Straws in the Wind - Part 88

From the Austin American-Statesman: Faculty senates — a long-standing advisory body of elected members that helps university leadership on curriculum, policy and programs — will no longer exist at University of Texas institutions starting Sept. 1, after the UT System Board of Regents on Thursday approved compliance with Senate Bill 37. Chairman Kevin Eltife said the board will "take their time" deciding if faculty senates compliant with the law will be reinstated to university campuses, and may not be needed at all 14 campuses. "The Legislature spoke very clear through the legislation that governing boards are responsible for deciding if and when faculty senates will be established on campuses," he told regents... "That is a responsibility that this board takes very seriously."

...Lawmakers had cast faculty senates as powerful voices that should be curbed last legislative session. Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, authored SB 37 to give regents more control following complaints from conservatives that the institution's faculty have become too liberal or "woke."

...Faculty advocates warned during the legislative session that shared governance is a hallmark of university operations, and weakening faculty senates jeopardizes that work...

Full story at https://www.statesman.com/news/education/article/university-texas-system-faculty-senate-abolish-20822502.php.

From Higher Ed Dive: ...With the passage of the new legislation, also known as SB 1, Ohio lawmakers made deep inroads into the academic operations of public colleges, asserting new state controls over decisions historically left to faculty and administrators. The law bans diversity, equity and inclusion training, requires post-tenure review, prohibits full-time faculty from striking and even requires certain questions in student evaluations of professors. SB 1 also created a policy that could wipe out dozens or even hundreds of academic programs if the experience of Ohio’s neighboring state is any gauge. 

In Indiana, a similar policy with programmatic graduation thresholds — inserted into the most recent state budget bill — has already put 75 degree programs on the chopping block. The state’s public colleges also moved to suspend another 101 programs and consolidate 232. As in Ohio, Indiana state colleges only had months to review their portfolios for cuts. That created uncertainty for many. “Even tenured faculty are wondering, am I going to have a job in two months?” one faculty governance leader in Indiana told local media, describing “chaos and confusion” on campus...

Full story at https://www.highereddive.com/news/ohio-university-program-cuts-comply-SB1/758788/.

Straws in the Wind - Part 29

From News5Cleveland: A controversial new Ohio higher education law banning diversity efforts, prohibiting faculty strikes and regulating classroom discussion takes this week. Ohio Senate Bill 1 [went] into effect [June 27].

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed S.B. 1 into law on March 28 after it quickly passed the House and Senate earlier this year. S.B. 1 creates post-tenure reviews, puts diversity scholarships at risk, sets rules around classroom discussion, and creates a retrenchment provision that blocks unions from negotiating on tenure, among other things. The law affects Ohio’s public universities and community colleges...

Some of Ohio’s public universities have started making decisions because of the new law. Ohio University announced it will close the Pride Center, the Women’s Center and the Multicultural Center. The University of Toledo is suspending nine undergraduate programs. Kent State University is closing its LGBTQ+ Center, Women’s Center and Student Multicultural Center...

Full story at https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/state/new-ohio-higher-education-law-banning-diversity-efforts-and-faculty-strikes-takes-effect-this-week.

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From the NY Times: The University of Virginia’s president, James E. Ryan, has told the board overseeing the school that he will resign in the face of demands by the Trump administration that he step aside to help resolve a Justice Department inquiry into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, according to three people briefed on the matter. For the leader of one of the nation’s most prominent public universities to take such an extraordinary step demonstrates President Trump’s success in harnessing the investigative powers of the federal government to accomplish his administration’s policy goals.

The New York Times reported... that the Justice Department had demanded Mr. Ryan’s resignation as a condition to settle a civil rights investigation into the school’s diversity practices. In a letter sent on Thursday to the head of the board overseeing the university, Mr. Ryan said that he had planned to step down at the end of the next academic year but “given the circumstances and today’s conversations” he had decided, “with deep sadness,” to tender his resignation now, according to one of the people familiar with the matter who was briefed on the contents of the letter...

Full story at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/us/politics/uva-president-resigns-jim-ryan-trump.html.