The Texas Woman’s University Board of Regents will meet Nov. 13 at 9 a.m. on the university’s Houston campus, broadcast on the TWU website, and vote on certifying that its general education curriculum complies with a 2025 state law. The certification is one of ten items on a consent agenda that also carries a new engineering building and a lease for more space in downtown Dallas.
The law is Senate Bill 37, which took effect in September 2025 and shifted control over curriculum and faculty at public colleges toward their governing boards. The section at issue obliges a board to review its institution’s general education curriculum at least once every five years and satisfy itself that the courses are foundational, prepare students for civic and professional life, equip them for work and meet accreditation standards. It must also weigh what the curriculum costs students in tuition, fees and time to a degree. The same section lets a board overturn a curriculum change the institution makes, and requires the institution to report changes to the regents every year.
Having reviewed, the board certifies its compliance to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and to the legislative committees that handle higher education. Texas Woman’s is the second of two governing boards taking that step this week: the Texas State Technical College regents have the identical item on their own consent agenda the day before. The agenda does not publish what the review found, and the Dispatch has not seen it.
The rest of the consent agenda is university business of some size. Regents will vote on an engineering building and its supporting facilities, on delegating authority to negotiate a lease and fit-out for additional space in downtown Dallas, on a new master’s degree in physician assistant studies and an embedded associate of science in business, on an Oklahoma tuition rate, on accepting grants and on revisions to the policy governing conditions of work. The investment and endowment policies come up for reaffirmation.
Open business after that is reports — from the government relations office, the Dallas and Houston campus presidents and the chancellor — before the board goes behind closed doors on pending litigation and on the appointment, evaluation or discipline of officers and employees, then returns to act on what it discussed. Consent items are voted as a block, so the curriculum certification passes without discussion unless a regent asks for it to be taken up separately.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 9:00 AM, Friday, November 13, 2026. TRD 2026006638 was filed November 6 at 10:24 a.m. Board committees met November 12. The last full board meeting was August 14.
- Where
- Texas Woman’s University Houston campus, Institute of Health Sciences, 10th floor, Room 10307, 6700 Fannin St., Houston.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Woman’s University Board of Regents — nine voting regents appointed by the governor to six-year terms, at least four of whom must be women, plus a non-voting student regent. Crystal Wright, chair. Carine M. Feyten is chancellor and president.
- Format
- In person and broadcast, ten numbered items, with a ten-item consent agenda. A closed session on litigation and personnel is noticed, with possible action after.
- Live video
- TWU meeting broadcast page, per the notice. Meeting materials are posted to BoardBook.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · board of regents page
Regents
- Crystal Wright, M.D. — chair; Houston; anesthesiologist, MD Anderson Cancer Center.
- Ellen A. Amirkhan — vice chair; Dallas; president, Oriental Rug Cleaning Co.
- Bernadette Carrasco Coleman — Denton; occupational therapist, county special education cooperative.
- Dianne Costa — Highland Village; former mayor; small-business owner.
- Robert “Bob” Hyde — Irving; managing director, MAH-REH LLC.
- Stacie D. McDavid — Fort Worth; chief executive, McDavid Companies.
- Rienke Radler — Fort Worth; community volunteer and philanthropist.
- Janelle Shepard — Weatherford; retired officer, Texas Health Resources.
- Kathleen J. Wu — Dallas; real estate attorney, Hunton Andrews Kurth.
- Jenna Crocker — Decatur; graduate student; non-voting student regent.
The agenda’s own roll list names eight voting regents and the student regent. A ninth voting regent, Rienke Radler of Fort Worth, was appointed October 28 to a term running to February 1, 2029, and appears neither on the agenda nor on the university’s roster page, which still shows that seat vacant; whether she will be seated by November 13 could not be confirmed and the Dispatch makes no claim either way. The other nine names, cities and occupations were checked November 9 against the roster page and the governor’s releases, which agree: Wright and Shepard in 2021, Amirkhan, Coleman and Wu in 2023, Hyde and McDavid in 2019, Costa in July 2026 and Crocker as student regent in May 2026. Hyde’s and McDavid’s terms expired February 1, 2025 and no reappointment release was found; both are shown as serving on. Amirkhan’s title as vice chair rests on the university’s page, officers being elected by the board.
Key facts
- Sept. 1, 2025 — Senate Bill 37 took effect, adding the curriculum review duty. (enrolled bill text)
- At least every five years — the review interval the law sets for each governing board. (Education Code Section 51.315)
- Aug. 14, 2026 — the last full board meeting, whose minutes are up for approval. (meeting notice)
- Oct. 28, 2026 — Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Rienke Radler of Fort Worth to the board. (appointment release)
- Nov. 6, 2026 — the meeting notice, TRD 2026006638, was filed at 10:24 a.m. (Open Meeting Viewer)