This week’s events are the clearest example yet: We are bargaining away Texas’s future so politicians can have material for fundraising emails and viral social media content.
AUSTIN, Texas – This week, Texas A&M University has presented the most startling example yet of the consequences of our state and federal governments’ quest to undermine higher education and weaken academic freedom and freedom of expression on our campuses.
It is appalling that a university professor, her dean, and her department chair have been removed from their positions based on viral video clips and an online outrage machine stirred by state politicians and the governor himself.
Faculty across Texas fiercely opposed legislation like Senate Bill 37 this year and Senate Bill 18 two years ago. We did so because we knew cases like this would be the consequence. This is big government run amok; will Texas students have to endure government officials censoring professors in the classroom? That isn’t Texas and it isn’t America.
The timing could not be more illustrative of our long-standing concerns. Just days ago, our national union made public the results of a recent survey of 1,100 Texas faculty members. Roughly a quarter of those respondents said they have applied for jobs in other states in the past two years; another quarter said they soon planned to do the same.
“What has made Texas higher education a powerhouse of research and academic rigor are its faculty, each highly trained and credentialed in their areas of expertise,” said Dr. Brian Evans, president of the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors (Texas AAUP-AFT). “The value of a degree from a Texas college or university is not made by administrators and certainly not by politicians in Austin. It stems from the hard work of faculty and academic staff, and the determination and discipline of our students. All of that has been threatened by the actions of the Texas A&M president, a state representative, and the governor of Texas this week.”
Our state government has paid much lip service to bolstering higher education and ensuring more students are degreed by the year 2030. Their actions this week, and in the past several legislative sessions, directly defy those state intentions. We know all too well that this will not be an isolated case.
If students cannot expect to enroll in a course and be taught about the varied and diverse world and workforce they are entering, they will leave Texas and attend out-of-state institutions. If faculty cannot teach a course without fear of government interference in every lesson, they too will leave.
“Neither Senate Bill 37 nor Senate Bill 18 nor President Trump’s executive orders supersede the United States Constitution. Nothing in law strips faculty of their right to due process or free speech,” said Zeph Capo, president of Texas AFT. “Lawmakers and the governor himself using their considerable platforms to publicly call for the removal of a faculty member, a dean, a department chair, and the president of the university based on viral video clips is an abuse of their power and a level of histrionics that ought to concern us all, regardless of where we fall on the political spectrum. This is not normal, and we cannot let this race to a moral panic become the new normal.”
