The Faculty Senate questioned Texas State President Kelly Damphousse about recent state-level changes to visa policies and immigration enforcement on campus at its Feb. 4 meeting.
The questions for Damphousse and his cabinet came after recent changes to H-1B skilled worker visas and significant controversy over the past year about federal immigration enforcement.
“We have used H-1Bs over the years to, I think, good success. We have really good people here because they have access to H-1B,” Damphousse said. “We are currently in a situation where, except under extraordinary circumstances, we’re not allowed to use H-1Bs for new hires.”
According to Damphousse, Texas State currently employs about 80 holders. He said current H-1B holders can renew their visas, but that may change in the future.
Damphousse and Provost Pranesh Aswath both stated that the university is currently exploring alternative paths to hire immigrant and non-immigrant foreign workers. Aswath mentioned employment-based paths, optional practical training visas for recent graduates and 0-1 individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement visas.
Texas State Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Eric Algoe said the university would issue guidance on H-1Bs to search committees within the coming days. Damphousse said that committees should still seek to hire the best person, while Aswath said not to deny individuals who may need an H-1B visa until guidance is issued.
“We should work really hard to get a really highly qualified pool and a really qualified shortlist and hire the best person on that list,” Damphousse said. “The extent we’re not able to do that because of whatever reason, then we should go to the next person who’s also very qualified.”
Senators questioned Damphousse and his cabinet for updated guidance on how to handle federal immigration enforcement on campus. The university issued guidance in early 2025, but the cabinet said it would issue a reminder soon.
Algoe said if federal law enforcement officers enter a class, faculty should contact the University Police Department immediately. He also said faculty should contact the university’s Office of General Counsel if contacted by a law enforcement agency.
Algoe stated faculty should comply with immigration officers if they enter a classroom, which multiple senators took issue with.
“I appreciate your comments, but that doesn’t make me feel any safer or more comfortable because if I’m conducting a class and a law enforcement official or group [of] officials come into the classroom, I need to know some strategy that we’ve agreed to as a university on how to respond to that,” Assistant Professor P Michael Supancic, elected senator for the College of Applied Arts said.
Professor Noland Martin, elected senator for the College of Science and Engineering, questioned how faculty could tell the difference between an armed gunman coming into a classroom and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
“The actual response of ICE officers is varying greatly across the country, and we have no idea how that might manifest at Texas State University, but best practices when armed individuals that are masked, that aren’t [identifying] themselves as law officers, the best practice before this was we’ve been instructed to start screaming and throwing objects at gunmen that come in,” Martin said.
Algoe responded by stating that he expected any law enforcement officers who come on campus to clearly identify themselves, wear obvious uniforms and carry badges.
“I would not recommend that you interfere with their law enforcement activity, and by that, I specifically mean try to get between them and their job and demand that they show you their ID,” Algoe said. “I would not have advised you to do that a year or two ago; they’ve identified themselves as law enforcement.”
Martin responded that a year or two ago, he would’ve thought a masked gunman taking a student was a kidnapper, not federal law enforcement.
Algoe said that he believes there is a low probability for immigration enforcement to come on to campus and especially to come into classrooms. He said that Texas State is not on any kind of priority list for federal immigration enforcement operations.
“I think we can all recognize that it is also incredibly low probability. In fact, [Matthew Hall, vice president for information and technology] and I went back and forth about this the other day, and I left that conversation feeling like the burden of proof was on me. So I went and tried to find examples of when this has happened in the country,” Algoe said. “So far, I found two instances in the U.S. in the past year that anything like this had happened and those were both in a K-12 environment, I wasn’t able to find any in a university. So, it’s a very low probability. Doesn’t take away the seriousness of it, and it is a very low probability.”
The Star could not find any examples of immigration operations taking place inside a university classroom, but immigration enforcement has taken place on and around college and university campuses since Jan. 21, 2025 when the Trump Administration removed protections for schools. Augsburg University in Minneapolis stated that ICE arrested an undergraduate student outside a residence hall on Dec. 6, 2025.
The senate also questioned Damphousse and his cabinet on the first and second phases of course audits.
According to Aswath, course descriptions must now be at least 75 words and contain no more than six learning objectives. Aswath also confirmed that initial audits as part of Phase 2 would be due on April 1, so they can be reviewed by the time the course catalog goes out on June 1.
“If you all turn it in on May 15, and our catalog goes live on June 1, it is physically impossible for us to review 7,000 courses in a matter of two weeks to get it done,” Aswath said.
The senate also questioned the cabinet about tracking devices on the Texas State network. According to Hall, the tracking is currently only utilized to improve the university’s wireless network, however Algoe seemed interested in using the technology to maximize faculty office usage.
