This past May, leadership at the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) decided to move the PSYC 1100 and PSYC 1300 Learning Frameworks courses to the Department of Psychology due to a past administrative error discovered during a review prompted by Texas Senate Bill 37. The UHCL course was previously taught by non-psychology faculty within the College of Human Sciences and Humanities (HSH).

Communications for University of Houston System (UHS) stated that the, “Senate Bill 37 creates new processes for universities and their Board of Regents to review curriculum and degree programs, to establish faculty senate/councils and the hiring of university leadership.”

Programs are to be reviewed by Gov. Greg Abbott’s appointed university regents for their relevance and performance.

On the official UHCL website, the two courses were part of the First-Year-Seminar Program as they were, “…designed to promote the intellectual readiness that ensures students thrive in college.”

We spoke with Dr. Anne Gessler and Dr. Wanalee Romero, former directors of the First-Year Seminar Program (FYS).

“[UHCL Administration] didn’t make arrangements for the associated FYS Program, Peer Mentor Program, Common Reader Program, or other support programming to travel with Learning Frameworks…” said Gessler. “Those programs are effectively cut, or at least on hiatus.”

This decision was made after a misalignment was discovered between the descriptions for the classes in UHCL’s course catalogue and those found in the Lower-Division Academic Course Guide Manual (LDACGM), which defines 1000- and 2000-level courses taught at Texas community colleges.

Dr. Christopher Ward, the Department Chair of Psychology, says that the incongruence was discovered during a review of all classes requested by the UHS Board of Regents.

The UHCL course catalogue description previously matched the description found in the LDACG, but was changed in 2017 to, “…more accurately reflect the content and goals of the course…” said Dr. Gessler.

Dr. Romero said the revision occurred during a period when “…the university was making major revisions to the course catalogue.” She said this change was approved by the Faculty Senate.

It is unclear why this update was not reported to state regulators. It is also unknown which office or position was responsible for reporting course description changes to the state at the time. Dr. Romero said, “It isn’t clear where the ball was dropped, but it was dropped when both HSH and UHCL operated under different administrations.”

It’s possible that the decision not to report to the state was intentional.

“I don’t know if it was a single administrative member or multiple administrative members who decided not to report,” said Dr. Gessler. “It might very well have been a collective decision.”

Dean Glenn Sanford of HSH says course catalogue descriptions can only differ from those in the LDACGM if the university submits a “unique need” petition to the THECB.

“I do not know the details of how/why the course descriptions were changed to differ from the ACGM without receiving [a] unique need determination from the THECB.”

According to Dr. Romero, the content of the course did not significantly change during the time she and Dr. Gessler were teaching it.

“There were no changes to the curriculum from when we were recruited through last semester, except regular revisions each semester as all faculty do, if they are learning.”

The decision to move the classes to the Psychology department was made by the Office of the Provost after reviewing the new course description.

“They determined that the new course description was fundamentally a psychology course, and therefore, psychology faculty should teach the course,” says Dr. Ward.

Dr. Romero says that both she and Dr. Gessler were originally hired under the same course description that existed before the 2017 catalogue revision.

“It was a decision by the current administration that Dr. Gessler and I couldn’t teach the course with the State’s description. The administration who hired us, hired us to teach that very same description. Two separate decisions were made by two separate administrations about the same faculty and the same class and the same description. The change was the administration.”

Dr. Gessler is now teaching in the Department of History and Dr. Romero is now a full-time faculty member in the English Program. Both faculty say they have been supported by the university during this transition.

Despite the difficulties, Dr. Romero says she is proud of the work she and Dr. Gessler accomplished in the First-Year Seminar Program.

“…it has been an incredibly fulfilling honor to build and work in the [FYS Program] at UHCL for the past 12 years…Though I’m saddened not to be able to continue to work in and improve the First-Year Seminar with Dr. Gessler, I’m gratified to know how many lives we’ve changed for the better while we were.”

The Office of the Provost did not respond to the Signal’s request for an interview.