Texas A&M University is ending its women’s and gender studies program, changing the syllabi of hundreds of courses and canceling six courses as part ofa new policyit limits how professors can discuss certain topics related to race and gender, school officials announced Friday.
Course changes and cancellation come months after viral video ofa student confronted by an instructorhis classes upset Texas A&M, one of the largest universities in the country.
University officials tried to reassure the campus that the impacts of the new policy would be minimal, affecting only a small portion of courses offered, and that course cancellations would not create any obstacles preventing students from staying on track to graduate.
“Strong oversight and standards protect academic integrity and restore public trust, ensuring that a Texas A&M degree means something to our students and the people who will hire them,” Interim President Tommy Williams said in a news release. “That has been our goal throughout this process and will remain so as we move forward.”
But faculty and students, hundreds of whom gathered on campus Thursday night to protest changes under the new policy, accused Texas A&M of undermining academic and student freedom.
“They’ve reduced this marketplace of ideas to emphasizing or promoting a certain point of view when it comes to race, gender and sexuality. And that point of view literally erases the experiences of people of color, the LGBTQ+ community,” said Leonard Bright, president of the A&M chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
Friday’s announcement follows the university’s extensive review of 5,400 courses after Texas A&M University System regents in November approved the new policy.
Texas A&M said the six canceled courses represent only 0.11% of the courses offered this semester. They include courses at the Bush School of Government and Public Service; the College of Arts and Sciences; the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; and the College of Education and Human Development.
The university said professors have the ability to request exceptions for certain courses. Of the 54 courses sent to Williams, he granted 48 exceptions.
Texas A&M said the decision to end the women’s and gender studies program was based in part on limited student interest in the program.
A&M said Friday that Williams would not be available for media interviews.
“I recognize that recent policy changes at the Texas A&M University System have been unsettling for many, and I understand your concerns. At the same time, our shared responsibility is clear: our students,” Williams said in a Jan. 12 statement.
The new policy appears to be the first time a public university system in Texas has imposed rules on what professors can talk about in class on the topics of race and gender. Other Texas university systems have also placed restrictions on classroom instruction or begun internal reviews of course offerings following a new state law.
Bright, whose upper-level ethics course was canceled under the new policy, said that despite the university’s assurances, the changes on campus are creating an atmosphere of fear in which professors censor themselves and what they teach in order to avoid problems.
“They sent a frightening message to the faculty that we were engaging in woke ideology and … that people were going to be fired for teaching topics that some conservatives certainly don’t agree with,” said Bright, a professor at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service.
At Thursday’s protest on campus, Martin Peterson, a philosophy professor at Texas A&M, said that under the new policy he was not allowed to teach some of Plato’s writings.
“No one can reasonably say that the philosophy professor shouldn’t have the opportunity to teach Plato in a philosophy class. But that’s what’s happening,” Peterson said.
Williams said earlier that Texas A&M does not ban Plato.
Texas A&M’s new policy came after the September firing of Melissa McCoul, a lecturer in the English department at Texas A&M University, after the release of a video in which she argued with a student over gender identity taught in a children’s literature class. McCoul’s firing came following political pressure from Republican lawmakers, including the governor.Greg Abbott.
Shortly after then-Texas A&M president McCoul was fired,Mark A. Welsh III, resigned.
Republican state Rep. Brian Harrison, who has criticized Texas A&M, applauded the decision Friday to end its women and gender studies program.
“After years of lobbying and exposing this department’s woke agenda, I am proud to have won another massive conservative victory for Texas taxpayers against transgender indoctrination! » Harrison said in a post on the social media site X.
Texas A&M is located in College Station, approximately 95 miles (153 kilometers) northwest of Houston.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
