Bills Could Ban Tenure and DEI Initiatives, Even Make it Illegal for Professors to Suggest Racism is Bad, Among Other ProposalsFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE(NEW YORK) – A package of three proposed Texas bills, introduced as part of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priority agenda for the 2023 legislative session, would create “a pervasive climate of fear and self-censorship” on college campuses that would render Texas higher education “inhospitable for free expression,” PEN America said today. “Taken together, SB 16, 17, and 18 would make Texas public higher education inhospitable for free expression,” said Jeremy C. Young, senior manager of free expression and education at PEN America. This would remove a protection for free expression among some professors and would make it more difficult for Texas institutions to recruit and retain high-quality faculty. Young said: “Should these bills become law, they will cast a pall of orthodoxy over Texas public universities, creating a pervasive climate of fear and self-censorship.

Source: Washington Post March 13, 2023 21:14 UTC