Overview
- University leaders, including Texas Tech Chancellor Brandon Creighton, testified to a Texas Senate committee on Tuesday about steps taken to implement Senate Bill 37 and ongoing system-wide course audits.
- The Texas Tech University System reported it reviewed roughly 14,000 courses and changed about 60, while other schools reported larger program cuts such as the University of Houston removing about 40% of core courses and the University of North Texas eliminating about 70 courses.
- Creighton has imposed new limits on teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in many lower-level courses and required advance approval for some lessons, moves that faculty say exceed the law’s text and prompted resignations and lawsuits.
- Faculty groups including the AAUP and Texas AAUP have filed federal suits in July challenging system directives as viewpoint-based censorship and vague restrictions that they say chill academic freedom.
- SB 37 also created a state higher-education ombudsman who has dismissed dozens of complaints and opened at least one investigation, and lawmakers are pairing the curriculum review with new research-security rules and changes to community college funding that could alter universities’ priorities.