The Senate Advisory Group (SAG) questioned Texas State President Kelly Damphousse following recent decisions made by his administration at its Oct. 8 meeting.
The questions for Damphousse and his administration come after the summary termination of Associate History Professor Thomas Alter, the withdrawal of a student and an order from the Texas State University System to audit all courses. Those recent decisions have left some faculty feeling that academic freedom no longer exists at Texas State.
“We have a set of due process policies and practices that were created over the years,” Damphousse said. “Nothing has changed.”
Multiple SAG members took issue with Damphousse’s claim that due process still exists on campus. They spoke of “the elephant in the room,” referring to Alter’s termination, which was initially done without due process, until a court order required the university to hold a due process hearing.
Damphousse declined to speak about Alter’s case, saying he couldn’t address specific personnel issues.
“It’s curious that you state here very firmly that due process is a very important guideline. There have been occasions where that hasn’t been the case,” Criminal Justice and Criminology Assistant Professor P Michael Supancic said. “What is the current state of recognizing that due process is a very important principle of this institution? And I’d like you to respond to at least that.”
Damphousse reaffirmed his commitment to due process, but Supancic stated a verbal commitment wasn’t enough for him.
SAG members also questioned Damphousse about faculty morale. History Professor Peter Dedek said faculty members have lost trust in Damphousse and his administration in recent weeks.
“We’re afraid, many people are afraid that if due process is not followed in one case, that it won’t be followed again,” Dedek said. “Where is the line between something that’s actionable, possibly even without due process, and normal exercise of free speech, either in the classroom or on our own, in our lives?”
Members of SAG also asked for better transparency and communication from the administration. Damphousse said he is planning to send an email to faculty addressing some concerns on Oct. 13. He said an email he sent to students on Sept. 26 took him a week to write. That statement led to some faculty members questioning why he can post quickly on social media about some things, such as Alter’s termination, but takes a week to write a single email.
“Do you think that your, I would say, pretty nearly instantaneous social media posts from your accounts that reference that issue was the right thing to do?” Biology Professor Nolan Martin said. “To make such an announcement, without you taking a minute and taking a week to tell the faculty about this kind of thing?”
Another major area of concern for faculty is the ongoing course audit. Provost Pranesh Aswath spoke about it at the meeting, saying that Senate Bill 37 calls for course audits.
Aswath also said the audit does not target any specific courses based on ideology, but instead makes sure topics are “pedagogically sound.”
“I want to develop appropriate guidelines so that there are some guardrails in how we manage this process,” Aswath said. “I understand where your question is coming from in certain sensitive topics, but those topics can still be taught in the appropriate fashion without specific advocacy or specific point of view being imposed on people.”
While Aswath said classes are not being targeted based on ideology, The Star was provided the letter ordering the audits by the Texas State University System (TSUS) when inquiring about LGBTQ+ course audits at other university systems.
Aswath also said TSUS provided little guidance for how to conduct the audit, instead leaving the majority of details up to each constituent university. He also said that auditing all courses by the Jan. 20, 2026 deadline would be difficult.
“So one of the things we were thinking of doing is to focus on the classes that are going to be taught in this spring, instead of trying to take the entire catalog,” Aswath said.
Damphousse and Aswath left 45 minutes into the meeting, which was scheduled to last an hour. After they left, SAG members continued the discussion.
Lynn Ledbetter, SAG chair, said it’s important to remember that there are people above Damphousse, who may influence the decisions he is able to make.
“We have to remember too, the president just can’t say whatever he wants to say, oftentimes, because he has a boss, he has people that are going to direct whether it’s handled well or not well,” Ledbetter said. “I think there are other individuals in the system that may have been saying ‘you do this now’ and typically, as the president, you [have] to do it.”
Some members took issue with Damphousse’s comment that nothing has changed regarding due process for faculty.
A survey by the American Association of University Professors showed that many faculty members at universities in Texas are looking to leave the state. According to Dedek, that trend holds true at Texas State.
“Something has changed. I mean, you just can’t argue that nothing has changed,” Dedek said. “I think that it’s good that [Damphousse is] communicating with us, and I hope that he communicates with the faculty more, because we’re losing faculty as we speak. I mean, a lot of people are looking for other jobs.”
