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Public universities in North Texas have faced challenges in recent weeks amid an increasingly hostile political environment for higher learning institutions.
The University of North Texas is facing a massive budget shortfall, its president announced late last week, while recent directives from the University of Texas System Board of Regents have targeted “controversial” subjects.
The issues mirror a wider movement nationwide since President Donald Trump took office in 2025. Federal cuts to research funding have fueled budget deficits as the Trump Administration works to unravel the Department of Education. Prestigious universities like Harvard and Columbia have had their federal funding threatened in the wake of pro-Palestinian protests. On Monday, administration officials announced they would target alleged foreign influence and funding at U.S. universities.
Trump’s initiatives follow a growing mistrust of higher education among his base. Republican voters’ trust in universities has steadily declined over the last decade, with a 2024 Gallup survey finding that 50% of Republican respondents had little to no trust in higher education, while only 20% reported having a great deal of trust.
Efforts by state lawmakers have also targeted Texas universities, with some initiatives preceding the Trump administration. In 2023, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 17, which eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion programs at institutions across the state.
The University of Houston is asking professors to sign a memorandum that states their curriculum does not “indoctrinate” students. The move comes in response to Senate Bill 37, which passed in 2025 and drastically expanded the state’s oversight of faculty and curriculum at state universities.
Most notably, the Texas Tech and Texas A&M systems recently banned professors from including race, gender or sexuality “ideology” in their lessons.
University of North Texas
The University of North Texas has not been immune to ideological pressures on public institutions. In October, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to UNT’s president alleging that “radical leftist violence” had persisted on the campus following his request for an investigation into a supposed classroom incident where one student was harassed for opposing students “celebrating the death of national hero Charlie Kirk.” A transgender student was also involved in an “investigation” by the university at the start of the spring semester following alleged violations of the state’s new bathroom policy.
Earlier this month, a travelling art installation set to be displayed at UNT’s College of Visual Arts and Design was cancelled without explanation. Created by East Dallas artist Victor “Marka 27” Quiñonez, the exhibit titled Ni de Aquí Ni de Allá explored his experiences growing up as an undocumented person in the area.
According to a leaked transcript obtained by the Denton Record-Chronicle, CVAD Dean Karen Hutzel said fears of political repercussions led to the decision.
UNT is also facing a $45 million deficit, which UNT President Harrison Keller attributed in a public letter to a sharp decline in international student enrollment and funding cuts authorized in the last state legislative session. Keller said the deficit would require the university to consider hiring freezes, departmental reorganization and the potential elimination of low-enrollment courses.
According to a report by the Association of International Educators, U.S. universities recorded a 17% decline in new international student enrollment in the fall of 2025, translating to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost funding nationwide.
University of Texas System
The University of Texas’s area campuses are also facing financial challenges. The University of Texas at Dallas nearly cut its track and field program weeks before the start of the semester due to “budget constraints.” In Arlington, UTA administrators were offered faculty buyouts in the face of funding cuts, which The Dallas Morning News earlier reported were tied to federal obstacles to research support, student financial aid and international student visas.
The schools are overseen by the University of Texas System Board of Regents as part of the UT System. Last week, the board unanimously approved a measure calling for students to be able to graduate without a “requirement to study unnecessary controversial subjects.”
As reported by the Texas Tribune, the measure did not define those controversial subjects. Under the rule, professors must outline the subjects they will touch on at the start of the semester in their syllabi. Professors must also facilitate a “balanced” discussion of controversial subjects when they are introduced in the classroom.
