{"id":195660,"date":"2025-09-03T02:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/195660\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T02:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:25:10","slug":"tarrant-county-higher-education-institutions-respond-to-texas-law-limiting-faculty-senates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/195660\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarrant County higher education institutions respond to Texas law limiting faculty senates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professors\u2019 influence on campuses across Tarrant County will be lessened this year after a state law limited the role of faculty senates and councils.<\/p>\n

Tarrant County colleges and universities have abolished or modified faculty senates due to Senate Bill 37, which took effect Sept. 1. The law imposes restrictions on the appointment of senators and stresses such groups can only serve in an advisory capacity.<\/p>\n

The new law comes as Republicans across the state and country seek to push back against what they see as wokeness at institutions of higher education.<\/p>\n

Professors say the changes will lessen their representation and hinder advocacy of faculty on campuses.<\/p>\n

College presidents and administrators have always had the final say, with faculty senates only serving in an advisory role, said Pat Heintzelman, president of the Texas Faculty Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not new,\u201d Heintzelman said. What is new is administrators are now required to appoint some faculty senators and the size of such councils is limited, she added.<\/p>\n

Here is how Tarrant County schools are responding:<\/p>\n

University of Texas at Arlington<\/p>\n

The University of Texas System regents abolished faculty senates across their campuses and replaced them with faculty advisory groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UT System chairman Kevin Eltife said at an Aug. 21 meeting that regents will take their time and decide later how \u2014 and if \u2014 they will reestablish faculty senates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to go slow. We\u2019re going to figure out the best approach if we\u2019re going to have these faculty senates on every campus or not,\u201d he said. \u201cSome may not have them. We don\u2019t know yet, but it will be done in collaboration with this board.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Arlington, associate professor David Coursey said major accomplishments of UTA\u2019s senate included advocating for better standardized pay raises and creating career paths for non-tenure-track faculty members.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen if the new advisory groups can fill the shoes of the faculty senate, said Coursey, who previously chaired UTA\u2019s faculty senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what the final version of this is and how it varies across campuses, it\u2019s definitely a lot less representation of faculty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The roles faculty senates play vary from campus to campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At UTA, for example, faculty senates are separate from the undergraduate and graduate assemblies that make policy recommendations on topics such as curriculum and course offerings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tarrant County College\u00a0<\/p>\n

TCC\u2019s representative faculty bodies were abolished after trustees did not approve policy changes in time for the law\u2019s Sept. 1 enactment.<\/p>\n

Each of Tarrant County College\u2019s six campuses had a Faculty Association \u2014 which included all faculty and academic support staff \u2014 with the elected presidents and presidents-elect of each making up the collegewide Joint Consultation Committee.<\/p>\n

Each campus also had a faculty senate elected by the association members.<\/p>\n

The senators attended to campus-related issues, while the JCC\u2019s focus was across the community college district, said Madelyn Bowman, who was set to chair the joint committee this school year.<\/p>\n

Bowman previously chaired the South Campus faculty senate.<\/p>\n

She said the abolishment of representative organizations will make it more difficult for faculty to stay informed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we get information from the administration to the Faculty Association, and where do faculty members take their concerns?\u201d Bowman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bowman said faculty senates at the college have always served in advisory roles and did not make policy decisions. Instead, they advocated for faculty and sometimes served on districtwide committees focused on a range of topics such as salaries, technology and academic standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At an Aug. 21 TCC board meeting, Bowman proposed a policy change that would restructure representative organizations so they could comply with Texas\u2019 new law and operate without a break.\u00a0<\/p>\n

General Counsel Antonio Allen told the trustees at that meeting that a new policy on faculty groups could be adopted as early as October after it goes through the system\u2019s review process.<\/p>\n

Bowman said the abolishment of the organizations was the \u201cworst possible outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was hoping that we would be able to go through what I proposed to see if it was in compliance, and so I was disappointed that we did not do that,\u201d she said. \u201cI was hoping that we would be able to adopt something before Sept. 1, and they did not.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the meeting, board president Jeannie Deakyne stressed the crucial role faculty members play at the college and said reinstituting representative bodies is a priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be important to every member of this board to make sure that you feel valued and represented and have a shared voice, and we will expedite that as quickly as possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

UNT Health Fort Worth<\/p>\n

Faculty senates at UNT System campuses, including UNT Health Fort Worth, will continue to operate under new rules adopted by the UNT System regents this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those changes<\/a> include adjusting the size and makeup of the representative bodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will not necessitate any formal break in the operations of the faculty senates,\u201d said Nicole Luna, a spokesperson for UNT Health.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McKinnon Rice is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative<\/a> for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.<\/p>\n

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