Presidents of University of Texas System universities can now more easily eliminate academic programs and cut faculty positions in "extraordinary" circumstances, after UT System Regents approved a policy change Thursday.
Programs should only be closed on an accelerated timeline due to time-sensitive, exceptional circumstances, such as needing to comply with new regulations or laws, the policy states. But a separate change approved Thursday expands the reasons a program can be closed on academic grounds, including for institutional strategy or program quality, as determined by the president.
Tenured faculty whose positions are cut within closed programs can no longer appeal those terminations and will only be reassigned to different jobs if there is an "institutional need" for them elsewhere. That decision is up to the university president, who no longer needs to give faculty a reason for declining a reassignment request.
Archie Holmes, the UT System’s executive vice chancellor of academic affairs, said the board has been working to update their policies for years. Faculty will still have advance notice, due process and a chance to participate in discussions around program closures before an institution’s president makes a final decision, he said.
Holmes must approve closures made under "extraordinary" circumstances. Low enrollment in a program would not make it eligible for an accelerated closure, according to the policy.
"It’s really designed to try to streamline the process, in terms of making sure that folks have adequate opportunities to be able to have input, but decisions can be made quickly as necessary by the institution," Holmes said after the vote.
Faculty concerns
UT System Chairman Kevin Eltife also pitched the changes as a means to improve "efficiency." But some faculty were concerned the changes will make it easier for universities to fire professors and close departments for political reasons without recourse.
Lauren Gutterman, a professor in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and American Studies who served on the consolidation committee for the College of Liberal Arts, doesn’t think the new policy ensures meaningful faculty input in academic decisions, even with mandating their involvement before cuts are made official.
"I’m concerned about what this means for students at UT Austin," Gutterman said. "The departments and programs that are coming under fire at this moment have been focused on racial, ethnic, gender, and sexuality studies, but we know this is only the beginning."
A separate policy change allows a university president to cut or consolidate an academic program for reasons "related to the long-term educational mission and strategy of the institution." The provision, called Bona Fide Academic Reasons, can include "poor program quality," falling short of "student or societal needs" or low enrollment, the new policy states.
Holmes said the policy changes are not related to any new legislation, including Senate Bill 37, a law that overhauled higher education governance and gave greater power to governor-appointed regents in 2025. That law did not outline any specific academic program that had to be eliminated but did initiate a review of courses and degree programs for low enrollment.
Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton, who authored SB 37 before stepping down from the Senate, cited the law in his decision to review and eventually end all Texas Tech academic programs and work focused on sexual orientation or gender studies.
Karma Chavez, former chair of UT Austin’s Mexican American and Latino Studies department, which is being consolidated, fears the UT System’s policy changes could lead to politically-motivated cuts in the future.
"This is setting us up for the 2027 legislative session," Chavez said. "There’s just a whole bunch of ways in which they are going to potentially be able to use this extraordinary circumstances provision for political purposes, so we definitely have a concern there."
She believes the policy changes weaken tenure protections for professors in politically unpopular departments, shortening the time for allowed appeals, in instances where one faculty is terminated over another in the same closed department.
Under the UT System previous policy, tenured professors could appeal terminations and submit a request for reinstatement in a different department. The president would have to state in writing why that wasn’t possible if they denied the ask. That requirement is now gone if all positions in a department are cut.
"I feel that the due process rights of the faculty are protected in these changes," Holmes said when asked about faculty concerns.
He declined to share any details on the UT System’s current review of gender identity courses.