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Texas governor Greg Abbott on Friday signed into law legislation allowing public college and university presidents to take over faculty governance bodies.
Senate Bill 37 says that only an institution’s governing board can create a faculty council or senate. If a board decides to keep one, the college or university president gets to pick the “presiding officer, associate presiding officer, and secretary” and prescribe how the body conducts meetings.
Unless the institution’s board decides otherwise, faculty governing bodies must shrink to no more than 60 members. The Texas A&M University Faculty Senate currently has 122.
The 60 members must include at least two representatives from each of the colleges and schools that comprise the institution—including what the law describes vaguely as “one member appointed by the president or chief executive officer of the institution,” with the rest elected by the faculty of the particular school or college. This could mean that half of a faculty senate would be chosen by the president, barring an exemption by the institution’s board.
The law also limits terms for senate and council members—and allows presidential appointees to serve longer than elected members. The appointees can serve six consecutive years before having to take two off, while the elected members can only serve two years before the mandatory two-year break.
SB 37 also says an institution’s provost can recommend to the president that members be “immediately removed” for failing to attend meetings or not conducting their “responsibilities within the council’s or senate’s parameters,” or for “similar misconduct.”
In addition, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board must establish a committee responsible for considering methods for “condensing the number of general education curriculum courses required” statewide. Institutions must review minors and certificate programs every five years “to identify programs with low enrollment that may require consolidation or elimination.”
