{"id":48999,"date":"2025-11-14T03:41:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T03:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/48999\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T03:41:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T03:41:16","slug":"texas-am-university-professors-now-need-approval-for-some-race-and-gender-topics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/48999\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas A&M University professors now need approval for some race and gender topics"},"content":{"rendered":"

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) \u2014 Texas A&M University System regents on Thursday required professors to receive approval from the school president to discuss some race and gender topics, tightening rules months after a viral video of a student confronting an instructor<\/a> over her lessons threw the flagship campus into upheaval.<\/p>\n

The new policy will apply to all 12 schools within the system, including at Texas A&M, one of the largest universities in the country.<\/p>\n

The new policy states that no academic course \u201cwill advocate race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity\u201d unless approved in advance by a campus president.<\/p>\n

The new policy appears to be the first time that a public university system in Texas has put in rules on what faculty can talk about in their classroom on the topics of race and gender. Other university systems in Texas have also placed restrictions on classroom instruction or have begun internal reviews of course offerings following a new state law.<\/p>\n

Critics of the new policy say it would impede the ability of faculty to teach, undermine academic freedom and could be a violation of First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really strikes at the heart of what education means and what universities do, which is circulate the exchange of knowledge without fear of retaliation, without fear censorship,\u201d said Rana Jaleel, chair of the American Association of University Professors\u2019 committee on academic freedom. <\/p>\n

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Various universities and their presidents around the country, including Harvard<\/a> and Columbia<\/a> have come under scrutiny from conservative critics and President Donald Trump administration over diversity, equity and inclusion practices<\/a> and their responses to campus protests.<\/a><\/p>\n

Last month, Trump asked nine major universities<\/a>, including the University of Texas at Austin, to agree to various provisions, including commitments to eliminate race and sex from admissions decisions and to promote conservative views on campus.<\/p>\n

The new policy defines \u201crace ideology\u201d as a \u201cconcept that attempts to shame a particular race or ethnicity, accuse them of being oppressors in a racial hierarchy or conspiracy\u201d or assigns \u201cthem intrinsic guilt based on the actions of their presumed ancestors or relatives.\u201d The policy defines \u201cgender ideology\u201d as a \u201cconcept of self-assessed gender identity replacing and disconnected from the biological category of sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is transparent and document cocurricular review, not policing individual speech,\u201d James Hallmark, vice chancellor for the Texas A&M University System\u2019s Office of Academic Affairs, told the regents.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the A&M system didn\u2019t immediately reply to an email Thursday seeking comment on how the policy would be implemented. <\/p>\n

Regents also approved a related policy saying faculty \u201cwill not introduce a controversial matter that has no relation to the classroom subject or teach material that is inconsistent with the approved syllabus.\u201d <\/p>\n

In approving the policy on race and gender topics, regents did not refer to September\u2019s firing of Melissa McCoul, a senior lecturer in the English department at Texas A&M University, after video was made public in which she argued with a female student over gender identity being taught in a children\u2019s literature class. McCoul\u2019s firing came after political pressure from Republican lawmakers, including Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Shortly after McCoul\u2019s termination, Texas A&M\u2019s then president, Mark A. Welsh III, resigned.<\/a> He didn\u2019t offer a reason for stepping down but he and the school had faced political pressure and criticism, including from Abbott, after the video was made public. <\/p>\n

Leonard Bright, president of the American Association of University Professors A&M chapter, said he believes McCoul\u2019s case opened the door for regents to put this policy in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is to teach facts, teach the truth, and if \u2026 we have to use a litmus test of whether or not it meets someone\u2019s approval, and it could be quite frankly their political approval, then we have no truth,\u201d Bright, who is a professor at Texas A&M\u2019s Bush School of Government and Public Service, told the AP ahead of the meeting. <\/p>\n

During Thursday\u2019s meeting, eight Texas A&M professors and instructors, including Bright, spoke against the policy, with many calling for McCoul to be rehired. <\/p>\n

Two A&M professors spoke in favor of the policy, including Adam Kolasinski, with the Department of Finance, who said \u201cacademic freedom does not mean you get to teach whatever you want.\u201d <\/p>\n

Regent Sam Torn said the policy was being put in place to \u201cmake sure we are educating, not advocating.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Texas law took effect on Sept. 1 that forbids Texas K-12 schools from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity. The law does not apply to universities and other institutions of higher education.<\/p>\n

Texas A&M is located in College Station, about 95 miles (153 kilometers) northwest of Houston. <\/p>\n

__<\/p>\n

Follow Juan A. Lozano: https:\/\/x.com\/juanlozano70<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) \u2014 Texas A&M University System regents on Thursday required professors to receive approval from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28065,863,145,163,12690,490,392,2898,28062,28061,28063,28064,28066,27,29,28,1760,1499],"class_list":["post-48999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-adam-kolasinski","tag-colleges-and-universities","tag-donald-trump","tag-education","tag-gender","tag-general-news","tag-greg-abbott","tag-juan-a-lozano","tag-leonard-bright","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-mark-a-welsh-iii","tag-rana-jaleel","tag-sam-torn","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48999","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=48999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}