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

Texas Senate Bill 516 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

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

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 1)

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

Download: Texas-2017-SB516-Introduced.html

	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.