AUSTIN—Regents of the University of Texas System passed a series of rule changes to direct academic governance reforms at member institutions during their quarterly meeting Thursday.

The rule changes include measures designed to guide elimination of academic programs, faculty advisory bodies, and a series of other human resources issues.

Regents Rule 31003 is being revised to streamline the process for eliminating occupied academic positions or abandoning academic programs. The rule maintains a process that includes faculty notice, meaningful opportunity to submit input, and review by a panel made up of a majority of faculty members. It also explicitly says the process can be expedited in limited extraordinary circumstances, such as when required by regulation.

The rule makes clear that a president’s decision to abandon an academic program is not appealable.

This system rule change follows UT-Austin’s February announcement that it would consolidate several “grievance studies” departments into a new Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.

Personnel decisions related to this new department have yet to be announced.

The regents also revised Regents Rule 40101 so faculty input is organized through Faculty Advisory Bodies rather than a Faculty Advisory Council structure.

Under the new rule, each president may establish, modify, or dissolve one or more faculty advisory bodies at the institution, and those bodies serve only in an advisory capacity with no final decision-making authority. A systemwide faculty advisory body may also be convened by the Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, with one faculty member selected from each institution’s advisory body.

This change is the latest in a series of reforms mandated by Senate Bill 37, a 2025 state law that overhauled many aspects of university governance, including faculty input.

The Board of Regents passed a series of other rule changes to centralize and clarify personnel governance, especially related to tenure, while giving campus presidents more discretion.

Regents also discussed cybersecurity during executive session Thursday but took no action.

On Wednesday, regents held a series of committee meetings.

Read the rest of Texas Scorecard’s article here.