The Texas Legislature can’t resist getting in on the action. While the administration in Washington has bludgeoned Columbia University into overhauling its Middle Eastern Studies Department, not exactly placing it into “academic receivership” as the White House demanded, but instead folding it into another combination along with South Asian and African Studies, the Senate in Austin is gearing up again for its latest battle with state universities.

Two years ago, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick tried and failed to eliminate tenure for faculty members in the seven university systems of Texas, settling instead for a version of his Senate bill amended in the House to allow boards of regents to grant tenure. This was already “the case in Texas’ public universities” according to the Texas Tribune. In addition, the measure called for tenured professors to be reviewed every few years, also an accepted practice in American higher education. UT Austin President Jay Hartzell wrote a letter defending tenure, noting that without it recruiting top faculty would be problematic. In the end, the House saved the day, but not without fear taking root.

Those troubles reared again as legislators returned to town this year with Patrick gearing up yet again, this time to give governing boards the power to hire all leaders in their universities, not just the chancellors and presidents. By this time, Hartzell had fled to Southern Methodist University, my alma mater, where trustees respect their presidents and honor their authority.

Now UT Austin, proud flagship of a proud system that includes booming and blooming UT Dallas, must find a new leader, which won’t be easy, especially if the House concurs this time in legislation to give regents, appointed by the governor, decisive power to hire vice presidents, provosts, deans, et al., plus the ability to “vet and veto … courses and curricula” with an eye on preparing students for the workforce, according to the Texas Tribune.

This sounds like the end of the humanities to me and close to the prophecy in The New York Times of a department chair at Columbia that American universities — the envy of the world — would be “really, really more akin to a high school or a local community college.” He was talking about the death of research on campuses, but his point applies to courses directed by political pals/regents as well. It should be noted that Columbia Agonistes has been great for SMU and Texas Christian University. A woman I met at a conference last week said that friends in the East are sending their kids to college in North Texas because of all the upheaval closer to home.

Even so, we’ve been this way in Texas before. In 1971, just 17 years after emerging from censure by the American Association of University Professors, UT Austin lost four professors (supreme stars of the faculty) after a celebrated dean of the College of Arts and Sciences was fired, then was immediately named president of Boston University. He took the others with him. All left lamenting political interference in the work of the university. A regent appointed by Gov. John Connally, by then secretary of the Treasury under Richard Nixon, charged them with teaching too little and living too “high on the hog,” according to the Times.

Thirty years later, Gov. Rick Perry and his henchmen instigated spreadsheets that showed faculty “productivity” in one system and which professors brought in money and which didn’t in another. One proposal was to separate teaching and research budgets, seen by some as anti-research. In a rush of enlightenment, Dan Branch, then a Republican member of the House, managed to pass a bill to create more tier-one public research universities. The governor signed it. Now Texas has more tier-one universities than any other state in the Union.

Why jeopardize all that? Why aren’t Texas alumni, usually fanatical, rising up in defense of the Longhorns and their fantastic legacy in learning as well as linemen? Usually university presidents such as Jay Hartzell or Gerald Turner, whom Hartzell will follow at SMU, are masters at keeping their blockers with them.

Chances are that’s harder now because the turmoil in the Texas Legislature is reflecting a national mood of disenchantment with higher education. What bothers critics most, I suspect, is what they perceive as a leftward tilt among college professors. However, those professors may not have as much influence as some parents fear. In last year’s election, Kamala Harris won voters ages 18 to 29 by four percentage points where in 2020, this group favored Joe Biden over Donald Trump by 25 percentage points, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

I just had lunch with a sophomore major in political science at SMU who seemed more than able to measure her choices at the polls and in life. She had to leave early for her class on Northern Irish history. Does her professor mention the brutal, bloody 30 years of troubles? I hope so.

Lee Cullum is a Dallas journalist and former host of CEO on KERA TV.

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