The University of Texas System Board of Regents authorized campus presidents on Thursday to replace faculty senates with less independent versions of the bodies.
The decision is a turning point for the state’s largest university system that shifts academic and hiring decisions once left to faculty and university leaders into the hands of lawmakers and governor-appointed regents.
The move comes in response to a new state law requiring Texas universities to overhaul the faculty groups. But while other schools in the state have opted to reform existing bodies in collaboration with faculty, UT regents’ vote represents a hard reset in the relationship between faculty and their schools.
Regents also authorized major policy changes that will significantly limit free speech on campuses in response to pro-Palestinian protests last year.
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Less than a year after dismantling its student newspaper staff, the University of Texas at Dallas has recently taken yet another hostile step toward limiting the media available to its students. Just in time for the fall semester, UT Dallas has banned newsstands, something that students have used for decades. The drastic move leaves us asking why the school would go through the effort of quietly removing nearly every single news rack on campus.
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Another nail in the coffin of free speech. Welcome to fascism, America.
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