{"id":217808,"date":"2026-03-24T08:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T08:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/217808\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T08:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T08:31:08","slug":"fired-texas-state-professor-rallies-texas-am-community-in-academic-freedom-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/217808\/","title":{"rendered":"Fired Texas State professor rallies Texas A&M community in academic freedom push"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Former Texas State professor Tom Alter told Texas A&M students and faculty Monday night that resistance, not retreat, is the answer to a growing battle over academic freedom at the university.<\/p>\n

A handful of students, faculty and community members gathered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Brazos Valley for a forum hosted by the Texas A&M chapter of the American Association of University Professors, part of an ongoing conversation sparked by months of tension on campus.<\/p>\n

The controversy began after a clash between a student and English Professor Melissa McCoul over curriculum in a children\u2019s literature course. Former Texas A&M President Mark A. Welsh fired McCoul<\/a>, saying the decision was related to academic responsibility, not academic freedom. <\/p>\n

An audit of all 16,000 of the university\u2019s course sections was also done to ensure content aligns with catalog descriptions.<\/p>\n

This triggered protests in which students, faculty, and alumni rallied, calling for stronger protections for what can be taught in the classroom, with concerns centered on topics such as race, gender, and sexuality.<\/p>\n

RELATED| Texas A&M protesters continue push for protected academic freedom<\/a><\/p>\n

Alter knows something about fighting back. <\/p>\n

The former Texas State University associate history professor was fired<\/a> in September after a video of him speaking at an online socialism conference was posted to social media. The widely circulated clip cut his speech in half, showing him criticizing \u201cinsurrectional anarchists\u201d without the full context of his remarks.<\/p>\n

Alter said his firing came around the same time as McCoul\u2019s dismissal, a moment that sparked a wave of concern at Texas A&M.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m showing that no, you can fight back, that we need to stand up and find joy in resistance,\u201d Alter said.<\/p>\n

He urged those in attendance to keep organizing, even when the numbers are small.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s continuing to do like what the students have been doing, what unions have been doing, to keep on organizing, to keep on fighting,\u201d Alter said.<\/p>\n

Alter said the size of the crowd doesn\u2019t determine the strength of a movement \u2014 what matters is the willingness to keep showing up.<\/p>\n

Texas A&M sophomore Leah Toland left Monday\u2019s forum with a clear takeaway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the main takeaway is still be consistent, be powerful in consistency, be persistent,\u201d Toland said.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KBTX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Former Texas State professor Tom Alter told Texas A&M students and faculty Monday night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[84948,11029,27,3042,29,28,2426,84947],"class_list":["post-217808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-aaup-american-association-of-university-professors","tag-academic-freedom","tag-texas","tag-texas-am","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-state","tag-tom-alter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217808","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=217808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}