Bill Text: TX SB516 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to a study and report concerning faculty productivity at general academic teaching institutions.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-02-06 - Referred to Higher Education [SB516 Detail]

Download: Texas-2017-SB516-Introduced.html

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85R1264 KEL-D
By: Kolkhorst S.B. No. 516

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a study and report concerning faculty productivity at
general academic teaching institutions.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter H, Chapter 51, Education Code, is
amended by adding Section 51.4033 to read as follows:
Sec. 51.4033. STUDY AND REPORT REGARDING FACULTY
PRODUCTIVITY. (a) In this section:
(1) "Faculty member" means a person who is employed
full time by a general academic teaching institution as a member of
the faculty whose primary duties include teaching or research. The
term does not include:
(A) a person employed in the classified personnel
system of the institution or a person employed in a similar type of
position if the institution does not have a classified personnel
system; or
(B) a person who holds faculty rank but who
spends a majority of the person's time for the institution engaged
in managerial or supervisory activities, including a chancellor,
vice chancellor, president, vice president, provost, associate or
assistant provost, dean, or associate or assistant dean.
(2) "General academic teaching institution,"
"governing board," and "university system" have the meanings
assigned by Section 61.003.
(b) To ensure the best use of state funds and the delivery of
high-quality postsecondary education to students in this state,
each general academic teaching institution shall conduct a study to
determine whether tenured faculty members are making a significant
professional contribution to their employing institutions or to the
academic community. The study must cover the five-year period
ending August 31, 2017, and include data regarding the number of
tenured faculty members who during that period did not achieve any
of the following performance benchmarks:
(1) teaching a class at the institution;
(2) actively conducting sponsored or
institution-funded research at the institution;
(3) authoring an article that is in the faculty
member's academic field and published by a major peer-reviewed
academic journal, as identified for the purpose of the study by the
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board under Subsection (c); or
(4) making a significant written contribution to a
published book in the faculty member's academic field.
(c) The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shall
identify, with respect to each academic field taught in a general
academic teaching institution, all major peer-reviewed academic
journals and shall make that information available on the board's
Internet website not later than November 1, 2017. A general
academic teaching institution may recommend one or more journals
for inclusion in the journals identified by the coordinating board.
(d) The governing board of a general academic teaching
institution may appoint a committee to conduct the study required
by this section. A university system may conduct the study for one
or more of the system's component institutions or may direct a
component institution to conduct the study with respect to that
institution and to submit its report in a timely manner to the
university system administration.
(e) Each general academic teaching institution or
university system, as applicable, shall prepare a report based on
the study required by Subsection (b). The institution or system
shall submit the report to the coordinating board not later than
August 1, 2018. The coordinating board may adopt standards
governing the form and content of the reports. The coordinating
board shall compile the reports submitted to the board under this
subsection and, not later than December 1, 2018, shall submit the
compilation to the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker
of the house of representatives, and the presiding officer of each
legislative standing committee with primary jurisdiction over
higher education.
(f) This section expires January 1, 2019.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2017.