Texas has some of the most progressive public universities in the country. In 2024, about 90 percent of political donations by faculty in the University of Texas System went to Democrats. Texas’s other public university systems, including the Texas State and Texas A&M University Systems, are not much better. While there is no definitive ranking of the “most progressive” college campuses, sites such as CollegeXpress list the University of Texas at Austin among them.

This is despite Texas’s status as a firmly red state, one that supported Donald Trump over Kamala Harris by nearly 14 points. The last time Texas went for a Democratic presidential candidate was in 1976. Moreover, Texas has not had a Democratic governor in more than three decades, and both chambers of the state legislature have been under Republican control for two decades.

Texas’s public higher education institutions are often at odds with the values held by the vast majority of Texans, but there have been a few successful efforts to rein in the excesses of academia. The legislature in 2023 banned DEI offices and activities in public colleges and universities. Now, Senate Bill 37, approved by the state legislature on Monday, would drastically limit the power of faculty senates and councils. Under the proposal, faculty senates would be restructured and many of their members would be appointed by university presidents rather than elected. Their meetings would be be streamed and their size limited, and term limits would be imposed. Furthermore, the role of faculty senates and councils would be reduced to “advisory only.” The bill would also give boards of regents greater influence over core curricula at public universities and the hiring of additional administrators. Governor Greg Abbott is expected to sign it into law soon.

Naturally, the bill has been criticized by the Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors, which said the bill would deprive universities of “the expertise and experience that faculty bring to discussions.” However, Texans will do just fine without this “expertise and experience.”

While there are legitimate concerns about some provisions in S.B. 37, especially the creation of a government position to investigate compliance with its changes, reducing the power of faculty senates would be a critical step in the right direction.

The core of progressivism on college campuses is neither the administration nor the students. University administrators tend to be unprincipled bureaucrats defined by their spinelessness, while students can be counted on to fall for the fads of the day. It is the professors and their fundamental disconnect from reality that are leading higher education astray. By freeing Texas schools from the grip of zealous faculty members, S.B. 37 can serve as a model for other states facing left-wing radicalism.