Texas A&M University administrators told faculty this week that roughly 200 courses in the College of Arts and Sciences could be affected by a new Texas A&M System policy restricting classroom discussions of race and gender and topics tied to sexual orientation and gender identity, according to emails reviewed by The Texas Tribune.
The changes were described as taking effect days before the spring semester begins, after some students had already registered. The Tribune reported that the policy has led, in some cases, to courses being canceled, renumbered, or having parts of their syllabi altered before the semester starts.
The policy traces to action by the Texas A&M System Board of Regents in November, when it approved a requirement for campus presidents to sign off on courses that could be seen as advocating “race and gender ideology” or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity. Regents later revised the policy in December, barring most discussion of those topics in introductory or core curriculum courses unless administrators determine the material serves a “necessary educational purpose” and approve it in writing.
The Board’s December changes triggered a rapid review of courses ahead of the Jan. 12 start of the spring semester, the Tribune reported. In emails sent Tuesday, administrators described course impacts including the cancellation of an introductory sociology class on race and ethnicity, the renumbering of a communications course on religion and the arts and the removal of core curriculum credit, and instructions to a philosophy professor involving material related to race and gender.
In one message to students enrolled in SOCI 217, Introduction to Race and Ethnicity, administrators wrote: “carefully considered” whether the course could comply and “concluded that we cannot teach this course in its present form.” The email said students with a “demonstrable need” to complete the course for a degree or career goals could instead pursue it through an independent study course.
The Tribune also reported that the changes described in the emails followed a broader review process discussed Monday by College of Arts and Sciences Interim Dean Simon North during a regularly scheduled meeting with about a half-dozen faculty members. Three faculty members attending the meeting told the Tribune that North said the college had identified roughly 200 courses as potentially affected, while Andrew Klein, another faculty member who attended but could not recall the precise number, said he understood it to be preliminary because departments were working under different deadlines for syllabus submissions.
Faculty members were told some departments were in the process of renumbering courses to take them out of the core curriculum even when students were already enrolled for the semester, while other courses would need to remove readings or discussion topics. Sally Robinson, a professor who attended the meeting, said North told faculty the college estimated it would request about 30 exemptions and that the university would need to accept or deny them in the coming weeks. Robinson said she is seeking an exemption for two of her courses.
“Everyone is worried about students and about what’s going to happen next week,” Robinson said, adding, “It’s unclear to us, and I think it’s unclear to the college as well, how those decisions are going to get made and who actually is going to make them.”
The Tribune said it sought comment from North by leaving a voicemail and emailing detailed questions but did not receive a response, and that two associate deans it contacted also did not respond. The Tribune reported that Professor Martin Peterson submitted his syllabus for PHIL 111, Contemporary Moral Issues, for review on Dec. 22, and that his department head told him Tuesday he had two options: remove modules on “race ideology” and “gender ideology,” including readings from Plato, or be reassigned to teach a noncore philosophy course.
Peterson told the Tribune he planned to revise the syllabus and replace the Plato readings with lectures on free speech and academic freedom. In a statement to the Tribune, Texas A&M said the decision did not amount to a ban on teaching Plato and said other sections of the same course that include Plato but do not include modules on race and gender ideology had been approved.
Peterson criticized the directive as undermining the purpose of a university as “a place for open inquiry and debate,” and he said, “Plato founded the Academy, the very first university.” Peterson added, “If we cannot freely discuss Plato, we no longer have a university.”
The Texas A&M chapter of the American Association of University Professors and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression criticized the policy change. Lindsie Rank, director of campus rights advocacy at FIRE, said: “This is what happens when the board of regents gives university bureaucrats veto power over academic content,” and that “The board didn’t just invite censorship, they unleashed it with immediate and predictable consequences.”
The College of Arts and Sciences is one of 17 colleges and schools at Texas A&M University in College Station, the flagship campus that includes 11 other universities subject to the same policy. The Tribune also said other public university systems were taking similar steps, including Texas Tech University System, which prohibits certain race- or sex-related course content except if it is required for licensing, certification or patient care, and Texas State University administrators who urged professors to revise course descriptions and titles they consider ideological.
This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.