10 December 19 - 25, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents were confirmed. The district is fully cooper- ating with TEA during their investigative process.” In Houston, where 15 teachers have been tied to the scheme, the school district said those involved “have been relieved of their duties and reassigned pending the outcome of the state’s investigation.” Certified teachers can earn three times the base pay of unlicensed teachers. The Every Student Succeeds Act, signed in 2015, was a response to a growing national teacher shortage that made it legal for teachers to work without a license. But the monetary incentive to be certified is high. In 2024, the Observer reported that Texas was hiring more unlicensed teachers than any other state. Aside from the learning gaps that swept the nation during the pan- demic, Texas struggles with low testing scores, school funding controversies and low teacher retention rates. Educators across the state have re- sponded to the scandal, with many acknowl- edging the irony of teachers cheating on tests. Rena Honea, president of Dallas-based teachers union Alliance AFT, told NBC 5 that having licensed and properly trained teachers in every classroom is crucial. “Our students need in this state and in the country people who, number one, want to be there that have been trained well that understand how children learn,” said Honea. ▼ FREE SPEECH ‘CULT-LIKE AND FASCISTIC’ TEXAS PROFESSORS REPORT SELF-CENSORSHIP IN FREE SPEECH SURVEY. BY EMMA RUBY A number of professors at Texas uni- versities are concerned about aca- demic freedom and free speech on campuses, a report released by the Founda- tion for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) found. The report — developed from a survey that asked questions intended to gauge fac- ulty’s perceptions of campus free speech cli- mates — includes input from 418 professors from Texas A&M, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas at Dallas. Over 6,200 tenured, tenure-track and non- tenure track professors from 55 universities across the country responded to the survey. The organization regularly evaluates stu- dent perspectives on free speech for FIRE’s college free speech rankings, but this is the organization’s first time researching faculty. According to the report’s chief author, Na- than Honeycutt, there is a dearth of research on faculty free speech, and the FIRE report is the most extensive ever published on the topic Of the three Texas universities evalu- ated, it was UT Dallas, which had 48 profes- sors respond to FIRE’s survey, that stood out most to Honeycutt. “Twenty-seven percent [of UT Dallas professors] said they’ve been disciplined or threatened with discipline compared to 7% in Austin,” Honeycutt told the Observer. “Something odd is going on there for sure, that’s what our data suggests.” (UT Dallas has received “correctional correspondence” from FIRE three times in the last two years, addressing student free speech violations.) Nearly half of the UT Dallas professors who answered the survey reported they have “recently toned down something they wrote for fear of causing controversy.” More than half of the respondents reported that academic freedom is “not very” or “not at all” secure on UTD’s campus, and 52% are unsure if the UT Dallas administration pro- tects free speech. At UT Dallas and UT Austin, respec- tively, 66% and 70% of professors reported that it is difficult to have “open and honest conversations” about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on their campus. More than half of respondents from both schools also flagged racial inequality as a hot-button topic that faculty are struggling to speak about, with gender inequality at UT Dallas and trans- gender rights at UT Austin being a third problematic topic of discussion. “Kind of disappointingly, large numbers of faculties report that they self-censor, re- port that they’re afraid that they might lose their job or damage their reputation,” Hon- eycutt said. “These are things that kind of go against what many consider to be the pur- pose of the university: pursuing truth, study- ing topics that might be controversial, topics where there isn’t a consensus.” Of the 6,269 national faculty surveyed, one third reported that they have toned down their academic writings to avoid con- troversy. This was especially worrying to Honeycutt, because the number has qua- drupled since 1954, when the same question was posed to social scientists at the height of McCarthyism. Although the U.S. hasn’t completely de- volved into the chaos of the 20th-century red scare, some of the images then and now are strikingly similar. Take the congressional hearings into on-campus antisemitism that resulted in the resignations of three Ivy League presidents, or the sweeping state legislation in Florida and Texas aimed at banning DEI initiatives; Honeycutt believes both could be causing a chilling effect on ac- ademics. “I would say that probably is contribut- ing to some of the fear and consternation among faculty,” he said. Texas is no stranger to political involve- ment in higher education. Last spring, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott deployed Department of Public Safety officials to break up pro-Pales- tine student protests at UT Austin, a move that was criticized by free speech advocates. Public schools across the state have issued waves of faculty layoffs to eliminate pro-DEI staff positions. The effect is a growing number of uni- versity faculty members who are dissatisfied with their situation and would not recom- mend their place of work to an out-of-state colleague, the Texas chapter of the Ameri- can Association of University Professors warns. But Honeycutt hedges that while a star- tling number of faculty members reported troubling experiences with free speech or academic freedom, many did not. In univer- sity environments where faculty members align ideologically, the data suggests there is less pressure for professors to hide their po- litical beliefs in order to keep their job. At UT Austin, which saw 60% of responding faculty members identify as liberal, 74% said they “rarely” or “never” shied away from sharing their political stances. One UT Austin professor, though, stated that their comfort level in sharing their opinions ends in uncertain company. Con- servative professors were three times more likely than their liberal colleagues to feel pressured into hiding their beliefs for the sake of their employment, the study found. “Even as a tenured full professor, I feel pressure to conceal certain opinions. The atmosphere in certain academic units can be cult-like and fascistic, and I really feel I have to pick my battles,” the professor told FIRE. Because the report is the first of its kind and scope, Honeycutt is unsure how univer- sities will respond to the finding that faculty members believe they are on unsure footing. “I think a lot of times faculty feel siloed, or they feel that they’re alone, that there’s no others out there who hold their same views or who are experiencing the same things as them. So I’m hoping that to a de- gree, this data might be encouraging,” Hon- eycutt said. “Maybe they’ll just be more courageous. I think more courageous fac- ulty will go a long way in improving the confidence and trust that the public has in these institutions.” ▼ PUBLIC HEALTH DON’T HIT THAT HERE DALLAS CITY COUNCIL APPROVES BAN ON PUBLIC VAPING. BY EMMA RUBY D allas City Council unanimously ap- proved a ban on vaping in public spaces on Dec. 11 after more than a year of advocacy from the Environmental Commission and the Office of Environmen- tal Quality and Sustainability. Hitting a vape indoors, within 15 feet of an establishment entrance or on park prop- erty is outlawed, the city’s smoking ordi- nance now states. The ban will go into effect Dec. 11, 2025, at which point violators will face a fine of up to $500 for nicotine puffing in public. The ban will require businesses such as restaurants, hotels and fitness cen- ters to update “no smoking” singage to in- clude electronic devices. Council member Cara Mendelsohn de- scribed the initiative as “very personal to her” following her mother’s death from lung cancer. Supporters of the ban have pointed to data from the Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Surgeon General that suggests direct and second-hand inhalation of smoke from electronic smoking devices poses a public health risk, particularly to children and elderly individuals. “I am here today to thank you for tak- ing this up and realizing that electronic smoking products do create a hazard in workplaces,” Kay Kamm, a Duncanville resident and representative of the Ameri- can Cancer Society, told the council. “This is an extremely important step for the city of Dallas to join other cities that have done this.” Vaping has been banned in Austin and Houston since 2017 and 2022, respectively. Last month, San Antonio passed a sim- ilar vaping ban ordinance that outlaws electronic smoking in public spaces. San Antonio City Council member Marc Whyte urged the state legislature to con- sider stricter regulations for vape shops — such as not allowing the shops to open near schools — in the upcoming legislative session. Jordan Palmer, a representative with the American Lung Association, applauded the passage of Dallas’ vaping ban, telling the council that the rise of e-cigarettes has eroded “decades of public health progress” in preventing teen tobacco use. “There is no risk-free level of exposure to second-hand smoke or exposure to some of the chemicals found in e-cigarettes,” Palmer said. “These products are dangerous and are undermining the efforts of this city council to combat tobacco use rates.” Dallas County officials have been battling the growing popularity of electronic University of Texas at Dallas The University of Texas at Dallas was one of three Texas schools included in the national report. Unfair Park from p8 >> p12
