About 200 Texas A&M courses could change due to new restrictions on teaching gender, race
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- Texas A&M flagged roughly 200 courses for content restrictions on race and gender discussions.
- Faculty and academic freedom advocates warn the policy creates confusion and raises censorship concerns.
Faculty at Texas A&M University have been told that roughly 200 courses in the College of Arts and Sciences could be affected by a new system policy restricting classroom discussions of race and gender.
The changes were made days before the semester begins and after some students have registered to attend.
The Texas Tribune obtained emails sent by college administrators showing the policy has already led to courses being canceled or renumbered to remove them from core curriculum credit, with professors directed to alter course content or teach different classes.
The A&M System Board of Regents approved a policy in November requiring campus presidents to sign off on courses that could be seen as advocating “race and gender ideology” or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity. The move followed a student’s secret recording of a professor discussing gender identity in a children’s literature class that went viral on social media, sparking conservative backlash.
More than 301,000 students attended one of UC’s 10 campuses over the fall, according to newly released data. The total included more than 200,000 California resident undergraduates.
Regents revised the policy in December, barring most discussion of those topics in introductory or core curriculum courses unless administrators determine the material serves a “necessary educational purpose” and approve it in writing. This set off a rapid review of courses ahead of the spring semester’s Jan. 12 start.
Emails sent by college administrators show that an introductory sociology course on race and ethnicity was canceled, a communications course on religion and the arts was renumbered and stripped of core curriculum credit, and a philosophy professor was told to remove Plato readings and other material related to race and gender from a core course or be reassigned.
In an email to students who had enrolled in SOCI 217, Introduction to Race and Ethnicity, administrators said they “carefully considered” whether the course could comply with the revised policy and “concluded that we cannot teach this course in its present form.”
Introduction to Race and Ethnicity had drawn scrutiny in the past. Texas Scorecard, a conservative website that is widely read by elected Texas Republicans and A&M regents, published stories in September and October criticizing the course and its assigned readings and identifying the professor who taught it.
In another case, Professor Martin Peterson submitted his syllabus for PHIL 111, Contemporary Moral Issues, for review Dec. 22. On Tuesday, his department head told him he had two options: remove the modules on race ideology and gender ideology, including readings from Plato, or be reassigned to teach a noncore philosophy course. The email, obtained by the Tribune, gave Peterson until the close of business Wednesday to decide.
Peterson responded that he would revise the syllabus, saying he plans to replace the Plato readings with lectures on free speech and academic freedom.
In a statement to the Tribune, A&M said the decision did not amount to a ban on teaching Plato and that other sections of the same course that include Plato – but do not include modules on race and gender ideology – had been approved.
The course changes described in the emails followed a broader review process that College of Arts and Sciences interim Dean Simon North discussed during a recent meeting with a group of about half a dozen faculty members.
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Three faculty members in attendance told the Tribune that when asked, North said the college had identified roughly 200 courses as potentially affected by policy restrictions.
Faculty can ask for an exemption if they demonstrate that topics of race and gender are core to the curricula. Sally Robinson, a professor who attended the meeting, said North told faculty members he estimated the college would request about 30 courses to be exempt from the policy, which the university will need to accept or deny in the coming weeks.
“Everyone is worried about students and about what’s going to happen next week,” said Robinson, who is asking for an exemption for two of her courses. “It’s unclear to us, and I think it’s unclear to the college as well, how those decisions are going to get made and who actually is going to make them.”
The Tribune left a voicemail for North and emailed detailed questions but did not receive a response. Two associate deans who were also contacted did not respond.
The Texas A&M Chapter of the American Assn. of University Professors and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression criticized the move.
“This is what happens when the board of regents gives university bureaucrats veto power over academic content,” said Lindsie Rank, director of campus rights advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “The board didn’t just invite censorship, they unleashed it with immediate and predictable consequences.”
The College of Arts and Sciences is one of 17 colleges and schools at Texas A&M University in College Station, the flagship campus that includes 11 other universities subject to the same policy.
Priest and Dey write for the Texas Tribune. This article was distributed through a partnership with the Associated Press.
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