{"id":130571,"date":"2026-01-20T17:07:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/130571\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T17:07:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:07:25","slug":"heres-what-texas-ams-new-rules-on-teaching-about-race-and-gender-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/130571\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s what Texas A&M\u2019s new rules on teaching about race and gender mean"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the Texas A&M University System restricted teaching about race, gender or sexual orientation<\/a> in the core curriculum, its flagship university has been thrown into a frenzy, as professors and students readjust their courses.<\/p>\n

From a viral video of a professor teaching gender ideology to an ethics course being canceled, here\u2019s what to know about what\u2019s going on at the university.<\/p>\n

Related: Texas A&M System limits how professors can teach race, gender in classes<\/a><\/p>\n

What new policy did A&M introduce?<\/p>\n

The Education Lab<\/p>\n

Receive our in-depth coverage of education issues and stories that affect North Texans.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

In November, the Texas A&M University System adopted new rules requiring professors to get approval from the president for courses and any material related to race, gender or sexual identity-related topics. This was to keep professors from advocating \u201crace and gender ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December, the regents narrowed the policy, banning those topics from undergraduate core curriculum and allowing some exemptions in non-core courses or at the graduate level.<\/p>\n

The policy comes as A&M announced it would separately audit all undergraduate courses every semester to ensure that syllabi match listed course descriptions. This includes courses at all 12 universities under the A&M system, which enrolls around 175,000 students.<\/p>\n

Students are also able to call the schools\u2019 complaint hotlines to report \u201cinaccurate or misleading course content\u201d that does not align with approved syllabi.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"WelcomeHow has this affected professors and students?<\/p>\n

Thousands of courses at Texas A&M University have been reviewed for \u201crace or gender ideology,\u201d causing some classes to be canceled, changed or moved out of the core curriculum \u2014 just days before the spring semester began.<\/p>\n

The Chronicle has confirmed at least two classes that have been canceled under the new rules, including a graduate course called \u201cEthics in Public Policy.\u201d The dean who blocked the class said the professor refused to submit information needed to be exempt from the new race and gender policy. However, the professor said the rules for the course review are unclear and that administrators are using that ambiguity to their advantage.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Another professor was told not to teach certain writings from Plato<\/a>, a foundational Greek philosopher, from his philosophy class syllabus as it could potentially violate the university\u2019s new rules. The professor has since replaced units on race and gender ideology with ones on free speech and academic freedom.<\/p>\n

Texts with \u201cmajor\u201d LGBTQ plot lines have also been prohibited in core English courses.<\/p>\n

Some faculty have called the new rules a violation of academic freedom.<\/p>\n

Why was the new policy established?<\/p>\n

With the ban, the regents \u2014 all appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott \u2014 aimed to eliminate alleged \u201cindoctrination\u201d in classrooms across the 12-university system. <\/p>\n

In September, a viral social media video showed a Texas A&M professor and student arguing about the inclusion of gender identity in a children\u2019s literature course. The video triggered backlash from conservatives, such as Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian. They all called for the professor to be fired.<\/p>\n

Then-A&M President Mark A. Welsh III eventually fired the professor<\/a> and removed the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the head of the English department from their administrative positions. Under the pressure of the controversy, Welsh also ended up resigning in late September with a $3.5 million lump sum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the Texas A&M University System restricted teaching about race, gender or sexual orientation in the core curriculum,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[41612,56124,163,291,3089,5303,287,27,260,29,28],"class_list":["post-130571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-aapi-dfw","tag-black-history-month","tag-education","tag-equity","tag-hispanic-dfw","tag-lgbt","tag-politics","tag-texas","tag-texas-am-aggies","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}