One might expect a hearing on a proposed revision of the role of public university governing boards to prompt some comments. One would be wrong.
After state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, explained the proposal at today’s hearing of the House Higher Education Committee, not a single person wanted to speak “for, against or on the bill,” as the legislative jargon goes. That could mean it’s on a fast track to passage, but Branch said he’s “never confident of anything” when it comes to legislation.
The measure, Senate Bill 15, sailed through the upper chamber on a 29-2 vote on April 11, Coincidentally, that was the same day that the University of Texas System Board of Regents, whose governance practices prompted the bill, agreed to turn over records, including confidential ones, sought by lawmakers.
Branch, chairman of the House Higher Education Committee, is shepherding the bill in the lower chamber. The measure would bar a board of regents from firing a campus president unless the university system’s chancellor had recommended doing so. Governing boards are currently free to bypass chancellors.
The measure also would prohibit regents from voting on budgetary and personnel matters if they had not received training on ethics, conflicts of interest and the role of governing boards. It would limit the voting powers of appointees nominated by the governor when the Legislature is not in session.
The bill includes a number of passages intended to safeguard campuses, including one declaring that regents “may not unreasonably or unduly interfere with the day-to-day operations.” That seems to address what some lawmakers have criticized as micromanaging of UT-Austin by its board of regents.
The bill would apply to the state’s six university systems as well as to four universities that aren’t part of a system.
“We’re trying to find the sweet spot of governance,” Branch said.
SB 15 was left pending in committee.
