Stifling speech is trending up in the U.S., despite government institutions’ obligation to honor a little thing called the First Amendment. And rather unsurprisingly, given the Lone Star State’s book-banning proclivities, one of our homegrown institutions landed on a naughty list this week.
The culprit? The Texas A&M University System. The dishonor? The 10 Worst Censors of 2024.
On Tuesday, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a prominent free-speech organization, dropped the list. This year's roundup went beyond the classroom to include speech-suppressing efforts unfolding away from campus grounds.
“This year’s list goes to show that no one is safe from the possibility of censorship,” FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff said in a news release. “Americans of all ages and professions are being pushed into a corner when trying to express themselves freely: Shut up or be shut up. Censorship is an abuse of authority and a poor substitute for honest dialogue, and FIRE is here to fight it every step of the way.”9/ The Texas A&M University system
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) February 13, 2024
TAMU admins endorse censorship by text message and ban drag. https://t.co/77onRk9OeL
The Texas A&M University System had a "chilly 2023," according to FIRE. The group cited a scandal at A&M's flagship school in College Station involving the botched hiring of former New York Times Editor Kathleen McElroy, who happens to be Black. She was set to helm its journalism program before the process went haywire amid a burgeoning DEI panic.
Text messages among A&M board members revealed complaints that the “biased” Times is “progressive leaning.” The aim of A&M's new program, they said, was to train more journalists with “conservative values.”
Such officials also wanted to “control the liberal nature” of arts and sciences faculty members. The ordeal culminated in the university president’s resignation and a $1 million settlement.
"Censorship is an abuse of authority and a poor substitute for honest dialogue, and FIRE is here to fight it every step of the way." – President and CEO Greg Lukianoff
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In another free-speech fiasco, an A&M teacher was suspended for two weeks after she supposedly criticized a Texas GOP leader in class. Professor Joy Alonzo was targeted for her mention of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, which offended a student who was the kid of a state official, according to FIRE. Before long, the system’s chancellor wrote Patrick and his chief of staff about Alonzo’s potential firing, which ultimately never occurred.
A third debacle lambasted by FIRE: Last March, West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler opted to cancel drag shows on campus ahead of an LGBTQ+ student organization’s charity event. He decried such performances as “sexist” and vowed to stick to his banning guns, “the law of the land” be damned.
“After the students sued, Wendler changed his tune, claiming that drag shows aren’t performances at all, so they aren’t protected by the First Amendment,” FIRE wrote in a post on its website. “Still, he stood by the ban, and FIRE will keep fighting against it.”
FIRE’s list further slammed Texas over the so-called READER Act by state Rep. Jared Patterson, a Frisco Republican. Enforcement of the legislation, which sought to strip from school library shelves any material deemed “sexually explicit,” was recently blocked by a federal appeals court — a decision that FIRE applauds.
Other alleged constitutional no-nos called out by FIRE include strife at universities related to the Israel-Hamas war; the raiding of a newspaper in a small Kansas town; and the suspension of a medical professor who spoke with the media about topics such as “COVID-19, public health, and sex differences in sports performance.”
In each of the previous three years, FIRE included Collin College in its list of 10 worst schools for free speech.
Gig 'em.
