New website turns Texas students into campus watchdogs

Students can now submit complaints against public universities and colleges to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s new Office of Ombudsman through an online portal.

The war on higher education continues in Texas. 

In October, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott admitted to targeting professors over “leftist ideologies” after two university educators were fired for their political beliefs and teaching LGBTQ+ topics in class. 

Then, he hired Brandon L. Simmons as the state’s new higher education ombudsman. 

Simmons works as a watchdog, investigating complaints and claims that public colleges and universities aren’t complying with new Texas laws, including Senate Bill 17—a ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs campuses that passed in 2023. 

The ombudsman position was created under the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) in response to the passing of Senate Bill 37, which went into effect on Sept. 1. It shifts decision-making power at colleges and universities from faculty to political boards that are appointed by the governor.

The THECB officially launched its Office of the Ombudsman “Students First” website Friday, which includes a portal where students and members of the public can file complaints against higher education institutions that violate Texas law. 

“Through a user-friendly website and engagement on campuses across Texas, I look forward to a collaborative, productive partnership with our institutional leaders and students,” Simmons said in a statement. “Texas leads the nation with top-ranked, rapidly ascending universities, and our office is here to support these great institutions in serving the next generation of Texas students.” 

Although the board lists SB 17 and SB 37 as the inspiration for this website, the press release states that “any violation of state law” can be reported.

However, education advocates warn that the website could do more harm than good. 

“The idea of constant surveillance and that everyone is able to fill out this form creates school environments of fear and distrust, which is not conducive to learning and growing as a student,” Hayden Cohen, the state policy lead at Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, told COURIER Texas.

“This is about partisan actors leveraging a tip line to instill fear against higher education administrators, who will likely over-enforce cruel laws intended to harm students and faculty,” Cohen added.

The website’s creation also comes at a time when higher education is being picked apart in Texas. 

Universities are auditing entire course catalogs to ensure that their curricula doesn’t “advocate for race or gender ideology.” 

Last week, a professor at Texas A&M was told to remove Plato from his philosophy syllabus because the passages discussed more than two biological sexes and portray homosexuality in a positive light. 

In October, the Texas Tech University system ordered all faculty to refrain from discussions of gender identity—including transgender and nonbinary people—in the classroom. The new policies also removed all trans-related content from syllabi, prohibited the use of preferred names for students, stripped pronouns from email signatures, and banned LGBTQ+ flags on campus.

President Donald Trump also meddled in Texas higher education at the end of last year, asking the University of Texas to sign a “compact” that pledged loyalty to his conservative agenda in exchange for better access to federal funding.

The new ombudsman’s office will have five days to notify any college or university named in a complaint sent through the portal, and the institution will have 175 days to respond. 

If a violation is found, the ombudsman can recommend that the legislature withhold funding until the institution comes into compliance.