The Texas A&M Board of Regents will vote Thursday on whether its instructors can teach race and gender ideology without a campus president’s approval, according to the board’s meeting agenda for Nov. 13.
The proposed policy defines race ideology as a concept that “attempts to shame a particular race or ethnicity” and “accuse them of being oppressors.”
It would also include course content that “promotes activism on issues related to race or ethnicity, rather than academic instruction.”
Gender ideology would mean “a concept of self-assessed gender identity replacing, and disconnected from, the biological category of sex.”
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Professors at Texas A&M’s 12 campuses would be banned from teaching concepts or materials that fall under the two ideologies, as well as topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity, unless a campus president or “designee” pre-approves the course.
Texas A&M spokespeople did not immediately respond to an email request Monday night from The Dallas Morning News for a comment.
The proposed policy comes as multiple Texas universities, including Texas A&M, the UT System and the Texas Tech System, are reviewing gender identity content in courses and implementing state laws that aim to address perceived liberal bias on campuses.
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The Texas Conference of the American Association of University Professors issued a statement Monday saying the policy would violate the First Amendment and called it “another state-sponsored attack.”
“This language and the censorship it imposes will cause irreparable harm to the reputation of the university, and impede faculty and students from their main mission on campus: to teach, learn, think critically, and create and share new knowledge,” said AAUP President Brian Evans in the release.
The group said the policy language is “blatantly unconstitutional and undoubtedly will be challenged in court.”
Another proposed policy revision states that a faculty member will not be allowed to teach material that is “inconsistent with the approved syllabus” for the course.
That change comes months after a viral video of a Texas A&M professor discussing gender identity in her course led to her firing and President Mark A. Welsh III’s resignation.
At the time of the professor’s removal, university officials said her course teachings did not line up with its description.
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