Texas Republican lawmakers created the ombudsman position last year as part of a sweeping state law.<\/p>\n
Texas\u2019s new higher ed ombudsman<\/a>, a position Republicans created to investigate public colleges and universities, has been accepting complaints for roughly five months now. <\/p>\n But his office says that, out of the 69 complaints<\/a> it received through June 11, it has only opened one probe. It closed 67 other complaints without investigations, while the most recent complaint remains open \u201cpending response from complainant with additional information.\u201d<\/p>\n The ombudsman is tasked with ensuring institutions follow certain parts of a sweeping state law passed last year, Senate Bill 37, including requirements that they regularly review their general education curriculum and that their presidents\u2014not faculty\u2014pick Faculty Senate leaders<\/a>. The role is also tasked with ensuring universities heed the Legislature\u2019s ban in 2023\u2019s Senate Bill 17<\/a> on affirmative action and diversity, equity and inclusion activities.<\/p>\n The ombudsman receives and investigates complaints from students and employees who report violations and can recommend that state lawmakers cut off a university\u2019s ability to spend state funds until it complies. The ombudsman has state subpoena power and will report annually to the governor and lawmakers on complaints, investigations and results.<\/p>\n This past October, Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Brandon Simmons<\/a>, then a Texas Southern University regent, as ombudsman. Local reporters\u2014watching this new watchman\u2014filed open-records requests regarding the complaints his office has received so far. The records provided show Simmons has dismissed scores of complaints, many of which his office deemed illegitimate. <\/p>\n Information on how this new office operates could inform universities and policymakers in other states. Last week, after Iowa Republican lawmakers unsuccessfully pushed<\/a> to create an ombudsman position, Iowa Board of Regents members voted unanimously to designate their chief operating officer as their \u201combuds coordinator.\u201d While the brief policy is a far cry from the Texas legislation, it does say, \u201cIn some situations, the Ombuds Coordinator may need to share information with appropriate administrators when there is a reasonable belief that doing so is in the best interests of the Regents.\u201d <\/p>\n Details about how the Texas ombudsman works may also aid the faculty and academic freedom groups that previously expressed concern about a lack of details regarding how the investigations would be conducted and where they would lead. <\/p>\n The Texas Tribune reported<\/a> that it \u201crequested the complaint data Feb. 23, but the ombudsman\u2019s office asked the Texas attorney general to let it withhold the records.\u201d The attorney general\u2019s office ruled May 15 that the info must be released, the Tribune reported, and the outlet finally received the records last week. <\/p>\n Simmons didn\u2019t provide Inside Higher Ed with an interview Monday or answer some written questions, but his office did provide the same complaint data and a broad statement from Simmons. <\/p>\n \u201cTexas higher education leaders are all hard at work implementing SB17 and SB37, enhancing public trust in higher education by eliminating divisive practices and unconstitutional discrimination and ensuring accountability for important personnel and curriculum decisions,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThe Office of the Ombudsman is their partner and supports them in this important endeavor.\u201d<\/p>\n The Tribune also said Simmons didn\u2019t respond to its questions, beyond sending a statement. A spokesperson for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, where his office is located, told Inside Higher Ed in an email that the office\u2019s employees \u201coperate independently and handle both the complaints and any questions around those.\u201d<\/p>\n The document the ombudsman\u2019s office provided doesn\u2019t name the complainants\u2014they were all labeled students or employees, save for one dubbed \u201cother\u201d\u2014or the institutions they complained about. <\/p>\n The only open investigation, according to the document, is in response to a complaint filed by a student on March 31, alleging a violation of the ban on DEI and affirmative action.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [institution of higher education\u2019s] academic assistance program, which is supposed to provide tutoring and academic support, is censoring conservative political speech while encouraging liberal political speech and antisemitic speech,\u201d the document says about the complaint. \u201cComplainant was terminated from his position as Student Instructor after bringing up these concerns to the program supervisors. Complainant alleges the program is being operated as a DEI program in violation of [state law].\u201d<\/p>\n Many of the complaint summaries aren\u2019t even this detailed. Roughly 30 describe the complaint as \u201charassing\u201d and\/or \u201cprofane\u201d comments, and\/or \u201cobviously fake email\/name.\u201d (The many allegedly illegitimate complaints early in the ombudsman\u2019s existence are reminiscent of what happened after Indiana Republicans passed a law in 2024 threatening the employment<\/a> of faculty who don\u2019t foster \u201cintellectual diversity<\/a>.\u201d Indiana University reported that<\/a>, out of 46 complaints it received that year, 37 were \u201cfrivolous complaints that were anonymously submitted as a form of protest.\u201d)<\/p>\n The ombudsman wasn\u2019t specifically tasked by lawmakers with reviewing complaints about course content. Next to multiple closed complaints, the document says, \u201ccourse content is generally an exception to\u201d the state DEI ban. Multiple complaints seemed to be related to universities\u2019 ongoing censorship of topics associated with the left in the red state.<\/p>\n Two dismissed complaints were summarized as being \u201cthat SB\u00a037 and Chancellor\u2019s standards undercut academic freedom and free speech.\u201d Another closed complaint alleged an institution \u201cis pressuring faculty into dropping certain courses and classwork that advance gender ideology.\u201d Another alleged a \u201ccourse was ordered to be removed by the IHE [institution of higher ed], which violates the IHE\u2019s commitments to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n Teresa Klein, president of the Texas state arm of the American Association of University Professors\u2013American Federation of Teachers union, said the ombudsman position is \u201ccertainly in the back of everyone\u2019s minds as they\u2019re teaching.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThis is hanging over a lot of folks that someone could report them,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Republican lawmakers created the ombudsman position last year as part of a sweeping state law. Texas\u2019s new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4144,163,64,8894,2184,223,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-346738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-career","tag-education","tag-events","tag-higher","tag-jobs","tag-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}