily work in STEM fields. One position, for a Costa Rica-based dean, is legally domiciled at the Lubbock campus.
None of the professors in question demonstrate any ideological or political leanings, a contrast with other recent tenure approvals at taxpayer-subsidized higher education institutions.
Recent investigations, using identical methodology, uncovered a series of tenure applicants at Texas A&M and the University of North Texas with documented histories of radical pseudo-scholarship. Regents of those respective university systems nevertheless rubber-stamped final approval for those applications.
An investigation of the University of Texas system uncovered a similar, though less pronounced, ideological tilt. UT regents recently deferred the tenure designation for a UT-Dallas professor who was arrested for obstructing law enforcement as part of pro-Hamas protests.
Texas Tech regents approved tenure for only seven applicants, far fewer than the other university systems approved. Regents for UT and UNT each approved several dozen, while A&M approved over 100. Senate Bill 18, a law passed in 2023, requires Boards of Regents to grant final approval to all new tenure designations.
The Texas Tech University System consists of three academic institutions and two health institutions. It is overseen by a Board of Regents that is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Texas Senate. Cody Campbell of Fort Worth is the current board chair.
