UT-Austin program cuts come with attempts to regain politicians' trust after DEI law, president says
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AUSTIN, TEXAS - FEBRUARY 22: Students walk through the University of Texas at Austin on February 22, 2024 in Austin, Texas. President Joe Biden has announced another $1.2 billion in student loan forgiveness, adding to a total of $138 billion forgiven. That announcement comes despite a Supreme Court Ruling that blocked relief for student loan debt last June. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) Brandon Bell/Getty Images |
A University of Texas at Austin shakeup that led to the layoffs of 49 employees — many of whom were previously reassigned from Diversity, Equity and Inclusion positions — was partly driven by a desire to protect the long-term outlook of the institution as conservatives have increasingly lost trust in higher education, President Jay Hartzell told faculty Monday.
Hartzell’s statements at a meeting of university’s Faculty Council became the most detailed explanation provided since UT-Austin shuttered a rebranded version of its diversity office and advocates sounded the alarm about the consequently closed programs and job losses.
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The decisions were not made to comply further with Senate Bill 17, which bans diversity hiring programs, DEI training and DEI offices in public higher education, Hartzell said. He believed that the university came into compliance with the bill by its Jan. 1 deadline — although a number of complaints have made clear that some people think otherwise, he said — but he decided to close some programs in the rebranded office as an effort to eliminate job redundancies. Another factor was a recognition that UT as a flagship is subject to more scrutiny than other Texas institutions and needed to prove to lawmakers that it is a good steward of state resources.
“Ultimately, my role is to worry about the long-run future of the university — thinking about not only what had to happen by Jan. 1 but as this plays out over the coming months and years, how am I doing what I can to mitigate what I believe and many others believe are real and imminent risks?” Hartzell said.
“Those are risks,” he said, “that if left unchecked, could affect the very basic way we run the university.”
SB17 led to major changes at universities across the state, with UT-Austin among several that reorganized its diversity offices to toss a focus on minority populations and serve all students. The announcement earlier this month to close the rebranded Division of Campus and Community Engagement and relocate some of its programs then came as a surprise — as did the following revelations about the firings and some program closures, including the Women’s Community Center.
Hartzell clarified Monday that several factors led to the program closures. In addition to the changing climate surrounding a mistrust of higher education, the original adjustments stemming from SB17 caused some redundancies across the university as programs became more general, the president said.
Administrators looked for programs overlapping with others at UT and opted to discontinue those programs, he said. The result was a smaller division with more autonomous programs that could be moved elsewhere.
In all, 49 positions were eliminated and eight associate or assistant deans will be returned to their full faculty positions, Hartzell said. Those who were fired will be paid through July 5 but will also receive special consideration for any open positions for which they’re qualified. The president took responsibility for the decision, which he made in consultation with his leadership team, he said.
“That is something that we clearly don’t take lightly,” Hartzell said. “I hate that it affected people. It’s something our whole leadership team worked on and fretted over.”
The changes this month came as many students and faculty in the UT community already feared overcompliance with the law.
Hartzell pointed Monday to several signals of high levels of scrutiny. State Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Conroe Republican and the author of the ban, had warned state university officials that simply renaming DEI offices and job titles was not enough to comply with SB17. Hearings will occur in May where high-ranking officials in the state’s university systems will explain how they have implemented the law. And Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick last week issued a charge for the continued monitoring of the ban.
The state will conduct an audit every four years to ensure universities' compliance, carrying ramifications on state funding for those in violation, said Andrea Sheridan, deputy to the president for governmental affairs and initiatives.
Some people have been “spending their days” looking for ways the university has not been in compliance, Hartzell added. There have been some honest mistakes, he said, and some where those filing the complaints got it wrong.
“I’m sure it’s not over,” Hartzell said.
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Changes to the public perception of higher education have changed starkly in recent years. About 50% of people self-identifying as Democrats say in public surveys that they trust the field, and fewer than 20% of people self-identifying as Republicans say the same, the university president said, citing data shared at an Association of American Universities conference.
The UT System Board of Regents has also instructed the university of its desire for UT-Austin to act in ways that restores and raises public confidence in the institution, Hartzell said.
“We’re all working on trying to help people understand how great we are, but we’re in a setting where there’s a lot of concern about higher education, the role that we play in society,” he said.
One associate professor expressed relief that the changes to the community engagement division didn’t stem from compliance to SB17. But the overarching issues are still problematic, especially if they ever lead to attacks on what faculty members can teach, she said.
“It’s deeply concerning however to hear that they do relate to concerns about the long-term stability of the university and particularly the support of our Legislature for what we do on campus,” Jennifer Ebbeler said. “It seems like there’s a potential for a dynamic here in which we are continually trying to appease the Legislature.”
Hartzell answered that he’s an optimist, although he understands the worry that universities are a “moving target.”
“Part of what we do, people don’t fully understand,” he said. “What’s all on the top research universities as a community is to help the country see why we’re here.”
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