BUZZ
Key Takeaways
- The passage of Senate Bill 17 has prompted many University of Texas professors to consider leaving the institution due to restrictions on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, with 60% of surveyed faculty expressing such thoughts.
- Following the bill's implementation, the university closed its Gender and Sexuality Center, leading to concerns about the academic environment being increasingly unwelcoming, particularly for critical discourse on gender and sexuality.
- Some faculty members remain committed to advocating for academic freedom despite the challenging environment, with discussions around the balance of state oversight and academic rights being prominent among faculty and administration.
In the wake of Texas Senate Bill 17’s passage, some professors in the University of Texas system have decided to seek employment elsewhere — or are considering it.
SB 17 forbids diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices in system schools as well as various DEI-related trainings and programs. U. Texas closed its Gender and Sexuality Center last year in response to the law.
According to a survey by the student paper The Daily Texan, approximately 60 percent of over 430 (mainly undergraduate) professors said they have “considering leaving” UT due to SB 17, which includes 75 percent of College of Liberal Arts faculty.
Two hundred sixty-four professors “strongly” or “somewhat” considered quitting, while a total of 110 “strongly” or “somewhat” felt the opposite. Forty-three percent of UT business school faculty are included in the “strongly disagreed” category.
Sixteen percent of faculty responded to the survey.
SB 17 led to the departure of Curran Nault, a queer studies professor, who now teaches at the University of Nevada.
Nault (pictured), a “scholar of grassroots queer transmedia art and activism” according to his (new) faculty page, said the shuttering of the UT Gender and Sexuality Center showed the school “was becoming an unwelcoming place for thinking critically about gender and sexuality.”
With Nault’s exit, U. Texas will be without an academic whose “work on subcultural media formations brings LGBTQ+, feminist, trans and BIPOC theories—and the possibilities they conjure—to bear on the cultural artifacts, practices and politics of D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) communities and creativities.”
The D.T. also notes an unnamed “humanities scholar” has applied for positions elsewhere that have “lower ranks and half his current salary.” The scholar wants to remain at UT, but state lawmakers are making it “unbearable”: “I can’t teach in an environment where I feel like my students are under attack,” he said.
Furthermore, a liberals arts professor close to retirement said “they” considered exercising just that option; however, “they” opted to remain and “advocate for academic freedom” given “they” face less risk than younger faculty.
Prof. Jonathan Valvano, who teaches electrical and computer engineering, said he knows of 70 faculty members “who will push back on nonsense” and “not back down”: “[I]f they [U. Texas officials] want to fire all 70 of us, they’re gonna have to.”
But Finance Professor Ken Wiles said Texas “has some oversight rights” since UT receives state funding.
“Nobody here has a right to a job or a paycheck at the University of Texas,” Wiles said. “If you don’t want any sort of oversight, you can go do something else … It’s a two-way street, we have certain rights, but we have certain responsibilities that come with those rights.”
MORE: ‘Education, not indoctrination’: Texas governor signs higher ed reform bill
