The House Higher Education committee voted a university tenure bill out of committee again along party lines. The bill now heads to the Calendars Committee to find a new date for a House vote.
, D-Missouri City, raised a point of order — a parliamentary procedure used to delay or kill legislation on a technicality — arguing that the analysis of the legislation was misleading.
If the legislation goes back to the House floor and is voted out by the full chamber, the House and Senate would have to agree on the version that emerges from closed-door meetings before sending the bill to Gov., voted on a version of the bill that would eliminate tenure altogether, arguing that it has allowed “woke” faculty to spew ideology because they feel they are protected by tenure, which provides continuous employment.
Tenure is a nearly century-old practice used by universities across the country that provides professors with continued employment, allowing them to pursue long-term, independent research and teaching free from political or administrative interference. Tenured faculty cannot be fired without good cause, and they must receive due process if they are terminated.
Kuempel said during the House committee hearing on the bill last week that he believed tenure “needs to be offered.” His bill defines tenure in state statute as “the entitlement of a faculty member of an institution of higher education to continue in the faculty member’s academic position unless dismissed by the institution for good cause in accordance with the policies and procedures adopted by the institution,” which reflects the common definition of tenure in higher education.
But the House version of Senate Bill 18 includes a provision that says tenure creates a property interest equivalent only to one year’s salary. Faculty and Constitution experts worry that would mean a university could fire a professor without due process if they paid them a year’s salary, which faculty and constitutional experts have flagged as a potential erosion of their rights.
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