Dear Faculty and Staff,

Once again, I am updating you on the current state of major higher education legislation as we approach the final days of the legislative session. Since my last update, both Senate Bill 17 (DEI) and Senate Bill 18 (Tenure) were debated and passed by the Texas House. During the debate on these bills, amendments were added to each of the bills as detailed below.

Senate Bill 17 (DEI)
As the bill stands, the legislation prohibits offices or units established for the purpose of promoting preferential hiring practices, providing differential treatment to individuals, implementing policies or procedures that give preferential treatment, or conducting trainings, programs or activities on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation. The only exception to these prohibitions is that that they be developed by an attorney, and approved by the institution’s general counsel and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for the sole purpose of complying with a court order or state or federal law.

The bill also clarifies that universities may continue to work to support first-generation college students, low-income students or underserved student populations and that in applying for grants or for accreditation purposes, can detail the work the university is doing to support those students.

The bill would also require that the State Auditor conduct periodic compliance reviews of universities under the legislation. If a university is found not to be in compliance after a period of 180 days, it would be ineligible to receive additional state funds during the subsequent state budget cycle.

One additional amendment would require that the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board conduct an annual study to determine the impact the implementation of this section has had on recruiting, retaining and graduating students at higher education institutions, and that each institution should make reasonable efforts to reassign employees whose positions are eliminated as a result of this legislation.

You can view the amendments to the House Committee Report here:
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/amendments/pdf/SB00017H24.PDF
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/amendments/pdf/SB00017H223.PDF

And the House Committee Report version here:
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/SB00017H.pdf#navpanes=0

Senate Bill 18 (Tenure)
One amendment was added to SB 18 on the floor of the Texas House, which modified the definition of the property interest of a tenured faculty position to include “privileges incident to his or her status as a tenured professor.” Other than that change, the legislation does still allow tenure to be awarded, reviewed and revoked, as it was allowed under the version of the legislation adopted by the House Higher Education Committee.

You can view the amendment to the House Committee Report here:
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/amendments/pdf/SB00018H22.PDF

And the House Committee Report version here:
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/SB00018H.pdf#navpanes=0

Again, the bills are not yet finalized. The Senate can either agree to changes to the bills as adopted by the House or try to further amend the bills in a conference committee. If there are further changes, they must be passed in the same form by the House and Senate by midnight this Sunday May 28th.

Thank you,