As the University of Texas at Austin restructures parts of its academic landscape, the university plans to merge race, ethnic and gender-focused study areas into broader departments and to set a timeline for completing the changes by September 2027, according to college leaders. The plan was communicated to department heads as UT began a curricula review to determine which majors and minors to continue offering under the consolidated units.
The changes include combining African and African Diaspora Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, along with American Studies and Mexican American and Latino Studies, into a new Social and Cultural Analysis department, a consolidation UT expects to finish by September 2027. UT also plans a separate reorganization of European-language and regional studies, consolidating Germanic Studies, Slavic and Eurasian Studies, and French and Italian into a new Department of European and Eurasian Studies.
UT-Austin President Jim Davis said the reorganization is tied to a review that identified organizational issues within the college. In a notice sent to students, faculty and staff, Davis said the university’s reorganization responds to a review that found “some significant inconsistencies and fragmentation across the college’s departments.” He also said students already enrolled in the departments being consolidated can continue their degree programs while curriculum review and departmental change are underway.
Faculty and student groups opposed to the merger said the consolidation threatens academic progress and could affect students’ pathways. Julie Minich, a professor of Mexican American and Latino Studies and English, called the decision “a sad day for UT students” and said it would set the university back on intellectual work, saying UT is “reversing roughly fifty years of intellectual progress and innovation.” Minich also said the changes would represent a retreat from UT’s position as a global leader in higher education.
The university’s plan also comes as Texas campuses face political pressure over how they teach race, gender and sexuality. The UT-Austin restructuring was described alongside recent examples of universities limiting related programs, including Texas A&M’s elimination of its women’s and gender studies program, and alongside federal officials urging UT-Austin and other universities to sign a “compact” that promises preferential access to grants if universities define sex as male or female based on reproductive function and overhaul or eliminate departments that federal officials characterize as hostile to conservative ideas.
The article also said there is no state or federal law prohibiting universities from teaching race, gender or sexual orientation in the classroom. It noted that Senate Bill 17, passed in 2023, banned diversity, equity and inclusion offices but “explicitly exempted classroom teaching and scholarly research,” and that Senate Bill 37 in 2025 shifted authority over curricula from faculty to governor-appointed regents, with language intended to restrict what could be taught removed before the final passage.
Save UT, a faculty group opposed to the merger, said more than 800 students are pursuing majors, minors and graduate degrees across the affected departments. The group said it remains unclear how the changes will affect students’ coursework and their path to degree completion, even as university leaders have recommended that students continue their degree programs.