Senate Texas Higher Education Interim Report says regents should get rid of DEI ‘culture’

Texas lawmakers should empower the governing boards of public universities and colleges to “charge their member schools with following Texas law in letter and spirit,” review general education requirements to better align with workforce demands and ban “intimidation tactics” in free speech, the Senate Higher Education Subcommittee recommended in an interim report. 

In addition to enforcing greater restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion-related coursework, the subcommittee is recommending expanding access to dual credit and Advanced Placement curriculum in rural areas, fully funding House Bill 8 community college performance outcomes and requiring colleges to adopt policies related to ethical and academic use of artificial intelligence.

In 2024, the Senate subcommittee held three interim hearings on legislative charges for higher education: the first on monitoring existing free speech, tenure and DEI laws passed in the 2023 session; the second on artificial intelligence, core courses and House Bill 8; and the third on faculty senates, DEI in curriculum and dual credit courses.

This legislative session, one Senate committee will cover both elementary and higher education, which will be chaired by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, potentially easing lawmakers’ ability to improve K-12 pathways to post-secondary education. There are more than 200 bills that have been filed related to higher education, but none have yet been assigned to a committee.

‘Shift the culture‘

In 2023, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 17, the second law passed in the nation that bans DEI offices, staff, hiring and programs at public universities. The law does not affect DEI-related courses, research or student recruitment.

But in the interim report, which groups “Faculty Senates” and “Stopping DEI to strengthen the Texas Workforce” into one chapter, the committee concludes that the “spirit” of SB 17 is not being followed, and higher education system regents should exercise greater control over curriculum development and faculty governance to balance it.

SB 17 is meant to “shift the culture” on campuses away from DEI, the report said, adding that the law didn’t accomplish that fully. A separate law in the 2023 session aimed at limiting curriculum, SB 16, did not become law.

The report associates DEI with “indoctrination,” “exclusive resources” and preferential treatment based on race, and it attributes its proliferation to the 2020 social justice movement that spread through the nation after a white Minneapolis police officer murdered an unarmed Black man, George Floyd.

The subcommittee also highlighted terminations at the University of Texas as being a “serious chang(e) in culture.” UT, though it asserted it was compliant with SB 17 before the law went into effect Jan. 1, 2024, laid off faculty members on April 2 who had previously worked in DEI-related positions in a move the university said streamlined its operations in several departments. Higher education professionals define DEI as a specific set of proven practices to increase belonging for underrepresented groups in higher education.

“Following compliance reporting from Texas’ seven university systems on Senate Bill 17 (SB 17), several legislators received reports from constituents and stakeholders across the state detailing curriculum and course content related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) throughout the state of Texas public institutions,” the subcommittee said in its report. “Though this does not explicitly violate the letter of the law, it contradicts its spirit and does not reflect the expectations of Texas tuition-payers and taxpayers.”

Curricula that lawmakers have pinpointed as DEI-related include LGBTQ+ studies, classes on gender or social justice, and, in some cases, racial and ethnic studies.

Currently, the faculty senates in universities have a significant role in curriculum due to faculty members’ expertise in their subjects and curriculum development. Faculty senates don’t have final say on university decisions, but they serve as an avenue for faculty members to voice their opinions and offer input in leadership decisions — and to occasionally dissent, the most dramatic form of which is a vote of no confidence.

Those who testified during the interim hearings told the subcommittee that curriculum development starts at the faculty level but goes through multiple rounds of leadership approvals. Nick Down, associate director of external affairs at American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a national nonprofit, said he believes regents should “spearhead the effort in addressing bureaucracies on college campuses” – such as adopting principles of institutional neutrality, which the UT System did in 2024.

The report does not recommend that the Legislature should outlaw this curriculum entirely, or that SB 17 should be expanded, but it pushes to empower government boards to “address matters of academic discourse at institutions of higher education” and follow SB 17 in spirit as well. It also recommends that the boards adopt institutional neutrality principles and review general education requirements at Texas public institutions to align with workforce needs.

Expanding, rules editing

The report also recommends that lawmakers consider expanding the transfer outcomes in the HB 8 community college funding model — the new finance mechanism that rewards colleges for credentials of value awarded — to include Texas private four-year universities. That expansion is supported by Austin Community College in its legislative priorities.

The committee also recommends that all public institutions adopt policies related to artificial intelligence in academic integrity and ethical use, and to continue to fund partnerships between institutions and regional employers such as through the Texas Reskilling and Upskilling through Education grant program, which announced $13 million in awards in 2024.

As the state’s youth population has grown, and its interest in attending schools like UT has reached record heights, the report indicates that universities should adopt “measured growth strategies” in their enrollment that balance in-person course accessibility, student success and high-quality remote classes. 

The committee wants schools to adopt flat tuition rates so students can take more credits without additional cost to help them enroll full time and graduate swiftly and, in turn, help the state meet its credential goals. It also recommends Texas public institutions of higher education annually report student success metrics and require the Legislature to review automatic admission thresholds.

The Senate Committee on K-16 Education — the name of the new combined education panel — has not yet received any higher education bills, but multiple proposals have been filed relating to limiting offers of tenure, removing funding for programs that don’t have a positive return on investment and giving boards of regents power to approve department heads, and removing the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges as the accreditor of Texas. Outside of the lieutenant governor’s interim priorities, multiple bills have also been filed relating to students who are in the U.S. without permanent legal status and their right to attend universities.

In a statement Jan. 14, the first day of the 89th legislative session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, said he’s confident that the upper chamber will ban “critical race theory (CRT) in higher education so students are taught how to think, not what to think,” and he called on the House to do the same.

This article was first published by the Austin American-Statesman on Feburary 3, 2025.