The University of Texas System Board of Regents has taken alarming steps that undermine both academic freedom and the constitutional right to protest. In response to new state laws, the regents voted to dissolve long-standing faculty senates and impose sweeping restrictions on campus demonstrations. These decisions are not mere bureaucratic adjustments—they are a direct attack on the ability of students and faculty to speak, teach, and govern freely.

Faculty senates have existed for decades as elected bodies that allow professors to guide decisions on curriculum, hiring, grievance procedures, and academic standards. By replacing them with weaker “advisory groups” that can be stacked with administrative appointees, the regents are stripping away faculty independence and consolidating power in the hands of political appointees. This undermines shared governance, silences the very people who make universities run, and sets a precedent that faculty are there to be dictated to, not consulted.

At the same time, the regents approved strict new limits on campus protests. Demonstrations are now banned at night, during finals, and in any situation that administrators decide is “disruptive.” Encampments are outlawed, the use of amplified sound is tightly controlled, and members of the public are barred from protesting on UT campuses unless specifically invited. These measures give administrators wide discretion to shut down dissent, especially on politically sensitive issues.

Universities are meant to be places where ideas can be debated freely, where research and teaching are not controlled by politicians, and where students and faculty can speak out without fear of punishment. By going further than other Texas university systems, the UT Board of Regents has signaled its willingness to sacrifice those principles rather than defend them.

We cannot allow one of the nation’s leading public university systems to become a place where academic freedom is hollow and protest is criminalized. The regents must reverse these decisions, reinstate independent faculty senates, and restore robust protections for campus free speech.

Sign this petition if you believe the University of Texas must defend free inquiry and protest rights, not dismantle them.

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