SB 18 Message Points

TCCTA strongly supports the vital concept and tradition of academic freedom for our faculty and institutions. TCCTA unanimously adopted a strong resolution in a floor session of our 2022 convention precisely stating our historical position (link to full resolution here). We strongly oppose any legislation that seeks to limit seeking to limit open inquiry or discussion n on any academic issue either implicitly or explicitly.

TCCTA opposes SB 18, which seeks to eliminate tenure for future professors in Texas institutions of higher education. TCCTA believes that tenure is a vital tool in the protection of academic freedom. Faculty who have undergone the rigorous process to earn tenure are able to pursue long-arc research and pedagogical techniques to extend knowledge, innovate, and improve teaching for the benefit of students, institutions, their disciplines, and all of us. Tenure protects research and innovation from ill-advised short-term policies that might prevent full discovery, understanding, and benefit from the efforts of scholars.

TCCTA believes in faculty accountability, and observes strong accountability measures in current law that allow institutions to dismiss any professor, tenured or not, for incompetence, non-performance, or other employee misconduct.

TCCTA wants Texas to be competitive in higher education, and strongly believes that eliminating tenure would seriously hurt our state’s ability to competitively recruit faculty and students to our institutions, affecting both tenured and non-tenured faculty and institutions. Putting ourselves at such a competitive disadvantage would ultimately compromise the competitive quality of our higher education work, affecting all parts of Texas’s educational and economic life.

TCCTA appreciates the work of the legislature in supporting higher education, including current efforts increasing support and sustainability for community colleges, increasing Texas’s research capacity, and continuing our long-term efforts to provide more Texans with the opportunity for post-secondary credentials. TCCTA believes SB 18 is precisely at odds with those policy initiatives.