Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's Crusade Against CRT Extends to Public Higher Ed

[Cartmann99]

Early last week, this happened:

UT Austin Council Approves Academic Freedom Statement on CRT

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The University of Texas at Austin’s Faculty Council this week passed a resolution affirming academic freedom and the faculty’s right to teach critical race theory and gender justice, 41 to 5 with three abstentions. The council’s Committee of Counsel on Academic Freedom and Responsibility and UT Austin’s Councils for Racial and Ethnic Equity and Diversity and for LGBTQ+ Access, Equity and Inclusion endorsed the resolution. Andrea Gore, Vacek Chair in Pharmacology at UT Austin and chair of the council’s academic freedom committee, said, “I think it’s a very powerful statement when the entire academic freedom and equity community comes together in this way.

Patrick shot back on Twitter with:

After stewing all week, he then responded with:

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick plans to eliminate tenure at UT-Austin, public Texas universities

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Lt. Governor Dan Patrick announced in a press conference Friday that he would eliminate tenure for new hires at Texas public universities in response to the UT Faculty Council’s 41-5 vote to support educators’ freedom to teach critical race theory in their classrooms. Patrick also said he wants to change the law so teaching critical race theory could revoke tenure. 

Critical race theory is an approach to learning that analyzes why racial inequalities continue to exist even when laws change and theorizes that racism is inherent in the nation’s systems.

The UT Faculty Council voted this week to defend instructors’ freedom to teach critical race theory after Texas lawmakers’ sustained efforts to ban this topic from school, as it could promote divisive discussions that suggest blame and cause “psychological distress.”

“(Legislators) fail to recognize that these criteria are indeterminate and subjective and chill the capacity of educators to exercise their academic freedom and use their expertise to make determinations regarding content and discussions that will serve educational purposes,” the resolution said. 

Patrick and other conservative politicians like Sen. Ted Cruz have called the theory racist in itself, saying that it promotes the idea that all white people are racist.

“We are not going to allow a handful of professors who do not represent an entire group, to teach and indoctrinate students with critical race theory that we are inherently racist,” Patrick said in the press conference.

Under Education Code 51.942, Section D, the Texas legislature will add language clarifying that the law says tenure could be revoked for good cause, Patrick said.

A section of the letter that President Jay Hartzell of UT Austin released 02/21:

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We all aspire to improve the educational system in the United States, but tenure is important to Texas universities, and removing it will not help. The U.S. has the strongest universities in the world, and The University of Texas at Austin is among the very best in the country. All of America’s top research universities grant tenure, and tenure is a significant tool for us to attract, motivate and retain amazing faculty members. Without it, we have no chance of bringing to UT or Texas the next Dr. Karen Willcox, who left MIT to come run the Oden Institute and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering earlier this month. We would also miss out on the next Dr. Jason McLellan, who left Dartmouth to join our Department of Molecular Biosciences. We want Dr. Willcox to lead our efforts in computational oncology, among others, and we want Dr. McLellan to help ensure that we know how to fight coronaviruses.

These faculty members embody our quest to generate tremendous impact that will ultimately benefit Texas and broader society. In this quest, tenure provides our faculty with the ability to invest in research with the greatest long-term potential to produce great discoveries, new technologies, inspirational works of literature and art, and cures for terrible disease. Research progress and its impact are difficult to measure on an annual basis – for example, the first paper documenting the discovery of messenger RNA (mRNA) was published in 1961, but the first FDA-approved mRNA vaccine was deployed almost 60 years later in the fight against COVID-19.

Removing tenure would not only cripple Texas’ ability to recruit and retain great faculty members, it would also hurt Texas students, who would not be able to stay in state knowing that they will be learning from the very best in the country. It would also increase the risk of universities across the state making bad decisions for the wrong reasons. Future administrators might make annual retention decisions based on whether they or others did or didn’t like a faculty member’s current research agenda, rather than whether the quality of that research was excellent and held promise to have a positive impact on society in future years.

Some might argue that we make an occasional mistake in granting tenure or that tenure leads a few to unproductive behavior, but the ongoing excellence of our faculty suggests that such issues are rare. There are also processes in place to ensure that tenured faculty members contribute to the university and our students. We implemented and maintain an annual review process to help monitor faculty productivity, with required steps to improve unsatisfactory performance. We also conduct a comprehensive review of all tenured faculty members every six years. These reviews provide mechanisms that can eventually lead to dismissal of any faculty member if needed.

These mechanisms and other key components of our governance have been the result of state legislation. We respect and appreciate the Legislature and our state’s leadership, and we look forward to continuing to participate in the legislative process. Through that process, we will have the opportunity to articulate the excellence embodied in our faculty, the role of tenure in producing world-changing results, and the benefits to Texas of a world-class research university.

Texas A&M and Prairie View A&M are standing with UT Austin:

Spoiler

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Eliminating tenure is a great way to ensure good teachers won’t want to work for your universities.  Patrick is a moron. 

[Alisamer]

I'm blown away that this non-issue has not only become a hot-button issue, but that it is exactly the people who like to call liberals "snowflakes" and make fun of trigger warnings who are now so incredibly fragile about their egos that they can't stand the thought of having to learn about how maybe, possibly, the systems that benefit them might not benefit everyone.

They are opposed to removing confederate flags and statues that might offend people of color, and throw out "snowflake" as a constant insult. Yet here they are, making laws that specifically say that teachers can't teach anything that might make white kids feel uncomfortable in the slightest. White people's precious feefees matter, apparently, but anyone else is a snowflake. Freedom of speech for pro-white things, but book banning for perspectives by people of color or LGBTQ+ people. 

[Cartmann99]

McCracken holds the James Michener Chair of Fiction at the Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin. 

Her response on Saturday when she found out about Patrick's remarks:

Spoiler

 

There's schools outside of Texas making lists of scholars like McCracken that they'd love to have for their institutions.

[Howl]

Dan Patrick is on the same track as Abbott -- go full on MAGA to appease the MAGA vote.   By even stating that he wants to abolish tenure he has already damaged UT Austin and all of the other colleges and universities in the state system --  destroying their ability to attract top academic talent. 

 

 

[thoughtful]

Elizabeth McCracken deserves to keep her job - it's Dan Patrick who should be fired.

And I swear I'm not just biased in her favor because she has Zazu Pitts as her Twitter avatar.

[Cartmann99]

Patrick has released his 2022 Interim Legislative Charges. In other words, this is a list of his legislative priorities for the 88th session of the Texas Legislature which convenes in January.

Spoiler

 

But that's not all! From the Texas Tribune:

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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Monday he will prioritize passing Texas legislation that mimics the recently signed Florida bill referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

That state’s controversial law prohibits classroom lessons on sexual orientation or gender identity for kids below the fourth grade or any instruction that is not “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” for older students. It has come under heavy scrutiny as opponents of the bill say it will harm LGBTQ children.

While Texas’ next legislative session doesn’t start until January, the issue will be addressed in Education Committee hearings before then, Patrick said in a campaign email.

“I will make this law a top priority in the next session,” he said.

Patrick’s office did not immediately respond to a request late Monday.

Enforcing Florida’s law falls to parents, much like Texas’ restrictive abortion law, Senate Bill 8, which empowers private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy.

A parent can sue a school district for damages if they believe it has broken the law. If they win, parents will receive money and recoup attorney fees. In Florida, the law’s supporters portrayed it as a way to give more rights to parents. Gov. Greg Abbott has similarly said parents should have more rights concerning their children’s education as he campaigns for a third term.

I'm so tired of his shit.

 

[Howl]

For those non Texans reading this, the Texas Lieutenant Governor is such a powerful position because he sets the legislative agenda for the Texas Senate. 

Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General (and white collar criminal) Ken Paxton have gone full-on raging MAGA in the last few years so things are even more unhinged than usual. 

The Texas legislature,  a fluster cluck clown show, meets in alternate years.  Note that there are many excellent progressive Democrats in the TX lege, but a minority for sure. 

This is definitely causing consternation everywhere throughout the 13 universities in the sprawling University of Texas empire because it strikes directly at the heart of academic freedom.  

Here's just one metric: Total research spending across the 13 UT institutions exceeds $3 billion annually, and the UT System is No. 1 in Texas and No. 2 in the nation in federal research expenditures among public higher education systems.

Besides scaring off the best faculty from coming to Texas and the best candidates from applying to grad programs, it may very well cause a brain drain of faculty fleeing Texas and heading to places that don't have f**king morons running the states and meddling in higher education. 

Austin in particular has become a magnet for tech companies but this kind of idiotic bullshit is not a great advertisement for companies thinking about relocating here. 

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by Howl

[fraurosena]

3 hours ago, Howl said:

Besides scaring off the best faculty from coming to Texas and the best candidates from applying to grad programs, it may very well cause a brain drain of faculty fleeing Texas and heading to places that don't have f**king morons running the states and meddling in higher education. 

This is exactly their point though. They do not want any intelligent, critical thinking people in the state. The more brain drain, the less they have to fear, and the tighter their control is. It's imperative they have total control, otherwise how will they remain in power?

[Alisamer]

15 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

This is exactly their point though. They do not want any intelligent, critical thinking people in the state. The more brain drain, the less they have to fear, and the tighter their control is. It's imperative they have total control, otherwise how will they remain in power?

This is true. Trump came right out and said he loved the uneducated. They've made ignorance into a point of pride, and think higher education is something only for "elites" and "liberals" and consider it shameful. 

I'm hoping there'll eventually be a backlash and intelligence and education will be valued again, but right now, among Republicans - the dumber people are, the better they like it. And the dumber their voters are, the smarter they think they are - many are too ignorant (or deluded) to realize what they don't know. And are resistant and closed minded enough that they can't be easily educated. Misled, gaslighted, brainwashed, sure. But truth is harder to get through their thick armor of ignorance. 

(And to be clear, I'm not denigrating those who are not intellectually inclined, or those whose preferences or skills tend more toward blue-collar work - I come from those people, and their skills and knowledge are important. All people have something to teach or give, no matter their innate talents or intelligence. I am denigrating those who are willfully ignorant, proud of their stupidity, and who actively work to make the country a less intelligent place.)

The people who scare me are the republicans who seem to have actual functioning brains, yet encourage ignorance among their voters. It feels like as a generalization, democrats tend to want to educate everyone, help those in need, and have a "rising tide lifts all ships" philosophy while the republicans seem, to me, to have a "keep 'em stupid and angry and distract them while we take from them" philosophy. 

[Smash!]

An added thought to the very good points others have already made: Poor people who struggle to get food or have a roof over their head don‘t have the energy to protest, maybe even to vote. So yeah keep them poor and do whatever you want.

[Ozlsn]

13 hours ago, Smash! said:

An added thought to the very good points others have already made: Poor people who struggle to get food or have a roof over their head don‘t have the energy to protest, maybe even to vote. So yeah keep them poor and do whatever you want.

Just poor enough that it's a constant struggle - not so poor they have nothing to lose.