University of North Texas President Harrison Keller made his inaugural address to the Faculty Senate on Wednesday.
Keller didn’t mention an announcement UNT leaders made just a day earlier regarding the dissolution of three standing committees on the status of faculty members who are women, LGBTQ+ and people of color. The university also dissolved faculty and employee resource groups.
The UNT Office of the Provost’s Faculty Success website describes faculty resource groups as communities of members with shared backgrounds, interests or goals. The groups were voluntary and open to all faculty. Current groups include the Black Faculty Network, International Faculty Network, La Colectiva, LGBTQ+ Faculty Network, New Faculty Network, Professional Faculty Network, and Women & Gender Equity Network. In his memo Tuesday, McPherson said the following resource groups were eliminated:
- Asian Pacific Islander Network
- Black Professional Network
- Community Building & Integrity Network
- Global and International Research, Education, and Service Resource Group
- International Faculty Network
- LGBTQ+ Faculty Network
- Neurodiversity Professional Network
- New Faculty Network
- Professional Faculty Resource Group
- ÚNeTe Latinx Faculty and Staff Alliance
- UNT Black Faculty Network
- UNT Christian Network
- UNT Gender and Sexuality Employee Resource Group
- Women and Gender Equity Network
The decision to disband the standing committees and resource groups was based on complying with Texas Senate Bill 17, which bans state colleges and universities from having diversity, equity and inclusion training, departments, programs and initiatives.
In his address Wednesday, Keller’s key points were new approaches to budgeting, forging partnerships with faculty for both faculty and student success, and prioritizing civil and civic discourse in classrooms and on campus. Challenging conversations are part of higher education, Keller said, and he said he is committed to the freedom of expression and academic freedom.
Keller became the 17th president in UNT’s history last month, succeeding Neal Smatresk. Keller was previously the commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
UNT Provost Michael McPherson addressed the dissolved committees when a senator asked for clarification.
“I recognize that this is an upsetting thing for all of us,” McPherson said. “The reason for that, as the memo said, is that the guidance we received from the Office of General Counsel and our office of compliance is that those committees are not in compliance with the law that was passed in this past legislative session. And the consequences to us of not complying with that law are dire indeed.”
Faculty members brought up the confusion that has followed SB 17, which went into effect in January. One senator asked if faculty members would be violating the law if they were asked to be an adviser to student groups that promote equality for women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“My understanding is that student groups are particularly exempted from the law,” McPherson said. “I would advise faculty who are advising these groups to be what you’re supposed to be with these groups. And that is [to] facilitate their conversations — not lead them. I don’t know of anybody who would do that anyhow. So those groups are just fine under the law as well.”
A faculty member asked why the New Faculty Network was among the disbanded faculty resource groups.
“We didn’t think it was fair to disband some of them and not others,” he said. “But here’s the main thing I want to say to all of you. This is not about not supporting faculty. What could we do differently? Just to help you see what I’m talking about was the little bit of money that flowed to some of these groups to help support their gatherings and so forth. Is that the best way to support faculty? This is not a budget-cutting point. That same budget is going to the Office for Faculty Success. We’re still going to have mentoring programs for new faculty and midcareer faculty. We’re still going to do the things.”
A university spokesperson couldn’t immediately confirm how much money the university spent on the resource groups during the 2023-24 school year, and McPherson said some of the groups were new.
“We started thinking about them as institutions, but they haven’t really been with us long,” he said.
Coby Condrey, chair of the UNT Faculty Senate, was a member of the Committee on the Status of LGBTQ+ Faculty. He said the disbanding of the groups is so recent that he hasn’t gotten much feedback about it. Condrey said he also doesn’t know what the consequences of dissolving the committees will be.
“I’m concerned about it,” he said. “What the provost has said with regard to the employee groups, we’re going to rethink how we support the faculty and the employees. The real concern is that we don’t want the Legislature to think we are pursuing a DEI program. What was relayed to me is that the legislators’ offices might just be looking for keywords on our websites, and the immediate assumption might be that ‘oh, this is something that pursues a DEI agenda.’ And that’s just kind of where we are right now. We want, definitely, to be clear that we are compliant with the law, and we’ll just have to see what develops.”