(The Texas Tribune) – Texas Tech University System\u2019s chancellor on Friday ordered campuses to phase out academic programs \u201ccentered on\u201d sexual orientation and gender identity \u2014 a dramatically expanded policy that also places limits on what can be researched and which faculty can be hired.<\/p>\n
Chancellor Brandon Creighton\u2019s memo gives provosts until June 15 to identify targeted programs and requires the system\u2019s five universities to freeze admissions and halt students from declaring majors in the phased out programs. Students already enrolled can finish their degrees.<\/p>\n
It also says graduate theses and dissertations may center on those topics only as a temporary exception for currently enrolled students and that future faculty hiring will \u201cprioritize recruitment in alignment with this memorandum.\u201d<\/p>\n
The memo also said faculty must recognize only \u201ctwo human sexes\u201d and not teach gender identity as a spectrum or more than two genders as fact \u2014 policies Creighton introduced last year. <\/p>\n
In core and lower-level undergraduate courses, the memo says instructors generally cannot assign materials that are \u201ccentered on\u201d or \u201cinclude\u201d sexual orientation or gender identity and defined the concepts:<\/p>\n
\u201cCentered on\u201d is when course content, readings, assignments or lectures that have sexual orientation or gender identity \u201cas the primary subject, main theoretical framework, central narrative or driving pedagogical purpose.\u201d\u00a0\u201cIncludes\u201d means \u201cthese themes are present, but serve only as secondary background context, demographic data points, or minor components of a broader academic subject.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
If an industry-standard textbook contains such content, the memo says faculty do not have to redact it, but they cannot highlight it, test students on it or spend class time on it. <\/p>\n
The memo makes some exceptions for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses, including analysis of active public policy and legal disputes, historical subjects such as the AIDS epidemic where sexual orientation or gender identity is inseparable from the topic, datasets that include those variables and some clinical, counseling or psychology instruction.<\/p>\n
The memo also says \u201ccurrently employed faculty members may continue to research and publish topics of their choosing,\u201d but future faculty hiring will \u201cprioritize recruitment in alignment with this memorandum.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jen Shelton, an associate professor of English who has taught at Texas Tech for 25 years, said the provost\u2019s office had repeatedly assured faculty that their research would not be affected. She said this feels like a \u201cbetrayal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good news is I think the whole university has been betrayed. I think even the provost did not expect it to look like this because it\u2019s people from the provost\u2019s office who have been coming to us and saying, \u2018Don\u2019t worry. This part is all going to be fine,\u2019\u201d Shelton said in an interview with The Texas Tribune.<\/p>\n
Antonio Ingram, a senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said the memo appears to target perspectives involving gender identity and sexual orientation for political reasons, not academic purposes, raising serious constitutional concerns because public universities cannot discriminate based on viewpoint. <\/p>\n
Ingram also questioned the memo\u2019s prohibition against teaching \u201cas absolute truth\u201d that people are inherently racist, sexist or oppressive and that \u201cindividuals bear responsibility or guilt for actions of others of the same race or sex.\u201d Ingram said there is no definition of \u201cabsolute truth,\u201d creating vagueness may deter teaching about systemic racism, reparations and the history of enslavement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think in many ways, this is a doubling down on a political project that is not meant to help students. It is really meant to uphold a political worldview that, you know, Chancellor Creighton couldn\u2019t enact legislatively and is now doing through his role as chancellor,\u201d Ingram said.<\/p>\n
Creighton served nearly two decades as a Republican state lawmaker and authored major higher education reforms before he became chancellor in November. In December, he ordered faculty to submit for review course content touching on race, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. If campus leaders wanted to keep the information in a course and it was not required for professional licensure, certification or patient care, they had to forward it to the Board of Regents for final review. Regents were expected to take up the issue publicly at their Feb. 26 meeting but did not, leaving professors in limbo.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Texas Public Policy Foundation\u2019s summit in Austin on Thursday, Creighton said Texas Tech had \u201cbuilt an AI algorithm\u201d to review syllabi, reading materials and lesson plans from roughly 14,000 courses across the system and would release findings within days.<\/p>\n
At the summit, Creighton said what some faculty call \u201cacademic drift\u201d had left \u201cquite a bit of garbage in curriculum\u201d on university campuses across the country. He said the Texas Tech University System has \u201ca very good plan in place\u201d to address that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe it will produce the best curriculum in America, and I believe it will be a national model once we\u2019re finished,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In a news release Friday, the system said that of the 1,403 courses initially identified, only 92 were reviewed by the board of regent\u2019s Academic, Clinical and Student Affairs Committee and fewer than 60 were recommended for modification. Another 299 were \u201cproactively modified\u201d before reaching the committee.<\/p>\n
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