Faculty senates were abolished across the UT System Sep. 1 when Senate Bill 37 took effect, depriving university professors of representation at their institutions and empowering presidents, governing boards and lawmakers to exert more control over crucial academic decisions.
Senate Bill 37 was introduced in the wake of pro-Palestine student protests across campuses nationwide, when some faculty — especially those at UTD and UT Austin — became vocally critical about how their university administrators handled those protests.
Politics, however, has rarely been the focus of the Academic Senate at UTD. For 46 years, the senate made major decisions about research and curriculum and was the primary avenue for professors to communicate with top-level university administrators. For example, any major changes to degree plans had to be approved by the Academic Senate before it could go into effect at UTD, according to Michael Kesden, physics professor and the senate’s most recent speaker. The speaker that preceded him, computer science professor Ravi Prakash, said the senate oversaw more than just curricular nitpicking during his 20-year involvement — it has also made massive impacts on how students were graded during times of crisis.
During spring 2020, when students were struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, they asked that UTD allow them to review their grades at the end of the semester and let them choose whether to accept that letter grade or switch to a pass/fail for each class. Then-president Richard Benson convened the Academic Senate to discuss the alternative grading system. Prakash said even though he personally opposed the alternative system, he still appreciated the democratic process.
“It was a special meeting for the senate,” Prakash said. “It was passionate but ultimately civil. And at the end of the debate when the majority voted [in favor of the alternative system], the university followed our recommendation. In over 20 years in the senate, I am most proud of this decision, because we made a substantial decision together for the benefit of students while demonstrating what the senate could be.”
SB 37 does allow the UT System Board of Regents to authorize new a faculty senate for UTD, but only if the new senate is not exclusively comprised of previous senators and half the senators are directly appointed by the university president. The UT System, however, has opted to not authorize senates at any UT school as of publication. In a statement to the Texas Tribune, UT System Chancellor Kevin Eltife said the regents would take time to deliberate on their approach.
“This is a responsibility this board takes very seriously,” Eltife said. “Some institutions may choose to bring senates back, others may not.”
During UTD’s final Academic Senate meeting held Aug. 27, attending faculty expressed overwhelming concern about the future of their representation and voice at UTD. Vice president and Chief of Staff Rafael Martín said in the minutes before the meeting officially began that it would be “historic for all the wrong reasons.” One worry for many professors was how, even if faculty senates are later reinstated, the presence of presidential appointees per SB 37 might prevent the senate from challenging administration’s decisions.
“Let us not forget the real intention behind the abolition of the senates,” Prakash said during the meeting. “This is not some random act. I would like to remind everyone about the tweet lieutenant governor Dan Patrick posted the day SB 37 passed in the legislature, when he said sayonara, be gone all you leftist professors … Any committee that is not chosen by the members of the faculty but instead handpicked is not truly a representative committee. Let’s not be very silent about this, this is a time of great crisis.”
With over 100 faculty members at the meeting, the first 40 minutes were spent discussing different fears around the senate’s imminent dissolution, ranging from how UTD will retain talent to how future appointment-heavy faculty committees will adequately pay attention to what chemistry professor John Sibert called “the people in the trenches”: faculty who work heavily with students.
“It’s really important for retention purposes to have spaces where faculty can collaborate and share grievances,” environmental science professor June Ann Jones said during the meeting. “I think all of us are really feeling the loss of this right now, and we, or at least I, feel very betrayed by the UT System that we don’t get the dignity of having a democratic institution here anymore.”
Accompanying the UT system’s current appointee requirement is another requirement that, if any future senates are formed, they follow a specific set of term limits that are different for appointed versus elected members. Faculty appointed by university administration will serve up to three consecutive three-year terms, while elected faculty members would serve one-year terms and can be reelected once before having to sit out for one year. In other words, appointees can spend six years in a row on the senate, while electees must sit out after two years.
We, or at least I, feel very betrayed by the UT System that we don’t get the dignity of having a democratic institution here anymore.
— June Ann Jones, environmental science professor
Prakash said that appointed members’ longer tenures would grant them greater institutional memory and seniority versus the elected members, who would “always be in a state of transition and less experience, and thus junior in terms of experience.” Elected senators lacking institutional memory is problematic for an institution like the faculty senate, which according to Kesden can often take years to reach a decision. However, both Prakash and Kesden said that the senate’s reinstatement, even if imperfect, would be better than nothing.
Kesden said the soonest faculty senates could be reinstated by the UT System is spring 2026, and during the interim period, UTD will form a faculty association to allow professors to “discuss areas of shared concern, network … and advocate for their common interests.” Provost Inga Musselman said in a faculty-wide email that the standing committees created by the Academic Senate to carry out various academic tasks would continue existing and reporting to the president in this interim. But for both Kesden and Prakash, the future of faculty representation is filled with unknowns.
“Not only the faculty, but even the institutional campuses hadn’t gotten detailed plans from the Board of Regents, even the presidents and the provosts,” Kesden said. “In the absence of information, we are just kind of trying to keep all our options open.”
In the absence of information, we are just kind of trying to keep all our options open.
— Michael Kesden, most recent speaker of the academic senate
To Kesden, SB 37 gives administrators, system regents and Texas lawmakers, who historically have had little say in topics like individual university curriculum, newfound power to micromanage. This falls in line with other recent Republican-backed moves such as abolishing universities’ DEI programs during the 88th legislative session and passing SB 2972, which redefines how students, faculty and the public can express themselves on public campuses.
“As recently as 10 years ago, there had been very broad bipartisan acceptance that higher education was a pathway to economic success and filling a vital role,” Kesden said. “And things certainly have changed among segments of the population.”
While most UTD students were unaware of the Academic Senate churning behind the scenes, both Kesden and Prakash are proud of several things it managed to accomplish in its nearly five-decade existence. For Kesden, one of those things is the committee for non-tenure-track faculty the senate created to give a voice to often overlooked, overworked and underpaid professors. And for Ravi, one was the senate’s response to UTD arresting students, faculty and community members during last May’s pro-Palestine encampment.
“Regardless of where faculty members stand on the Israel-Gaza issue, following the arrests … the senate passed a resolution requesting the president to ask Collin County to drop charges,” Prakash said. “Of course, the president ignored that resolution, but at least I think the faculty spoke as [one] through the senate, expressing displeasure … especially considering that faculty were kept totally in the dark about the planning of police action.”