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The Texas A&M Board of Regents unanimously approved a new, system-wide policy Thursday afternoon that will ban faculty from giving lessons centered on “race and gender ideology” and sexual orientation. All lesson plans will now require pre-approval by each campus’s president.
While the original policy banned the “teaching” of the topics, that language was changed to “advocating” ahead of the vote. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) criticized the wording change on social media ahead of the vote, stating that the change “did nothing to fix our concerns,” while also introducing “unacceptably vague [language] that gives faculty no clear warning of what crosses the line.”
The policy defines race ideology as curriculum that “attempts to shame a particular race or ethnicity” or “promotes activism on issues related to race,” while gender ideology was described as “a concept of self-assessed gender identity replacing, and disconnected from, the biological category of sex.” The policy will go into effect immediately.
Regents Chair Robert Albritton said the board received 142 letters of testimony regarding the policy change. Several A&M professors spoke in person ahead of the Regents’ vote, urging the system leaders not to pass a policy that they said would impede academic freedom.
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“Where is the line between teaching and advocating? Like many disciplines, sociology grapples with inequality and its effects on society,” said sociology professor Nancy Plankey-Videla. “If we muzzle faculty, the reputation of A&M will drop precipitously. … [This] is not who we are as Aggies.”
Another professor, Miranda Sachs, voiced concern over how the policy will affect history lessons. Sachs is a historian specializing in 19th- and 20th-century Europe, meaning that lessons about World War II and the Holocaust are prominent in her classroom. She told the board she believes that although the nation of Germany has formally taken responsibility for the Holocaust, the new policy would prevent her from expanding on the country’s culpability in lessons.
One speaker, A&M finance professor Adam Kolasinski, pointed to Sachs’ claims as an example of what he sees as a problem in higher education, and urged the Regents to pass the policy.
“I don’t think you should get to say that Germans born two generations after the Holocaust are responsible for the Holocaust,” Kolasinski said. “[That’s] morally repugnant.”
How Texas A&M Got Here
The changes approved on Thursday by the board were largely in response to a student recording taken in September during an A&M childhood literature class. The video shows a student accusing Professor Melissa McCoul of violating President Donald Trump’s executive order, which recognizes two biological sexes, by teaching a book that includes a “gender unicorn” character.
The video gained traction after being posted by Republican Rep. Brian Harrison, who urged GOP leaders to outlaw the “liberal indoctrination” he believed the video to be evidence of. McCoul was ultimately terminated by the University, and just a few days later, Texas A&M’s president, Mark A. Welsh III, announced he would step down after facing criticism for not firing McCoul quickly enough.
Ahead of Thursday’s meeting, Harrison doubled down on his calls for the university to oust “leftist” influences.
“It is unfortunate that liberal and weak leadership has resulted in the reputation of Texas A&M being damaged in Texas, nationally, and even across the globe,” he wrote on social media. “In advance of today’s meeting, I am formally requesting that you immediately terminate all employees engaged in any DEI instruction, activity, policy or practices, and to immediately cancel all courses that contain LGBTQ indoctrination. There are many.”
The Regents also discussed policies for a new course content audit, which will be conducted on a semester basis for every course at all 12 A&M schools. The audit will require professors to submit their syllabi and lesson plans to a database, which will be scanned by artificial intelligence for unapproved content.
While conservatives have been calling for a crackdown in higher education for years, Thursday’s meeting introduced some of the most aggressive policy changes seen so far in a Texas university system. Advocates of academic freedom warned the Regents that approving a broad, content-restricting policy would only set “a bad precedent.” Several speakers added that they “stand with Melissa McCoul” at the end of their remarks.
“If these topics are off limits, what will be next?” said geography professor Adam Klein. “Faculty are very concerned about what to do in their classrooms. For instance, what happens if student discussion veers into prohibited territory? These new changes simply add to their fear and workload.”
Board member Sam Torn, who chairs the Committee on Academic and Student Affairs that recommended the policy, told Thursday’s crowd that the policy was about “requiring education, not advocation.”
His colleague, John Bellinger, addressed Sachs’ concerns more specifically.
“There’s gotta be some common sense in this,” he said. “I’m totally for it, but I think we’re taking it a little far when we say we aren’t going to talk about the World Wars.”
