Texas Escalates Free Speech Crackdown on Campus: Professors Alarmed, Look to Leave

Before the start of the fall semester, a significant number of Texas professors surveyed by the American Association of University Professors reported that they had applied for higher education jobs in other states due to a growing culture of fear and stifled free speech across campuses in the Lone Star State.

This week may have validated those concerns.

On Tuesday, Texas A&M University fired a professor whose children’s literature class included curriculum that discussed gender identity. A&M’s student newspaper, The Battalion, reports that two administrators were also removed from their positions due to the incident. Texas House member Brian Harrison posted a video of the class discussion, which has been viewed 4.6 million times, and Gov. Greg Abbott responded to the incident by calling for the professor’s ousting.

And on Wednesday, a Texas State University professor was fired after speaking at an online conference on socialism. According to the Texas Tribune, the professor was accused of inciting violence after addressing the Revolutionary Socialism Conference, where the lecturer spoke about how socialists should better organize in the United States. The professor also referenced organization as a crucial step to “[overthrowing] the most bloodthirsty, profit-driven, mad organization in the history of the world — that of the United States?”

For First Amendment advocates, both instances represent Texas’ harshening crackdown on free speech across college campuses.

“I think it’s hard to describe what happened at Texas State as anything other than an escalation on [the erosion of free speech on campuses],” Dominic Coletti, program staffer for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), said. “The university took all of three days to fire a professor for speech that he made off campus, as a private citizen, on a matter of public concern … how our government should be constituted.”

In the latest edition of FIRE's annual college free speech rankings, which were released earlier this week, Texas A&M ranked among the top 50 colleges in the U.S. at No. 47, although the university earned a "D" grade. Texas State University, which earned an "F," came in at No. 112, while Texas' lowest-scoring school, the University of Texas at Dallas, also earned an F and placed No. 240 nationally.

Abbott has been outspoken about his attempts to sanitize expression across college campuses, often targeting programming or speech through accusations of antisemitism or promoting gender ideology. In June, the state house passed legislation that could help keep students from protesting on college campuses, and prohibits such activities from occurring at night.

The governor has also previously passed a ban on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives in higher education. In a video of the class discussion at Texas A&M, a student can be heard telling the teacher that the lesson runs afoul of President Donald Trump’s executive orders that target gender ideology.

A professor wrote in response to the American Association of University Professors survey that the result is declining morale across university faculties.

“Friends have lost contracts for no discernible reason. We live in fear of using the wrong word. We self-censor. We do not have academic freedom,” the educator wrote.

A quarter of the professors surveyed said they have looked for a job in a different state within the last two years because of Texas’ political climate. More than 25% of those surveyed said they intend to start looking for an out-of-state job soon. The survey, which was conducted in August, included 1,100 professors from Texas.

More than 60% of respondents said they do not encourage graduate students or colleagues to pursue careers in Texas because of the “anti-higher education” climate.

The survey shows that many higher education professionals are struggling to adapt to the political scrutiny being placed on college campuses. Last year, FIRE published a similar report that included responses from faculty members at Texas A&M, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas at Dallas.

One-third of respondents told FIRE they have recently been forced to tone down their academic writing to avoid controversy or retaliation, and at UT Dallas specifically, more than half of those surveyed said they feel unsure that free speech is protected on campus.

“Even as a tenured full professor, I feel pressure to conceal certain opinions. The atmosphere in certain academic units can be cult-like and fascistic, and I really feel I have to pick my battles,” one UT Austin professor told FIRE.

While Texas has been a major battleground for academic freedom fights, Coletti said that legislation targeting higher education is not a “red state, blue state” issue, and swings at campus expression have been seen across the United States. He believes the targeting of universities is “an issue of excesses of power.”

“The trend we’re seeing in Texas is certainly disturbing, but it’s definitely not limited to Texas,” Coletti said. “It’s definitely quite concerning to see this trend pick up steam.”