蜜桃影视

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 蜜桃影视 Newsletter

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pledged to end tenure for new faculty hires at the state鈥檚 public universities and colleges when the Texas Legislature reconvenes next year.

Patrick鈥檚 Feb. 18 attack on tenured college professors came days after the University of Texas at Austin Faculty Council defending professors鈥� academic freedom, particularly as it relates to teaching critical race theory and race and gender justice.

If successful, Patrick鈥檚 proposal would affect faculty at El Paso Community College, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and the University of Texas at El Paso.

鈥淎ttacking tenure is a political ploy,鈥� said Gina N煤帽ez-Mchiri, president of the Faculty Senate at UTEP. 鈥淚t’s a way of attacking people who are critical, not just of race, but also critical of anything that needs to be analyzed and examined to improve.鈥�

Tenured professors have been granted lifetime employment with a college or university and are protected from being fired without cause.

Patrick issued a statement saying, 鈥淭enured professors must not be able to hide behind the phrase 鈥榓cademic freedom,鈥� and then proceed to poison the minds of our next generation.

鈥淯niversities are being taken over by tenured, leftist professors, and it is high time that more oversight is provided.鈥�

Patrick said he will additionally work to change tenure reviews from every six years to annually and will make teaching critical race theory cause for revoking tenure.

Critical race theory is a university level academic framework for examining systemic racism in U.S. laws, policies and society. Last year, the Legislature focused its efforts on banning critical race theory from K-12 public schools by restricting how teachers can discuss race and racism.

N煤帽ez-Mchiri called Patrick鈥檚 remarks 鈥渁n intimidation factor鈥� and an attack on 鈥渋ntellectualism (and) academic freedom.鈥� Tenure rewards and compensates professors for their advancements in academia, she said.

鈥淲hy would we disincentivize hardworking people from earning job security? It doesn’t make sense,鈥� she said, adding that if Patrick鈥檚 proposals become law, this would impact universities鈥� ability to recruit professors to the state.

In a statement, Keri Moe, EPCC associate vice president for external relations, said the college 鈥渧alues tenure and we would seek input from our faculty leadership should such legislation be put forth.鈥�

Jeffrey Shepherd, a history professor at UTEP, said while threats to ending tenure aren’t new, higher education institutions should be alarmed by Patrick鈥檚 announcement.

鈥淭his is part of a long term right wing assault on public universities that goes back to the 1960s at least,鈥� Shepherd said. 鈥淐onservatives say that radical liberal Marxist professors are brainwashing our poor students. It’s factually incorrect. Public universities are supposed to be places of higher learning.鈥�

Threatening tenure threatens 鈥渢he foundations of the university itself,鈥� Shepherd said. 鈥淭he board of regents, the chancellors are going to have a problem with that.鈥�

Patrick, who presides over the Texas Senate, is running for reelection this year.

He said that state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, who chairs the Texas Senate Higher Education Committee, supports his tenure proposals.

State Sen. C茅sar Blanco, D-El Paso, is on the Higher Education Committee. 鈥淭eaching history, the good as well as the bad, whether you call it CRT or something else, shouldn’t be grounds for having tenure revoked,鈥� he said.

College students should be able to make their own judgments about the material they are taught, Blanco said.

鈥淭hese are young adults, they can think for themselves, they can form their own opinions,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e need to make sure that we’re focusing on making sure that we’re making students critical thinkers.鈥�

Molly Smith contributed to this story.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how 蜜桃影视鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.