AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas Board of Regents approved a new policy on Thursday that limits the instruction of “controversial topics” in classrooms.
The policy, titled “The University of Texas System Expectations of Academic Integrity and Standards for Teaching Controversial Topics”, establishes that professors are responsible for providing balance in classroom discussions about “unsettled issues” and that they should avoid discussions about controversial topics that are not related to their courses.
The policy dictates that professors have a responsibility to:
Foster classroom cultures of trust in which all students feel free to voice their questions and beliefs, especially when those perspectives might conflict with those of the instructor or other students; fairly present differing views and scholarly evidence on reasonably disputed matters and unsettled issues; equip students to assess competing theories and claims, and to use reason and appropriate evidence to form their own conclusions about course material; and eschew topics and controversies that are not germane to the course.
Professors from across the University of Texas System appeared during a public comment period on Thursday to call on the board to reject the policy.
“I am deeply concerned by the proposed expectations of academic integrity and standards for teaching controversial topics. First, it is critically flawed by its vagueness; this document repeatedly invokes the words ‘controversial’ and ‘contested’ but does not define them,” said UT Austin professor Peter Onyisi.
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Many, like Onyisi, questioned what standards would be used to deem a topic “controversial”.
Others suggested the policy may harm the university system’s reputation.
“Limiting what students can learn will diminish the considerable value of a UT degree,” said David Gray Widder, assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonpartisan and non-profit organization that defends constitutional rights on college campuses, also questioned the potential impact of the new policy.
“We are concerned that faculty will self-censor when they get directives like these, and that will severely compromise the education experiences of students in those classrooms,” said Graham Piro, a faculty legal defense fellow at FIRE.
Chairman of the board, Kevin Eltife, explained that the policy is designed to create trust and balance in the classroom.
“Our regents’ rules affirm the freedom of our faculty to teach their subject in the classroom. However, that freedom comes with many responsibilities,” Eltife said.
He added that he is directing university leadership to work to ensure compliance with the new policy.