Texas tenure battle continues

We'll find out by Friday whether Texas will destroy its public research universities or not.  The bill that passed the Texas Senate will eliminate tenure for all new hires; the bill that passed the Texas House preserves tenure, but permits termination for some non-traditional reasons that are ripe for abuse, such as “conduct involving moral turpitude” or “unprofessional conduct that adversely affects the institution.”  The latter is especially egregious.  Some schools do have "moral turpitude" clauses, but defined in terms of criminal conviction for a felony.   The final bill will be worked out in a somewhat opaque "negotiation" process that I never understood even when I lived in Texas.  If the House version prevails, it will not be an immediate disaster, although if the vague clauses are weaponized by some schools, it will become a disaster.  If the Senate version prevails, the major research centers in the public university system (e.g., UT Austin, UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas A&M) will be decimated over the next ten years.