UTSA updates progress on SB 17 Program, Activity and Initiative Review

OCTOBER 13, 2023 — Editor’s note: The following message was sent today via email from Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Heather Shipley, Chief Enterprise Development Officer and Senior Vice President for Business Affairs Veronica Salazar and Chief of Staff and Senior Vice President for Institutional Strategic Planning, Compliance Risk Management and Office Operations Carlos Martinez to all faculty, staff and students.

In late August, we shared the engagement strategy that UTSA would use to review programs, activities and initiatives to comply with Senate Bill 17 (SB 17). A transparent and inclusive process that considers student, faculty and staff input before implementing any changes is now in place. Today, we’re writing to update you on the progress made to bring all programming into compliance by January 1, 2024, as required by the new law.

The Program, Activity and Initiative Review (PAIR) team is currently engaging in dialogue with a campus-wide stakeholder working group to collect and review information related to UTSA’s diversity, equity and inclusion activities. To date, more than 300 submissions have been entered for review.

Building on the work of the stakeholder working group, the PAIR team is now evaluating each submission to determine its status; some activities are exempt, some need modification and others will need to be discontinued to comply with SB 17’s requirements. Preliminary recommendations will be forwarded to a group of university and student leaders for review before they are submitted to President Eighmy in early November.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll share more about this work through community forums, social media, email and UTSA Today. This week, we discussed SB 17 and SB 18 (recent changes to the law related to faculty tenure) in meetings with the Faculty Senate and Department Chair Council. We will continue to meet with the Staff Senate, the Student Government Association and other campus organizations.

As the law will impact every member of the UTSA community differently, we encourage you to stay engaged in the process, share your concerns and learn more about the framework and legal guidance from UT System by visiting our SB 17 website.

Please know we remain committed to free expression and academic freedom inside and outside the classroom to maintain the core mission and values of our Roadrunner community.