DALLAS — Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wants end tenure for new professors at Texas’ universities and colleges in response to faculty who stood up to politicians’ moves to limit how they teach subjects, including critical race theory.
Patrick wants to bring forward bills in next year’s legislative session that make it harder for faculty to maintain tenure, he announced at a press conference Friday when he noted that the “woke left” has gone too far. Patrick is running for reelection.
The University of Texas at Austin faculty council approved a resolution Monday defending campus educators’ right to teach critical race theory and race and gender justice, noting that professors would stand up to those trying to suppress their academic freedom, even if that’s the Legislature or UT’s board of regents.
But Patrick said professors must be accountable. He proposed ending tenure for new faculty and having a one year review in which tenure could be revoked if good cause is determined.
“They don’t understand that we in the Legislature represent the people of Texas,” he said. “We are those who distribute taxpayer dollars. We are the ones who pay their salaries, parents are the ones who pay tuition. Of course we’re going to have a say in what the curriculum is.”
But ending tenure would be disastrous for academic freedom — which is what allows for robust, open discussion about important ideas and controversial topics in colleges — and “absolutely devastating” for higher education across the country, said Irene Mulvey, the American Association of University Professors’ president.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything this egregious. I’ve never seen anything like this,” Mulvey said in response to Patrick’s proposal. “For someone who’s been a proponent of limited government, it’s really laughable. Now he wants to put the heavy hand of the government into a classroom.”
Professors will think twice before going to a school where the curriculum is censored by law, educators said.
Academic freedom is an essential part of “the process of helping students develop the critical thinking skills they will need for future success,” Texas Faculty Association President Pat Heintzelman said in a statement.
“Patrick is continuing his attack on education, which began with the public schools and, if not stopped, will undermine Texas’ future,” she wrote.
She added that the lieutenant governor should encourage “professors and students to discuss theories and issues that some may find uncomfortable” instead of “ignoring” the First Amendment rights of campus communities.
Debates over critical race theory – an academic framework that examines how policies and laws uphold systemic racism – have rocked schools nationwide. Conservative lawmakers across the country are seeking ways to outlaw critical race theory from schools, including from higher education institutions. Texas passed laws aimed at prohibiting it from K-12 public schools.
Legislation seeking to limit the teaching and discussions of racism and related issues in the classroom have been enacted in several states, including Texas. Andrea Gore, a UT professor of pharmacology and toxicology, said during the council’s Monday meeting that educators need to take a stand to protect their academic freedom before policymakers try to censor other topics.
“This resolution affirms that it’s educators, and not politicians, who should make decisions about teaching and learning, and it supports the rights and the academic freedom of faculty to design courses, curriculum and pedagogy,” Gore said.
Gov. Greg Abbott last year signed two bills into law aimed at banning the concept from public school classrooms, even though educators and advocacy groups argued the restrictions would have a chilling effect and repeatedly said that the concept is not part of K-12 lessons. The theory is a decades-old academic framework that is largely discussed in higher education.
But conservative pundits and politicians have conflated the theory with a broad range of schools’ diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, turning it into a red-meat issue with power over primary elections.
Faculty from public flagships across the country have collaborated with the African American Policy Forum and the AAUP to respond to legislation aimed at limiting teaching by passing similar resolutions. That’s included representatives from the universities of Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Oregon, Utah, Ohio State and Penn State.
UT’s faculty council — which represents professors and instructors at the university — passed the resolution 41-5, with three members abstaining. The resolution states that the council rejects any attempts to restrict or dictate the content of university curriculum on racial and social justice by and will stand firm against any moves to do so by the Legislature or the Board of Regents.
“This is not saying that (faculty) personally need to say anything about this, but it is giving others permission to do so … to talk about the truth and what is our historical past as a country,” said Elizabeth Gershoff, a professor of Human Development and Family Sciences, on Monday.
The resolution also urges UT President Jay Hartzell and Provost Sharon Wood to assert that they will reject any attempts from external parties to “restrict or dictate the content of university curriculum on any matter.”
In response to the council’s move, Patrick tweeted on Tuesday that he would not “stand by and let looney Marxist UT professors poison the minds of young students with Critical Race Theory. We banned it in publicly funded K-12 and we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed. That’s why we created the Liberty Institute at UT.”
Mike Collier, who is running for lieutenant governor in the Democrat’s primary, issued a statement calling his would-be opponent “Dictator Dan” and noting that Texas would see an exodus of academic talent if the tenure proposal becomes a reality.
“If Dan Patrick has his way, Texas will lose thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in business, and forever tarnish the prestige of Texas,” Collier said in the statement.
Other Democrats also issued statements of support for the UT faculty, including Rep. Michelle Beckley of Carrollton, who noted that she is a graduate from Texas A&M University.
“What Dan Patrick is doing is cow manure,” she said in a statement. “The only manure that UT has comes from Bevo and even that is more useful than Dan Patrick — it’s great fertilizer for bluebonnets. … Educators want to teach the truth and students want to learn it.”
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