I love this bit of resistance, as I deplore the reason for it.
In response to Texas’ crackdown on faculty governance, two University of Houston professors are pushing back by creating their own “Faux Faculty Senate” to give faculty a real voice.
Dr. Maria C. Gonzalez and Dr. David Mazella, both associate professors of English at UH, are forming a faculty-led entity to replace UH’s Faculty Senate, which the university dismantled due to its implementation of Senate Bill 37 in late July.
“With the dismantling of the official University of Houston Faculty Senate on July 31, 2025, and since I had been elected by my colleagues this past spring to represent them on the Faculty Senate with my term beginning on August 1, 2025, I felt I owed my colleagues their voice in a body representing the faculty,” Gonzalez said in a statement announcing the group.
Mazella noted that the body would hold meetings and gather faculty and “unheard voices” despite their “official nonexistence.” The two professors invited their fellow faculty members to join them.
“Since we cannot use any state resources and since we will only be drawing upon our own personal resources for meetings, the [group] will hold monthly gatherings at designated Happy Hours around the Houston area for fact-finding and conversation,” Mazella added.
Mazella said beverages “may very well be involved,” but was serious when referring to the business of the covert collective’s operations, saying attendees could expect “serious discussions about issues that concern higher education.”
Gonzalez will serve as the “self-proclaimed” president, and Mazella will serve as the president-elect of the group. The statement announcing the formation of the organization did not include a date for the group’s first meeting but said it would be announced soon.
Senate Bill 37 removes the traditional role of faculty governance and designates any faculty representative body as strictly advisory at all state higher education institutions.
I didn’t write about SB37, which is another regrettable and deeply stupid attack on higher education, but you’ve probably seen stories of the public universities in Texas shutting down their faculty Senates in response to it. That doesn’t mean the spirit of them can’t live on and be ready to snap back into place when we finally get to a better place politically. It’s also got some “you’re not the boss of me” energy we could all use. I hope other schools look at what UH is doing here and find their own way to take action.