After a Tumultuous Year AAUP-TXST Demands a Return to AAUP Principles of Academic Freedom, Due Process, and Shared Governance
SAN MARCOS, TX (April 8, 2026) — While faculty at Texas State University (TXST) continue to support growing enrollments and higher profiles of achievement, the past year has been marked by a chilling disrespect for longstanding professional norms of academic freedom, due process, and shared governance.
Three faculty members were dismissed for remarks made off campus. Another faculty member was directed to remove signs from his office door that indicated support for immigrant students. Longstanding courses were abruptly delisted. A robust process of faculty-governed curriculum review was disrupted by hasty top-down directives. And, because of SB 37, the elected Faculty Senate was abolished and replaced by a body of which the University President appoints half the members and all the primary officers. Staff and the student body have also been affected by summary dismissals. It has been a tumultuous year to say the least.
As faculty witness these deteriorating trends in our academic freedom, due process, and shared governance, we are at the same time implored by campus leaders to keep up the excellent work that promises to bring our university closer to achievement of top-tier research status. Faculty at TXST do not hesitate to do our best work; however, we are compelled by conscience to point out that recent trends in campus leadership are not compatible with academic excellence over the long run.
For more than a century, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has established a body of policy documents and reports that set the gold standard for academic freedom, due process, and shared governance. The 1915 founding document of AAUP principles asserts that faculty have “primary responsibility for such fundamental areas as curriculum, subject matter and methods of instruction, research, faculty status, and those aspects of student life which relate to the educational process” (AAUP 12th ed. 3). These principles have guided best practices of American universities and TXST for more than a century. It is reckless to risk the long run excellence of TXST by wantonly disrespecting these principles today, especially as the university aspires to raise its institutional status.
The TXST chapter of the AAUP implores university leadership to resume its respect for the gold standard of academic policies and procedures by meeting the following demands:
Immediately, with respect to the three dismissed faculty:
- Reinstate all three faculty members who were dismissed this past year for remarks off campus, and
- Restore to all future cases of dismissal the minimum requirements of due process guided by AAUP principles and published in Texas State University System (TSUS) rules and regulations, including the right to peer review of job performance.
In addition, with respect to recent deterioration of shared governance, we demand:
- Public documentation of faculty governance approvals on all university policies that address fundamental areas of faculty responsibility such as: (a) curriculum, (b) subject matter and methods of instruction, (c) research, (d) faculty status, and (e) those aspects of student life which relate to the educational process, such as showing support for students who are immigrants, and due process for student dismissals on the basis of viewpoint expression;
- Public education by leadership at all levels of campus and system governance regarding the importance to the public good of AAUP core principles of academic freedom, due process, and shared governance; and,
- Commitment from our Board of Regents to a partnership with faculty under the guidance of AAUP core principles, including the appointment of administrative leadership that will hold itself accountable to such principles for the public good.
Students and their families make significant sacrifices in support of a university education. They, too, have a right to expect that the university will conduct itself in a way that protects academic freedom, due process, and shared governance for the public good in the long run.
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A Year in Headlines
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Texas State University Chapter of AAUP 
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