By Bailey H.B. No. 2442
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the rights of public junior college faculty members.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 130, Education Code, is
1-5 amended by adding Section 130.007 to read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 130.007. RIGHTS OF PUBLIC JUNIOR COLLEGE FACULTY
1-7 MEMBERS. (a) In this section:
1-8 (1) "Faculty member" means a person who is employed by
1-9 a public junior college on a full-time basis as a member of the
1-10 faculty or staff and whose duties include teaching, research,
1-11 administration, or the performance of professional service. The
1-12 term includes professional librarians and counselors but does not
1-13 include a person employed in a position that is in the
1-14 institution's classified personnel system or a person employed in a
1-15 similar type of position if the institution does not have a
1-16 classified personnel system, nor does it include a person employed
1-17 in a predominantly managerial or supervisory position including but
1-18 not limited to chancellors, presidents, vice-presidents, deans, and
1-19 provosts.
1-20 (2) "Governing board" means the body charged with the
1-21 policy direction of a public junior college, including a board of
1-22 directors or board of regents, or an independent school district
1-23 insofar as it is charged with policy direction of a public junior
2-1 college.
2-2 (3) "Public junior college" means any junior college,
2-3 community college, or technical college certified by the Texas
2-4 Higher Education Coordinating Board in accordance with Section
2-5 61.063 of this code.
2-6 (b) Before any faculty member employed by a public junior
2-7 college who has completed four consecutive years of full-time
2-8 service at the college may be dismissed or denied renewal, the
2-9 faculty member on his written request is entitled to be notified in
2-10 writing by the president of the public junior college or his
2-11 designee of the reasons for the dismissal or the nonrenewal.
2-12 (c) If the grounds for the proposed action relate to the
2-13 alleged inability or failure of the faculty member to perform
2-14 assigned duties satisfactorily according to the policies of the
2-15 public junior college, the action must be based on the written
2-16 recommendation of the president of the public junior college or his
2-17 designee. On written request a faculty member so dismissed or
2-18 denied renewal is entitled to a copy of every evaluation, report,
2-19 or other written memorandum related to the fitness or conduct of
2-20 the faculty member.
2-21 (d) If on written notification of the proposed dismissal or
2-22 nonrenewal the faculty member desires to contest the action, the
2-23 faculty member shall notify the president in writing within 10
2-24 working days after the date of receipt of the official notice of
2-25 his intention to request a hearing before the peer review committee
3-1 or to waive his right to a hearing before the committee and request
3-2 a hearing before the governing board.
3-3 (e) The public junior college shall grant the faculty member
3-4 a hearing before a peer review committee composed of faculty
3-5 members if requested. The public junior college shall establish a
3-6 fair and impartial procedure for selecting the faculty members to
3-7 serve on the committee. The committee shall select a chair. The
3-8 committee shall establish fair and impartial procedures for
3-9 conducting the hearing. The hearing shall take place within 20
3-10 working days of the request by the faculty member.
3-11 (f) Within 10 working days of the completion of the hearing,
3-12 the peer review committee shall report its findings and
3-13 recommendations to the president of the public junior college. The
3-14 president of the public junior college may accept the findings and
3-15 recommendations of the committee, may reject the findings and
3-16 recommendations of the committee, or may accept in part and reject
3-17 in part the findings and recommendations of the committee. Within
3-18 10 working days after receiving the report of the committee, the
3-19 president in writing shall make his disposition of the committee's
3-20 report known to the chair of the committee and to the faculty
3-21 member. The public junior college shall not retaliate against a
3-22 faculty member for service on the committee.
3-23 (g) A faculty member who has had a hearing before a peer
3-24 review committee and who is not satisfied with the president's
3-25 disposition of the proposed dismissal or nonrenewal shall have the
4-1 right to appeal the proposed action to the governing board. Within
4-2 10 working days after the governing board receives a request for an
4-3 appeal, it shall fix a time and place for the hearing, which must
4-4 be held before the proposed action is effective.
4-5 (h) At the hearing before the governing board, the faculty
4-6 member is entitled to be represented by counsel, to present
4-7 evidence and witnesses, to hear the evidence on which the
4-8 nonrenewal or dismissal is based, to cross-examine all adverse
4-9 witnesses, and to present evidence in opposition or extenuation.
4-10 (i) The governing board shall take the action it considers
4-11 lawful and appropriate and shall notify the faculty member in
4-12 writing of that action within 10 working days after the last day of
4-13 the hearing.
4-14 (j) A faculty member who waives his right to a hearing
4-15 before a peer review committee and instead appeals directly to the
4-16 governing board is entitled to a hearing before the governing
4-17 board, to be held as provided by Subsections (h) and (i) of this
4-18 section, within the time provided by Subsection (g) of this
4-19 section.
4-20 (k) Nothing in this section shall reduce the rights of
4-21 faculty members at public junior colleges that have policies in
4-22 place the terms of which exceed those provided by this section.
4-23 Nothing in this section shall prevent a faculty member dismissed or
4-24 denied renewal at a public junior college from appealing the
4-25 dismissal or nonrenewal to the district court in which the public
5-1 junior college is located.
5-2 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
5-3 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
5-4 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
5-5 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
5-6 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
5-7 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.