Texas lawmakers are poised to create a new multibillion-dollar endowment to boost emerging research universities in national rankings. But faculty members say banning diversity offices and tenure would stymie those efforts.
, would prohibit faculty from compelling students to “adopt a belief that any race, sex, or ethnicity or social, political, or religious belief is inherently superior to any other race, sex, ethnicity, or belief." The bill could come up on the Senate floor for a full vote as soon as this week.
Universities created these offices to ensure they are serving students of all backgrounds as higher education has tried to become more welcoming toward underserved groups like students of color, first-generation college students and LGBTQ students.
“I think we can all agree that in order for Texas to lead in research and innovation, for there to be equal opportunity for all, we must promote all individuals on their merit, not particular political litmus tests beyond that,” said Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, as he laid out his bill to ban DEI programs last week.
“Tenure is a national institution, it’s not just something that exists in a vacuum in Texas,” said Andrea Gore, vice president of the American Association of University Professors chapter at UT-Austin and a professor. “If that institution no longer exists in Texas … they will go to another state, or they’ll go private.”
Without tenure, faculty say any offer Texas makes to recruit new talent just wouldn’t compete against an offer from a school that can guarantee that job protection. It also opens the door for universities out of state to reach out to Texas faculty and offer them a golden ticket. They say even just threatening to reform or change how tenure works on Texas campuses can make it difficult to recruit and retain faculty.
“What do you mean by that? What does ‘compel’ mean?” she said. “I think there’s still questions that are emerging from that as well.” Many federal grants from institutes like the National Science Foundation or agencies like the Department of Energy require applicants to detail how they are making efforts to increase the number of diverse students in science and engineering fields or how their research is benefiting underrepresented or underserved communities.
“It would definitely not get funded if I was not able to make a strong statement about the DEI activities that I do to diversify my own research area in my lab, but also what the university gives us,” Gore said.
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