Texas universities are experimenting with AI to review and revise courses discussing race and gender, aiming for transparency and accountability amid political controversy. However, experts warn these AI systems are unreliable for content analysis and may shift control from faculty to administrators, raising concerns about academic freedom and the effectiveness of such tools.
Texas universities are increasingly appointing politicians as leaders, with recent examples including Texas Tech's new chancellor, Sen. Brandon Creighton, reflecting a shift towards political savvy over academic credentials, which experts warn could impact university independence and research.
Texas public universities are reportedly finding ways to continue diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives despite a statewide ban on the ideology, with undercover footage revealing employees discussing rebranding and continuing the work under different names such as "belonging" and "campus access and engagement." While some universities deny noncompliance, others acknowledge finding creative ways to maintain DEI efforts, prompting responses from officials and calls for accountability.
Following the recent Supreme Court ruling that race-based college admissions are unconstitutional, Texas universities are exploring alternative ways to ensure diversity on their campuses. Strategies include targeted recruitment programs, eliminating legacy admissions, removing test requirements, considering factors like geography and socioeconomic status, and increasing cultural competency and community engagement. While the state has struggled to diversify its universities since banning affirmative action, experts believe that there are still multiple tactics that can be employed to promote a more representative student body.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on two cases challenging whether it is legal for public and private universities to consider a student’s race in college admissions. Legal and education policy experts are preparing for the court’s conservative majority to possibly put an end to the use of race in college admissions, which would change how some universities select their students. If that happens, it would largely impact Texas’ private institutions and its most selective public university: the University of Texas at Austin, which is the only public university in the state that still considers race in undergraduate admissions.
The Texas Senate has passed a bill that would prohibit public universities from granting tenure to newly hired professors. The bill, which passed largely along party lines, now heads to the Texas House, where Speaker Dade Phelan has expressed less interest in doing away with tenure. Faculty and higher education experts say tenure is a vital protection of academic freedom at a university that guards faculty pursuing new ideas or controversial work from being fired or punished.
